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Title: The Anarchist Revolution
Author: Nestor Makhno
Language: en
Topics: revolution
Source: Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/makhno-nestor/works/anarchist-revolution.htm

Nestor Makhno

The Anarchist Revolution

1

ANARCHISM — a life of freedom and creative independence for humanity.

Anarchism does not depend on theory or programs, which try to grasp

man’s life in its entirety. It is a teaching, which is based on real

life, which outgrows all artificial limitations, which cannot be

constricted by any system.

Anarchism’s outward form is a free, non-governed society, which offers

freedom, equality and solidarity for its members. Its foundations are to

be found in man’s sense of mutual responsibility, which has remained

unchanged in all places and times. This sense of responsibility is

capable of securing freedom and social justice for all men by its own

unaided efforts. It is also the foundation of true communism.

Anarchism therefore is a part of human nature, communism its logical

extension.

This led to the necessity of formulating anarchism’s basic theories by

the use of factual material and by systematized analysis. Some people

(enemies of freedom, enemies of solidarity) were to try and conceal

anarchism’s truths or to slander its ideals; others (fighters for man’s

right to lead a proper life) were to develop and clarify this ideal. I

think that Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Most, Kropotkin, Malatesta, S.

Faure, and others never believed, that they could harness anarchism, a

framework of immutable scientific dogma, by their theories. Instead, the

teachings of anarchism represent a concerted effort to show its roots in

human nature, and to prove that man’s creative achievements never

deviate from it; anarchism’s fundamental trait, the negation of all

bondage and servitude, is likewise to be found in human nature.

Anarchism means freedom; socialism cannot destroy chains or bondage.

I am an anarchist and a revolutionary myself, and I took part in the

activities of the revolutionary peoples of the Ukraine. The Ukrainians

are a people who grasp instinctively the meaning of the anarchist ideas

and who act them out. They suffered incredible hardship, but have never

ceased to talk of their freedom and freedom in their form of life. I

often made tactical errors on this difficult path, as I was often weak

and unable to make judgements. But because I correctly understood the

goal towards which I and my brothers were working and I was able to

observe the effect of living anarchism during the struggle for freedom

and independence. I remain convinced on the grounds of my practical

fighting experience that anarchism is as revolutionary, as diverse, and

as sublime in every facet as is human life itself. Even if I only felt

the remotest glimmer of sympathy for anarcho-revolutionary activity I

would still call on you, reader and brother, to take up the struggle for

the ideal anarchism, for only if you fight for this ideal and uphold it

will you understand it properly. Anarchism is revolutionary in this and

many other aspects. The more awake a man is, the deeper his thoughts

about his situation are. He will recognize his state of slavery and the

anarchistic and revolutionary spirit within him will wake and show

itself in his thoughts and actions. It is the same for every man and

woman, even if they could never have heard of it.

Anarchism plays a considerable role in the enrichment of human life, a

fact recognized by the oppressors as well as by the oppressed. The

oppressors do their best to distort the ideal of anarchism; the others

do their best to carry it further. Modern civilization has succeeded in

making anarchism ever more prominent for both masters and slaves, but

has never been able to lull or extinguish this fundamental protest of

human nature, for it has been unable to stamp out the independent

intellects who have proven that God does not exist. Once this has been

proven it was easy to draw back the veil which hides the artificiality

of the priesthood and the hierarchies which it supports.

But various other ideas have been propounded alongside anarchism:

“liberalism”, socialism and bolshevik communism. These doctrines,

despite their large influence on modern society, despite their triumph

over both reaction and freedom, are on shaky ground because of their

artificiality, their disavowal of organic development and their tendency

towards paralysis.

The free man, on the other hand, has thrown away the trammels of the

past together with its lies and brutality. He has buried the rotten

corpse of slavery and the notion that the past is better. Man has

already partially liberated himself from the fog of lies and brutality,

which enslaved him from the day of his birth, from the worship of the

bayonet, money, legality, and hypocritical science.

While man frees himself from this insult he understands himself better,

and once he has understood himself, the book of his life is opened to

him. In it he immediately sees that his former life was nothing but

loathsome slavery and that this framework of slavery has conspired to

stifle all his innate good qualities. He sees that this life has turned

him into a beast of burden, a slave for some or a master over others, or

into a fool who tears down and tramples on all that is noble in man when

ordered to do so. But when freedom awakes in man, it treads all

artificialities into the dust and all that stands in the way of

independent creativity. This is how man moves in his process of

development. In former times he moved in spans of a generation or so,

but now the process is moving year by year; man does not wish to be an

academic mouthpiece of the rule over others or to tolerate the rule of

others over himself. Once man is free from earthly and “heavenly” gods,

free from “good manners” and from his morality, which depends on these

Gods, he lifts up his voice and struggles against the enslavement of

mankind and the distortion of his nature.

The man of protest, who has fully grasped his identity and who now sees

with his eyes fully open, who now thirsts for freedom and totality, now

creates groups of free men welded together by the ideal and by the

action. Whoever comes into contact with these groups will cast off his

status of lackey and will free himself from the idiot domination of

others over him. Any ordinary man who comes from the plough, the

factory, the bench of the university or from the bench of the academic

will recognize the degradation of slavery. As man uncovers his true

personality, he will throw away all artificial ideas, which go against

the rights of his personality, the Master/Slave relationship of modern

society. As soon as man brings to the fore the pure elements in his

personality through which a new, free human community is born, he will

become an anarchist and revolutionary. This is how the ideal of

anarchism is assimilated and disseminated by men; the free man

recognizes its deep truth, its clarity, and its purity, its message of

freedom and creativity.

The idea of anarchism, the teaching of a renewed life for man as an

individual and as a social being, is therefore bound up with man’s

self-awareness and his awareness of the suppurating sore of injustice in

modern society. Anarchism exists therefore only illegally or

semi-legally, never in total legality.

In the modern world, society does not live for itself but for the

preservation of the Master/Slave relationship, the State. One could go

further and say that society has completely de-personalized itself. In

human terms, it does not exist at all. It is widely believed however

that the State is Society. But is “Society” a group of men who live it

up while sitting on the shoulders of all humanity? Why is man as an

individual or as a mass numbering hundreds of millions nothing in

comparison with this slothful group of “political leaders”? These

hyenas, rulers both of right and left wing, are rightly upset with the

idea of anarchism. The bourgeois at least are frank about this. But

state-socialists of all denominations, including Bolsheviks, are busy

swapping the names of bourgeois rule with those of their own invention,

while leaving its structure essentially unchanged. They are therefore

trying to salvage the Master/Slave relationship with all its

contradictions. And although they are aware that these contradictions

are totally irreconcilable with their professional ideas, they

nevertheless uphold them in order to forestall the putting into practice

of Anarchist Communism. In their programs, the state-socialists said

that man must be allowed to free himself “socially”. But of man’s

spiritual freedom, of his human freedom, no word was spoken. Instead,

they are now making sure that such a liberation of man outside their

tutelage cannot be carried through. “Liberation” under the management of

any government or political set-up — what’s that got to do with freedom?

The bourgeois, who never applies himself to the task of making anything

beautiful or useful, says to the worker: “Once a slave, always a slave.

We cannot reform social life because we have got too much capital in

industry and in agriculture. Besides, modern life is pleasant for us;

all the kings, presidents, and their governments cater for our wishes

and bow before us. The slaves are their responsibility.” Or he says:

“The life of our modern society is full of great promises!”

“No, no!” screams the bourgeois socialists and communists. “We

disagree!!” Then they rush to the workers, marshal them into parties,

and call on them to rebel as follows: “Drive out the bourgeois from

their positions and hand their power over to us. We will work for you.

We will liberate you.”

So the workers, whose hatred of government is even greater than their

hatred of parasites, rise up in revolution to destroy the machinery of

power and its representatives. But either because of clumsiness or

naivete, they allow socialism to come to power. This is how the

communists got into power in Russia. These communists are real dregs of

mankind. They tear down and shoot innocent people and hang liberty; they

shoot men exactly as the bourgeois did. They shoot men who think

differently to them in order to subjugate all to their power, in order

to enslave him to the throne of government they have just taken over.

They hire guards for themselves and killers for dealing with free men.

Under the weight of the chains made by the new “Workers’ Republic” in

Russia, man groans and sighs as he did under bourgeois rule. Elsewhere,

man is groaning under the yoke of the bourgeoisie or under that of the

bourgeois socialist. The hangmen, both old and new, are strong. They

have mastered the art of tactical suppression of opposition, and man

only flares up briefly to contest his rights before sinking down again

under the burden of authority and despair. He drops hi hands as the

noose is thrown around his neck again, shutting his eyes like a slave

before the gleeful hangman.

From these unfolding vistas of human misery and from personal misery,

man must forge convictions, call other men his brothers, and fight for

freedom. Man is only free if he is prepared to kill every hangman and

every power magnate if they do not wish to stop their shameful tasks. He

is only free if he does not put a prime on changing his government and

is not led astray by the “Workers’ Republic” of the Bolsheviks. He must

vouch for the establishment of a truly free society based on personal

responsibility, the only really free society. His pronouncement on the

State must be one of total destruction: “No. This must not be. To

rebellion! Rise up, brothers, against all government, destroy the power

of the bourgeoisie and do not allow the socialists and bolshevik

government to come to life! Destroy all authority and drive out its

representatives!”

There are even moments when the authority of the socialists and

communists is worse than the bourgeois, for they tear down their own

ideas and trample on them. After fumbling about in secret for the keys

to bourgeois government, the communists became guilty and furtive; they

do not want the masses to see what they are doing, so they lie and cheat

and deceive. If the masses notice this, they seethe with indignation. So

the government falls upon them in an orgy of irresponsibility and

butchers them in the name of “socialism” and “communism”. The government

has of course long since thrown these ideas into the dustbin. At such

moments the rule of the socialists and Bolsheviks is more degraded than

that of the bourgeoisie for it is even unoriginal in its recourse to the

mechanics of bourgeois oppression. While a bourgeois government strings

a revolutionary up on the gallows, socialist or bolshevik-communist

governments will creep up and strangle him in his sleep or kill him by

trickery. Both acts are depraved. But the socialists are more depraved

because of their methods.

Any political revolution in which the bourgeoisie, the socialists and

state-communists struggle with each other over political ascendancy

while dragging in the masses will show the traits outlined above, the

most obvious example being the Russian Revolutions of February and

October 1917. When the working masses that made up Tsarist Russia felt

themselves partially freed from reaction, they began to work towards

total freedom. They expressed this wish by expropriating landlords and

monasteries and by handing over their lands to the people who wished to

cultivate it with hired labor. Sometimes factories, works, presses, and

other businesses were taken over by those who worked in them. Attempts

were made to create liaisons between towns and villages. And while they

were engaged in this activity the people were of course unaware that

there were governments sitting about in Kiev, Kharkov, St. Petersburg,

and elsewhere. The people were in fact laying the foundations for a new,

free society that would throw out all parasites and governments and the

idiocy of power. This healthy activity was especially noticeable in the

Ural, in Siberia, and in the Ukraine. It was remarked upon by the old as

well as the new regimes in Petrograd, Moscow, Kiev, and Tiflis. But the

socialists as well as the Bolsheviks had (and still have) a widely

dispersed party membership and a well-distributed network of

professional killers. It must be added that, besides these professional

killers, they also hired people from our own ranks. With the help of

these people they managed to nip the people’s freedom in the bud. And

they did a good job. The Spanish Inquisition would have been green with

envy.

We now know the real truths behind government. To the Bolsheviks and

socialists we say: “Shame! Dishonor! You talked such a lot about the

terror of the bourgeoisie and you took the side of revolution with great

zeal. But now that you are in power you show yourself the same old

fools, the same lackeys of the bourgeoisie, and slaves of their methods.

You have turned yourselves into bourgeois.” Looking at the experiences

of bolshevik communism during recent years, the bourgeois know perfectly

well that this particular brand of socialism can never manage without

using their methods or without hiring them in person. It knows that the

exploitation and suppression of the working majority is inherent in this

system, that the vicious life of sloth is not cast aside in socialism,

but that it merely masquerades under another name before spreading and

taking root again.

This is the Truth! You’ve only got to look at the bolshevik vandals and

their monopoly over the people’s revolutionary conquests! Look at their

spies, their police, their laws, prisons, jailers, and their armies of

bailiffs. The “Red” Army is only the old army under a new name.

Liberalism, socialism, Bolshevism; they are three brothers who go their

different ways to grab power over man. This power is used to block man’s

advance towards self-realization and independence.

To Rebellion!

This is the cry of the anarchist revolutionary to the exploited. Rebel,

destroy all government and see that it never takes root again. Power is

used by those who have never really lived by the work of their hands.

Government power will never let workers tread the road to freedom; it is

the instrument of the lazy who want to dominate others, and it does not

matter if the power is in the hand of the bourgeois, the socialists or

the Bolsheviks, it is degrading. There is no government without teeth,

teeth to tear any man who longs for a free and just life.

Brother; drive out power in yourself. Never let it fascinate you or your

brothers. A true collective life is not built with programs or with

governments but with the freedom of mankind, with its creativity and its

independence.

The freedom of any individual carries within it the seed of a free and

complete community without government, a free society that lives in

organic and decentralized totality, united in its pursuit of the great

human goal: Anarchist Communism!

2

Anarchistic Communism is a great community in total harmony. It is

formed voluntarily by free individuals who form associations and

federations according to their needs. Anarchist Communism fights to

secure man’s freedom and his right to boundless development; it fights

against all the evils and injustices that are inherent in governments.

The free, non-governed society aims to embellish life with its

intellectual and manual work. It will have as its resources all that

nature gave man as well as nature’s own inexhaustible riches; it makes

man drunk with the beauty of the earth and exhilarated by his own,

self-made freedom. Anarchist Communism will let man develop his creative

independence in all directions; its adherents will be free and happy

with life, guided by brotherly work and reciprocity. They will need no

prisons, hangmen, spies, or agents, which are products of the

bourgeoisie and socialists, for they will have no need ofthe idiot

robber and murderer that is the State. Prepare yourselves, brother, to

create this society! Prepare organizations and ideas! Remember that your

organizations must be safe from attack. The enemy of your freedom is the

state personified in five figures:

The property owner

The lover of war

The judge

The priest

Academics who distort the truth about man

These last make up “historical laws” and “judiciary norms”, and scribble

slickly in order to get money; they are busy all the time trying to

prove the rightfulness of the first four’s claims to power that degrades

human life.

The enemy is strong. For millennia he has spent his time accumulating

experience in robbery, violence, expropriation, and murder. He underwent

an inner crisis and is now busy changing his outward aspect, but he is

only doing this because his life has been threatened with the new,

emerging knowledge. This new knowledge is waking man from his long

sleep, freeing him from prejudices implanted by the five, giving him a

weapon to fight for his true society. This change in the outer

appearance of our enemy can be seen in reformism. It was evolved to

combat the revolution in which he took part. In the Russian Revolution,

the five seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. .. but this

was only appearance. In reality our enemy changed his features

momentarily and is now calling up new recruits to fight against us.

Bolshevik communism is especially revealing in this matter; but it will

be a long time before this doctrine will forget man’s struggle for true

freedom.

The only reliable method for waging a successful struggle against

enslavement is social revolution that engages the masses in a continual

struggle (evolution). When it first erupts, social revolution is

elemental. It flattens the path for its own organizations while smashing

any dam that is artificially set against it. These dams in fact only

increase its power. Anarchist revolutionaries are already working for

this, and any man who is aware of the burden of slavery on himself has a

duty to aid the anarchist; at the same time every man should feel

responsible to the whole of mankind when he struggles against the five

of the State. Every man should also remember that the social revolution

will require appropriate methods of realization; that is especially true

of the anarchist who is scouting ahead along the road of freedom. During

the destructive phase of the revolution, while slavery is being

abolished and freedom beginning to spread in an elemental outburst,

organization and steadfast methods are essential to secure the gains. In

this phase the revolution needs you most urgently. The Russian

Revolution, in which anarchists played a considerable role (which they

could not carry through because action was denied them), brought home to

us the truth that the masses who have torn themselves loose from their

chains had no desire to put on others of a different make. In their

revolutionary momentum, they sought immediately for free associations

that would only aid their efforts to build up a new community but which

would defend them against the enemy. If we look at this process closely,

we come to the conclusion that the best method to create new collective

freedom is the “Free Soviet”. Proceeding from this conviction, the

anarchist revolutionary will call the enslaved to struggle for these

free associations. He will believe that social revolution will thus

create freedom while smashing slavery altogether. This belief must be

cherished and defended. The only people who can possibly provide the

defense for this belief are the masses themselves who have made the

revolution and who equate their lives with their principles. While the

human masses create the revolution they instinctively cast about for

free associations and rely on their inherent anarchism; they will uphold

above all the Free Soviet. As the masses make a revolution they are

bound to come upon this themselves and the anarchist must help them

formulate this principle.

Economic problems in the free society will be resolved by the

producer-consumer co-operatives in which the Free Soviets will act as

co-ordinators and clarifiers. The nature of the Free Soviet during the

social revolution must be to consolidate the masses’ position by urging

them to take their rightful inheritance (land, factories, works, mineral

and coal mines, shipping, forestry, etc.) into their own hands. While

groups according to interest or inclination are formed, the masses will

build up an entire social fabric, freely and independently.

The struggle along this road will demand great sacrifice, for it will be

the final effort of nearly free man. In this struggle there will be no

hesitation, no sentimentality. Life or Death!? — This question will

stand before every man who considers his rights and those of humanity to

be a better life. As the healthy instincts of man will have

preponderance, he will embark upon this road to life as victor and

creator.

Organize yourselves, brothers, call every man to your ranks. Call him

from the factory, from the school; call the students and the learned. It

may be that nine out of ten academics will not come to you, or it may

happen that they will come in order to deceive you if they are servants

of the State’s five. But the tenth man will come. He will be your friend

and will help you overcome the deceit of the others. Organize

yourselves; call every man to your ranks; call on all the governors to

stop their stupidity and the brutalizing of human life. If they do not

desist, disarm the police, the army and other organizations of the

five’s defense. Burn their laws and destroy their prisons, kill the

hangmen, the bane of mankind. Smash authority! Call to your ranks the

press-ganged army; there are many killers in the army who are against

you and who are bribed to kill you. But there are friends for you even

in the army. They will confound the mobs of murderers and will hurry to

your side.

After we have collected ourselves into a great, universal family,

brothers, we will go further in the fight against darkness. On to the

universal human ideal! We will live as brothers, enslaving no one. The

brute force of the enemy will be answered with the force by our

revolutionary army. If our enemies do not agree with our ideal, we reply

by building our new life based on individual responsibility. Only

hardened criminals who belong to the five will not wish to tread the

road to a new life with fruitful activity. They will try to fight us in

order to regain their power. They must die.

Long live the ideal of universal human harmony, and man’s fight towards

it!

Long live the ideal of anarchist society!