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Title: The Brothers Parkhomenko Author: Nick Heath Date: October 11, 2009 Language: en Topics: Makhnovists, Russian Revolution Source: https://libcom.org/history/brothers-parkhomenko-tale-russian-civil-war
Alexander Parkhomenko is known to older Russians through the pages of
the novel by Vsevelod Ivanov and the 1942 film of the same name. He was
paraded as one of the great heroes of the Russian Civil War, alongside
other partisan leaders like Chapaev (who also had a book and film
dedicated to him). He led a Red Army detachment against the Makhnovists
and eventually was killed by them. He is portrayed in the film as dying
a hero’s death at the hands of Makhno who is seen playing a harmonica
and singing a jolly tune. Also portrayed in the popular movie are the
Ataman Grigoriev (killed by the Makhnovists) and the Makhnovist
commander Maksiuta.
In Soviet propaganda of the period, Parkhomenko is depicted as a model
Bolshevik. Like Makhno from a peasant background, he is built up as the
anti-Makhno, the Bolshevik antidote to the anarchist reprobate. However
as we shall see, there was a black sheep in Parkhomenko’s family, a very
black one indeed!
Alexander Parkhomenko, born in 1886, was the son of the poor labourer
Yakov S. Parkhomenko from the village of Yar Makarov in Slavyanoserbsk
County in the province of Ekaterinoslav. He was one of three sons and
two daughters. The eldest son Ivan went at an early age to the nearby
town of Lugansk where he worked in the Hartman locomotive plant.
Alexander managed to finish only two grades of elementary school when
his mother, collecting firewood in a forest of the Donets (the territory
of the Don Army) was caught by Cossack foresters, and beaten so badly
that she could barely get home, where soon after she died. As a result
Alexander had to start working at the age of ten years as a shepherd, a
water boy, and then in a mine.
In the first version of the novel by Ivanov in 1939 we see Alexander’s
first moves to the in working-class and revolutionary movement under the
influence of his brother Ivan. With his help and advice in 1900,
Alexander entered the Hartmann plant, and in 1904 joined the Bolshevik
Party. But this accurate account is changed in the second edition in
1950. It did not meet with the approval of the censors and the role of
Ivan in Alexander’s political development was minimised.
There was deep-seated discontent among the workers in the Donbas basin
and this erupted in 1905. On February 16^(th), a strike broke out,
turning into a demonstration. The authorities at first made concessions,
but then started a clamp-down. In 1906 the two brothers were sacked from
the factory and to escape arrest returned to their village. But the
flames of revolt had spread to the countryside and in July in the
villages of Slavyanoserbsk County a peasant uprising broke out. The big
landowner Ilyenko agreed to all the demands of the peasants, but then
called in the Army. The brothers were forced to go underground, working
under aliases at factories in Lugansk, Yuzovka, and Bakhmut. The elder
brother became Ivan Kritsky, and the younger Lavrushey. They were both
arrested on various occasions, with Alexander being released from a last
arrest on the eve of the First World War.
In 1916 a new strike broke out in Lugansk. This was crushed by Cossack
forces. Ivan was exiled to Siberia, and Alexander was drafted to the
front. In February with the revolution the Bolsheviks organised in
Lugansk with Ivan on the executive committee of the small Party branch.
Meanwhile Alexander had organised a workers squad from the ammunition
factory. This was the nucleus of other such groups which came together
into the Red Guard, headed by Alexander at Lugansk by June. He was then
involved in fighting against the forces of Hetman Skoropadsky and his
backers the Austrians and Germans. However the Red Army was forced to
retreat. At Tsaritsyn, where Alexander joined the command of 10^(th)
Army, he met Stalin, who commissioned him to go to Moscow to talk with
Lenin.
After the Ukraine’s liberation from the Germans in early 1919 Alexander
Parkhomenko was appointed provincial military commissar and chief of the
garrison of Kharkov. He was then involved in campaigns against the
forces of the Ataman Grigoriev. The Red general Skachko fled from
Ekaterinoslav in May 1919 with the advance of Grigoriev’s army. In the
unrest and chaos that followed Maksiuta(1), a Makhnovist commander who
had been imprisoned by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinoslav prison, was
released and began to organise a detachment. Unlike Skachko, the local
Party chief Averin had not lost his nerve and ordered the shooting of
Maksiuta, which was carried out by Alexander Parkhomenko who had
recently entered the city with his unit. According to the legendary
account, Parkhomenko stood in the path of the car in which Maksiuta,
surrounded by four of his combatants, was proceeding. He called out “Who
are you? “ to which came the response “ A. E. Maksiuta, anarchist
commander. And who are you?” (Parkhomenko is then said to have opened
fire with his revolver on Maksiuta and his men. For his killing of
Maksiuta and his actions against Grigoriev Parkhomenko received his
first Order of the Red Banner.
In November 1919 the famous 1^(st) Cavalry Army led by Budyenny was
created. One of its commanders was Parkhomenko. In January 1920, after
the capture of Rostov from the Whites, Parkhomenko’s men went on a
drunken rampage and launched a pogrom against the Jews. Parkhomenko was
unable to resist this and as a result was sentenced to death by a
Bolshevik revolutionary tribunal, who blamed him for all the atrocities
that were carried out in Rostov. This was carefully airbrushed from
later biographies of Parkhomenko. Parkhomenko was saved by the
intercession of Stalin and Ordzhonikidze. Parkhomenko then led the
14^(th) Cavalry Division, succeeding Grigori Maslakov who had mutinied
against the Bolsheviks. This division began a campaign against the
Makhnovists. However the Makhnovists retreated towards Mariupol and
Parkhomenko began using terror against the peasants in the region that
had supported the Makhnovists. For these depredations Parkhomenko
received a second Order of the Red Banner on May 16^(th), 1920. He then
engaged in battles against the Poles and Wrangel. After the defeat of
the last White General the 1^(st) Red Cavalry was deployed again against
the Makhnovists and other bands operating independently from the
Bolsheviks.
Here at the village of Buzivka near Uman on January 3^(rd), 1921
Parkhomenko came into contact with the Makhnovists for the last time.
According to the various novels and the film Parkhomenko fought bravely,
gunning down many Makhnovists before being dispatched by Makhno himself.
However accounts from Soviet archives tell a totally different story.
Parkhomenko mistook Makhno’s forces for a Red Army unit (the Makhnovists
were very good at thus surprising their enemies) and surrendered without
much of a fight. Parkhomenko begged for his life, giving the Makhnovists
all the information he had on Red Army logistics and whereabouts. He
produced a letter from his pocket from his younger brother, an anarchist
who was fighting with Antonov, it which he implored Alexander to
reconsider his position, saying that “it was not too late”. Alas for
Alexander it was. Makhno remembered the gunning down of Maksiuta and
Parkhomenko was shot, although Viktor Belash was to write that Makhno
later regretted the killing of Parkhomenko, saying that he could have
forgiven the shooting of Maksiuta!
As we know from the testimony of Viktor Belash Alexander had a terrible
secret — the great Bolshevik hero had a brother who was not only an
anarchist, but who had fought on the other side with Makhno!! this was
Artem, the youngest of the three brothers, born in 1892. In 1917 he
became an anarchist militant and the following year joined the Nabat
Anarchist Confederation in the Ukraine. He fought in the detachments
commanded by the anarchist Cherednyak in the Kharkov region. In May 1919
he joined Makhno, and became a regimental commander. So in spring 1920,
Alexander was leading attacks on forces that included his own brother.
In October 1920, when the Makhnovists agreed to an alliance with the
Bolsheviks against the forces of the White general Wrangel, some rebel
commanders -Kamenev, Fomin, Bondarenko — opposed the agreement and
started operating independently. Among them was Parkhomenko, who led a
regiment of 2,000 combatants. He went to Russia, where the Antonov
uprising raged in the Tambov region. Parkhomenko did not join the main
Antonovist forces but linked up with the units led by the former
commander of the Red Army Kolesnikov, who had launched a mutiny and
uprising in the southern counties of the Voronezh region. In fact
Parkhomenko, as an anarchist, disagreed with Antonov’s views on the
re-establishment of the Constituent Assembly. Parkhomenko’s unit
increased to 12000 combatants by the end of 1920 and was known as the
9^(th) Infantry Regiment. Perhaps this was the period when the letter to
his brother was written. Parkhomenko led the Novokalitvensky regiment of
the Kolesnikov forces and fought against the Bolsheviks. After a defeat
of the Kolesnikov forces in February 1921 Parkhomenko went to Gulyai
Polye. A report from the Bolsheviks in the Lugansk region noted that on
the night of February 23^(rd) in the village of Bugaevka the Parkhomenko
band was situated and was engaged with. In March reeling under the heavy
blows inflicted by the forces of the Red Army, who were vastly superior
in numbers, the Makhnovists dispersed their units. Parkhomenko returned
to the Voronezh region (prior to this he was operating with the forces
of Maslakov and Brova in the Caucasus and then in March –April leading
an independent guerrilla struggle against the Red Army in Bogucharsky
county), Kurilenko’s forces moved to Mariupol, Ivanyuk’s to the Kharkhov
region, and Moskalevsky’s units went to Yuzovka.
In early May Parkhomenko was instructed to link up with the remaining
forces of Kolesnikov whose main units had been defeated near Krinichnaya
in April. Apparently Artem Parkhomenko was killed in July in fighting
with Red Army units.