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Title: Lenin, the Revolution Rapist Author: Revolt Date: 1992 Language: en Topics: Lenin, Trotsky, Russian Revolution, anti-Bolshevism, Ukraine, Makhnovists, black army Source: Retrieved on 1st August 2020 from http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/how_len.htm Notes: [from Revolt number 2 (1992), South Africa]
Recently, criticism has been levelled at Lenin, a man still regarded as
a virtual god. Lenin, with his right hand man Trotsky, led the Bolshevik
Socialists to victory in the October revolution in 1917. Once you
deconstruct the myth of Lenin, you open a very funky can of worms ...
In February 1917, there was a Popular uprising in the Russian empire.
The Tsar abdicated the principal political parties — most of them
Socialist, and began to set up a crude parliamentary democracy, led by
the Mensheviks. But Russia was a big, bleak, backward old empire that
sprawled across five time zones, communication was bad; the uprisings
continued. Radicals were released from prison, dissidents returned from
exile, and ordinary people became increasingly aware of the
possibilities of communal power. Peasants chased out the landowners,
workers took over the factories and many organized themselves
democratically through local mass meetings — Soviets.
Freedom was in the air. Much of the population had tasted it or at least
had a whiff of it, it seemed to be out there for the taking. There
seemed nothing to fear but the fear of freedom. Lenin (of the minority
Bolsheviks) was one of the first politicians to sense the mood of the
people. He realized that by adopting the popular slogans of the masses —
“land to the peasants,” “‘worker control,” and “all power to the
soviets,” the Bolsheviks, under his leadership could seize power and
move to the next phase of the “Marxist” revolution — “The dictatorship
of the Proletariat.
In the months that followed, Lenin persuaded the Bolsheviks that his
scam was a runner and they concentrated their efforts on gaining
influence in the Soviets and in the army. The October revolution of 1917
was a spontaneous affair, The Bolsheviks simply pushed through the crowd
shouting “Stand aside! There’s nothing to be afraid of- trust me, I’m a
doctor”. Freedom was quarantined and strictly rationed. Soon, with the
Bolshevik Secret Police, the Cheka quietly overseeing the running of the
Soviets and the trade unions, freedom had disappeared.
During the uprisings and reaction that followed the October Revolution,
the fertile earth of the Southern Ukraine was trampled under the boots
of at least four advancing and retreating armies. Variously at war with
each other [and] faced with a strong spirit of independence amongst the
local insurgent peasants, none of these forces conquered the region or
stayed long enough to set up any form of government.
Official historians have failed to record the military genius of Nestor
Makhno and the heroic deeds of his comrades in the Revolutionary
Insurrection Army of the Ukraine. If the Makhnovists, as they became
known, are mentioned at all they are referred to as “bandits” or (rather
bizarrely) as part of the local right-wing “Kulak” movement. But if
truth is the first casualty of war, then the history of war must be a
pack of lies.
Makhno was of poor peasant stock, an anarchist who had spent many years
in prison for “terrorist activities” against the Tsar. He had been
released in the February amnesty, and by October was in the thick of it
— redistributing the land and resources. The Bolshevik party found it
difficult to recruit or organise in the Ukraine, so Lenin decided to use
the republic as a bargaining chip with Germany in Russia’s withdrawal
from the First World War.
Threatened by powerful enemies on all sides, Makhno and thousands of his
fellow peasants launched a campaign of armed resistance so wild and
imaginative that it became the stuff of instant legend. Theatrical
hit-and-run attacks disguised as enemy officers, daring assassinations,
robbing the rich, giving to the poor, it all reads like the further
adventures of Robin Hood. And Makhno, though only 28, was honoured with
the title of Batko (“little father”) as he was 5’4”.
The Revolutionary Insurrection Army soon became a fully operational
volunteer army numbering 50 000, and for three years, the million or so
peasants of the Ukraine learned to live in a lawless society under fire.
A society based on co-operation with no state power, no politicians, and
subsequently no concept of property — in effect, a state of Anarchy.
The Revolutionary Insurrection Army liberated several northern cities
from the Ukrainian Nationalists. They threw open the prisons, blew up
police stations, wasted the bosses and returned power directly to the
workers. They ignored the local Bolsheviks and other socialist
authoritarians.
1918 saw Germany’s defeat in WW1 and the Bolsheviks turned their
attention once more to the Ukraine. They established a political
foothold in the northern cities and then moved south with the Red Army,
ostensibly to defend the revolution against the Tsarist “Whites” and
nationalists.
Fighting under the black flag of Anarchy, the Revolutionary Insurrection
Army were renowned for their bravery, moreover they were respected for
their honour and revolutionary ethics — they elected their own
commanders, were self disciplined and owed their allegiance solely to
the insurgent peasants. Their military alliance with the Bolsheviks
started interfering with the politics of the local free communes.
Respect for the Revolutionary Insurrection Army’s idealism led thousands
of Red army soldiers to defect to them. Trotsky, the Bolshevik Commissar
for war, soon replaced troops with Chinese and Lettish soldiers who
spoke different languages to the Ukraine to prevent fraternising and to
counter the defections. Elsewhere in Russia, idealists began to offer
their services to Makhno and the movement grew, developing an education
and cultural wing publishing newspapers and propaganda.
By 1920, Trotsky’s tactics had become ugly. He ordered the assassination
of thousands of villagers loyal to the Revolutionary Insurrection Army
and he withdrew Red Army troops from the front and allowed the Tsarist
Cossacks to overrun the southern Ukraine. The Makhnovists retreated, a
growing caravan of their supporters and refugees trailing behind them,
until eventually this vast nomadic village was boxed on all sides by a
variety of enemy armies. The Red Army waited.
In a brilliant stroke, the Revolutionary Insurrection Army attacked
their enemies where they were the strongest, turned their weapons
against them, and went on to liberate the southern Ukraine once more.
Trotsky once again offered a military deal. Makhno agreed, subject to
the release of all Anarchist prisoners through Russia and was once again
betrayed. On the 26^(th) November 1920, the Makhnovist commanders were
invited to a joint conference — they were met by a firing line squad.
Makhno, ever the romantic hero, eluded capture and continued to fight
on, but the Bolsheviks had weakened his grass roots support and the war
weary Ukranian peasants were slow to pick up the pieces. Their brief
flirtation with freedom was over.
We have all flirted with freedom and, deep inside all of us have the
urge to make it a serious relationship. The Anarchist values of
individual freedom, grass roots democracy, and the decentralisation of
ALL forms of power are, if anything, more pertinent today then over. See
you on the barricades. — Tony Allen, Sept 1990
The remainder of the Revolutionary Insurrection Army managed to fight
their way to Romania where many went their own ways into exile In other
lands. A few remained to reorganise and fight Ukraine. In response to
the bloody and wholesale massacre of fellow Anarchists by Lenin and his
bloodthirsty butchers, the Communist Party HQ in Moscow was blown up in
September 1921.