„Do not destroy the great cause of the revolutionary insurrection with your own hands”: A Warning Worth Remembering
An important leaflet from a critical turning point in the history of the Makhnovshchina. In September 1919 Makhno found himself surrounded by White forces at Perehonivka in central Ukraine. In a desperate bid Makhno launched an offensive assault breaking through his encirclement. In the ensuing month Makhno’s army crashed in the rearguard of Denikin’s White Army, severely disrupting the latter’s attempt to move on Moscow. The Makhnovists captured a wide swath of southern Ukraine including many major cities such as Katerynoslav (Dnipro), Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhia) and Berdiansk.
This leaflet, targeted at Makhnovist soldiers, displays the Makhnovist leadership’s hopes and fears as they occupied a large number of urban settlements for the first time. Concern over unrestrained violence is paramount and they link it directly to the survival of the movement as a whole.
In the fall of 1919 the army expanded quickly to a height of potentially 100k. The army was far from ideologically disciplined, and absorbed units from a myriad of political positions. Internally Makhnovist commanders reported an sharp increase in indiscriminate behavior and alcoholism. Some commanders were executed for carrying out Jewish pogroms and it also is in this period that the massacres of Mennonite civilians occurred.
The nature and culpability of this period’s violence is hotly debated. This leaftlet is one piece of evidence illustrating how the leadership was highly aware of the problem of violence against civilians. It shows an attempt to redirect and restrain the violence in a way that accorded with the movement’s overall goals. It also offers a more timeless lesson about the difficulties ideological movements face in the midst of war and the ease with which unrestrained terror can take hold.
Below is my translation:
Comrades Insurgents!
With every day the area of the revolutionary insurrectionary army is expanding. The day is likely not far off when the insurgents shall liberate one or another city from Denikin’s rule.
This will be a city, liberated from all power by the insurgent Makhnovists. This will be a city under the protection of the revolutionary insurgents, in which free life must boil over and where the free organization of workers, united with the peasants and insurgents, must begin to take shape.
Comrade Insurgents!
Firmly remember: the entire subsequent fate of our Makhnovist movement will hang on your behaviour in the areas you occupy.
If, while occupying cities or villages, you do not allow yourself and others arbitrary actions, robberies, murder, and pogroms, then the Makhnovist movement and the entire army will acquire enormous strength and become invincible. Far across Russia and the whole of the earth will word spread that the Makhnovist army was the only truly glorious army that did not allow robbery and violence against innocent civilians. On the other hand, if the insurgents, having occupied a city, allow themselves like Grigoriev and other bandits to smash, kill, and rape, then this will be the death of the entire Makhnovist movment and insurgency.
Sympathy for the Makhnovshchina amongst the entire population—rural and urban—is our greatest advantage. On the contrary, resentment against us on the side of the population will cause us an irreparable and, perhaps, fatal blow.
Firmly remember, comrade insurgents: the question of our behaviour in the occupied areas is a question of life and death for the whole of our movement.
Let everyone of us say to ourselves firmly and clearly: not a single murder, not a single robbery, not a single rape, not a single unauthorized search! Order and organization in the occupied city.
Comrades! Conduct yourself honestly. The whole of your fate and the common fate of the revolution depends upon this.
Do not destroy the great cause of the revolutionary insurrection with your own hands.