The Greens: Peasantry in the Civil War. What did the Greens fight for in the Civil War?

During the years of the Civil War, people were originally called "green", they evaded military service and hid in the forests (hence the name). This phenomenon acquired a mass character in the summer of 1918, when the forced mobilization of the population was launched. Then this name was assigned to irregular armed formations, consisting mainly of peasants, who equally opposed both the Reds and the Whites, or could temporarily support one of the parties, waging a guerrilla war.

Some Greens fought under their own banners - green, black-green, red-green or black. The flag of the anarchists of Nestor Makhno was a black cloth with a skull and crossbones and the slogan: "Freedom or death."

Among the detachments of the greens, one could meet peasants driven from their places by the Reds or Whites and evading mobilization, and ordinary bandits, and anarchists. Anarchist ideology was adhered to by the leaders of the largest association of greens - the so-called. Rebel army of Ukraine. And it was precisely with anarchism that this movement was most closely associated.

By the time of the first (1905) Russian revolution in anarchism, three main directions were clearly defined: anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-individualism, with each of them having smaller factions.

On the eve of the revolution of 1905, most anarchists were adherents of anarcho-communism. Their main organization was "Bread and Will" headquartered in Geneva. P. A. Kropotkin was the main ideologist of the Khlebovolets. Their program included the following:

The purpose of the action of the anarchists was declared a "social revolution", that is, the complete destruction of capitalism and the state and their replacement by anarchist communism.

The beginning of the revolution was to be "a general strike of the dispossessed both in cities and in the countryside."

The main methods of struggle in Russia were proclaimed "uprising and direct attack, both mass and personal, against the oppressors and exploiters." The question of the use of personal terrorist acts was to be decided only by local residents, depending on the specific situation.

The form of organization of the anarchists was to be “a voluntary agreement of individuals in groups and groups among themselves.

Anarchists rejected the possibility of their entry into any governing bodies (the State Duma or the Constituent Assembly), as well as the possibility of cooperation between anarchists and other political parties or movements.

Essential for the Khlebovoltsy was the question of the future society, created on the model of anarcho-communism. Supporters of Kropotkin imagined the future society as a union or federation of free communities, united by a free contract, where a person, freed from the guardianship of the state, would receive unlimited opportunities for development. For the planned development of the economy, Kropotkin proposed to decentralize industry. In the agrarian question, Kropotkin and his associates considered it necessary to transfer all the land seized as a result of the uprising to the people, to those who cultivate it themselves, but not to personal possession, but to the community.

In the conditions of the revolution of 1905-07. in Russian anarcho-communism, several more currents were formed:

Headless . This trend was based on the preaching of terror and robberies as ways to fight the autocracy and the denial of any moral foundations of society. They wanted to destroy the autocracy by means of a "bloody massacre" with those in power.

In the autumn of 1905, Chernoznamenets (named after the color of the banners). In the revolution of 1905-07. this trend played one of the leading roles. The social base of the Chernoznamentsy was made up of individual representatives of the intelligentsia, part of the proletariat and artisan workers. They considered their main task to be the creation of a broad mass anarchist movement, the establishment of links with all areas of anarchism. In the course of hostilities at the end of 1905, the Chernoznamentsy split into "unmotivated" terrorists and communist anarchists. The former considered the organization of "unmotivated anti-bourgeois terror" as the main goal, while the anarchist-communists spoke in favor of combining an anti-bourgeois war with a series of partial uprisings.

Anarcho-syndicalists . The syndicalists considered the main goal of their activity to be the complete, all-round liberation of labor from all forms of exploitation and the creation of free professional associations of workers as the main and highest form of their organization.

Of all the types of struggle, the syndicalists recognized only the direct struggle of the workers against capital, as well as boycott, strikes, destruction of property (sabotage) and violence against the capitalists.

Following these ideals led the syndicalists to the idea of ​​a "non-party workers' congress", as well as to agitation for the creation of an all-Russian workers' party from "proletarians, regardless of existing party divisions and views." Some of these ideas were adopted from the syndicalists by the Mensheviks.

In Russia, by the beginning of the first Russian revolution, there is also anarcho-individualism (individualist anarchism), which took as a basis the absolute freedom of the individual "as the starting point and the final ideal."

Varieties of individualistic anarchism also took shape:

Mystical anarchism is a movement aimed not at social transformations, but at "a special kind of spirituality." The mysticoanarchists were based on Gnostic teachings (or rather, on their own understanding of them), they denied the institutions of the church, and preached a one-man path to God.

Association anarchism. He was represented in Russia in the person of Lev Chernov (pseudonym P. D. Turchaninov), who took as a basis the works of Stirner, Proudhon and the American anarchist V. R. Tekker. Turchaninov advocated the creation of a political association of manufacturers. He considered systematic terror to be the main method of struggle.

Makhaevtsy (Mahaevists). The Makhaevites expressed a hostile attitude towards the intelligentsia, power and capital. The creator and theorist of the trend was the Polish revolutionary Ya. V. Makhaisky.

In the wake of the rising revolution, the anarchists began to take more active steps. Seeking to expand their influence on the masses, they organized printing houses, published brochures and leaflets. In an effort to tear the working class away from the Marxists, the anarchists came out with all sorts of attacks on the Bolsheviks. Denying the need for any power at all, the anarchists opposed the Bolsheviks' demands for a provisional revolutionary government.

In the pages of the anarchist press, the tactics of anarchism were characterized as a constant rebellion, a continuous uprising against the existing social and state order. Anarchists often called on the people to prepare for an armed uprising. Anarchist fighting squads carried out the so-called "unmotivated" terror. On December 17, 1905, anarchists in Odessa threw 5 bombs at Libman's cafe. Terrorist acts were committed by anarchists in Moscow, in the Urals, in Central Asia. The Yekaterinoslav anarchists were especially active (about 70 acts). During the years of the first Russian revolution, the tactics of political and economic terror among the anarchists often resulted in robberies. Due to them, some anarchist groups created the so-called "combat cash funds", from which part of the money was given to the workers. In 1905-07. quite a few criminal elements joined anarchism, trying to cover up their activities in this way.

Anarchist ideologues hoped that the expansion of the network of anarchist organizations in 1905-07. will accelerate the introduction into the consciousness of the masses (and primarily of the working class) of the ideas of anarchism.

In 1914 the First World War broke out. It also caused a split among the anarchists into social patriots (led by Kropotkin) and internationalists. Kropotkin departed from his views and founded a group of "anarcho-trenchers". Anarchists who disagreed with him formed an international movement, but they were too few to have a serious influence on the masses. In the years between the two revolutions, syndicalists became more active, publishing leaflets and verbally calling on citizens to open struggle.

Anarcho-communists in the period 1905-1917 went through several splits. From the orthodox supporters of anarcho-communism, the so-called anarcho-cooperators separated. They considered it possible to move from capitalism to communism immediately, bypassing any transitional stages.

The center for gathering forces of anarcho-communists was the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. The most important thing during the period of the revolution was the First Congress of Anarcho-Communists.

Anarcho-syndicalists acted more energetically than other trends. Unlike the anarcho-communists, the syndicalists constantly rotated in the working environment, they knew better the demands and needs of the working people. In their opinion, the day after the social revolution, state and political power should be destroyed and a new society should be created under the leadership of a federation of syndicates, responsible for organizing production and distribution.

In 1918 the so-called anarcho-federalists separated from the syndicalists. They considered themselves adherents of "pure syndicalism" and, in their opinion, social life after a social upheaval should be arranged by uniting individuals on the basis of an agreement or agreement in communes.

In addition to the above, there were also many small, scattered groups of individualist anarchists.

Immediately after the February events (March 1, 1917), the anarchists issued a number of leaflets in which they expressed their opinion on the events that had taken place. Below are excerpts from the text of the leaflet of the United Organization of Petrograd Anarchists:

“The heroic efforts of the soldiers and the people overthrew the power of Tsar Nikolai Romanov and his guardsmen. The centuries-old fetters that tormented the soul and body of the people are torn.

Before us, comrades, there is a great task: to create a new beautiful life on the principles of freedom and equality […].

We, anarchists and maximalists, say that the masses of the people, organizing themselves in unions, will be able to take the matter of production and distribution into their own hands and establish an order that ensures real freedom, that the workers do not need any power, they do not need courts, prisons, police.

But, pointing out our goals, we anarchists, in view of the exceptional conditions of the moment, ... will go along with the revolutionary government in its struggle against the old power, until our enemy is crushed ...

Long live the social revolution."

Subsequently, the anarchists began to sharply criticize the Provisional Government and other authorities.

The political activity of the anarchists between the February and October revolutions was mainly reduced to an attempt to speed up the course of events - to carry out an immediate social revolution. This is what basically distinguished their program from the programs of other Social Democratic parties.

Anarchists launched their propaganda in Petrograd, Moscow, Kyiv, Rostov and other cities. Clubs were created that became centers of propaganda. Anarchist leaders gave lectures at industrial enterprises, in military units and on ships, recruiting sailors and soldiers to join their organizations. Anarchists staged rallies on the streets of cities. These groups were mostly small in number, but noticeable.

In March 1917, the anarchists of Petrograd held 3 meetings. It was decided to conduct active propaganda, but not to take any action.

The second meeting of the Petrograd anarchists took place on March 2. It adopted the following requirements:

Anarchists say:

1. All adherents of the old power must be immediately removed from their places.

2. All orders of the new reactionary government, representing a danger to freedom - to cancel.

3. Immediate reprisal against the ministers of the old government.

4. Realization of real freedom of speech and press.

5. Issuance of weapons and ammunition to all combat groups and organizations.

6. Financial support for our comrades who have been released from prison.”

At the third meeting, held on March 4, 1917, reports were heard on the activities of anarchist groups in Petrograd. Requirements corrected and approved:

The right of representation from the organization of anarchists in Petrograd in the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies;

Freedom of the press for all anarchist publications;

Immediate support for those released from prison;

The right to carry and generally carry any kind of weapon.

On tactical issues, anarchists after February divided into two camps - anarcho-rebels (the majority of anarchists) and "peaceful" anarchists. The rebels offered to immediately raise an armed uprising, overthrow the Provisional Government and immediately establish a powerless society. However, the people for the most part did not support them. "Peaceful" anarchists persuaded the workers not to take up arms, offering to leave the existing order for the time being. P. Kropotkin also joined them.

Interestingly, if practically no one supported the rebels, then the views of "peaceful" anarchists were shared by other political parties and movements. In their leaflets, even the party of the Cadets cited some sayings of P. A. Kropotkin.

Anarchists participated in all major rallies, and often served as their initiators. On April 20, the workers of Petrograd spontaneously took to the streets, protesting against the imperialist policy of the Provisional Government. Rallies were held in all squares of the city. On Theater Square there was an anarchist tribune, decorated with black flags. The anarchists demanded the immediate overthrow of the Provisional Government.

As early as March 1917, the anarchists began to take active steps to free their brethren from prison. But along with political prisoners, they were leaving prisons

so do criminals. The anarchist press did not leave this unattended:

“We see that the death penalty has been abolished for crowned and titled criminals: the king of ministers, generals, and criminals can be dealt with like mad dogs without any ceremony called a court. … Real criminals, serfs of the old government, receive amnesties, are restored in their rights, take an oath to the new government and receive appointments […].

The most inveterate villain and criminal did not do even a hundredth of the harm that the former arbiters of the fate of Russia brought […].

We must come to the aid of criminals and fraternally extend a hand to them as victims of social injustice.”

In April, a declaration of anarchist groups was adopted in Moscow, which was published not only in Moscow, but also in print media in many Russian cities:

1. Anarchist socialism is fighting to replace the power of class domination with an international union of free and equal workers in order to organize world production.

2. In order to strengthen anarchist organizations and develop anarcho-socialist thought, continue the struggle for political freedoms.

3. Conducting anarchist propaganda and organizing the revolutionary masses.

4. Considering the world war as imperialist, anarchist socialism seeks to end it through the labors of the proletariat.

5. Anarchist socialism calls on the masses to refrain from participating in non-proletarian organizations - trade unions, councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies.

6. Relying solely on the revolutionary initiative of the masses, anarchist socialism advances the general strike of the workers and the general strike of the soldiers as a transitional stage to the direct seizure by the organized proletariat of the instruments and means of government.

7. Anarchist socialism calls on the masses to organize anarchist groups in industrial and transport enterprises in order to form an anarchist international […].

In May, anarchists staged two armed demonstrations. Their speakers called for terror and anarchy. Using the dissatisfaction of the working people with the policy of the Provisional Government, the anarchist leaders went over to hostilities in order to provoke armed uprisings.

In June 1917, the anarchists seized all the premises of the Russkaya Volya newspaper - the office, the editorial office, and the printing house. The Provisional Government sent a detachment of troops. After long negotiations, the anarchists surrendered. Most of them were subsequently found not guilty and released.

On June 7, in response to the seizure of the printing house, the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government, N.P. Pereverzev, gave the order to clear the Durnovo dacha, where, in addition to the anarchists, the Prosvet workers' club and the board of trade unions of the Vyborg side were located. A wave of indignation and protest arose. On the same day, four enterprises of the Vyborg side began strikes, and by June 8 their number had increased to 28 factories. The provisional government retreated.

On June 9, at the Durnovo dacha, the anarchists convened a conference attended by representatives of 95 factories and military units of Petrograd. At the initiative of the organizers, a "Provisional Revolutionary Committee" was created, which included representatives of some factories and military units. The anarchists decided on June 10 to seize several printing houses and premises. They were supported by separate groups of workers. But the Bolsheviks' cancellation of the demonstration scheduled for that day frustrated their plans.

But in the demonstration held on June 18, the anarchists nevertheless took part. By one o'clock the anarchists approached the Campus de Mars, carrying several black banners with anarchist slogans. During the demonstration, the anarchists raided the Kresty prison, where their like-minded people were imprisoned. A group of 50-75 people raided the prison. The raiders released 7 people: the anarchists Khaustov (former editor of the Okopnaya Pravda newspaper), Muller, Gusev, Strelchenko and several criminals. Along with the anarchists, the Bolshevik party was also accused of the raid on the "Crosses".

The situation around Durnovo's dacha sharply worsened again. On June 19, a Cossack hundred and an infantry battalion with an armored vehicle, led by the Minister of Justice P. Pereverzev, prosecutor R. Karinsky and General P. Polovtsev, went to the dacha, demanding the extradition of those released from prison. Anarchists at the dacha tried to resist. They threw a grenade, but it did not explode. As a result of a clash with the troops, the anarchist Asin was killed (possibly committed suicide), 59 people were arrested. To the great regret of the authorities, they did not find the Bolsheviks there. The news of the pogrom at Durnovo's dacha raised the entire Vyborg side to its feet. On the same day, workers from four factories went on strike. The meetings were quite stormy, but soon the workers calmed down.

In protest against the pogrom, the anarchists tried to bring the 1st machine gun regiment to the streets. But the soldiers answered the anarchists with a refusal: “We do not share the views or actions of the anarchists and are not inclined to support them, but at the same time we do not approve of the reprisals of the authorities against anarchists and are ready to defend freedom from the internal enemy”.

In July 1917, the political situation in Petrograd deteriorated greatly. Messages came to Petrograd about the failure of the offensive of the Russian army at the front. This caused a government crisis. All the Cadet ministers of the Provisional Government resigned.

The anarchists, assessing the situation, decided to act. On July 2, at the Durnovo dacha, the leaders of the Petrograd Federation of Communist Anarchists held a secret meeting, at which they decided to mobilize their forces and call on the people to an armed uprising under the slogans: “Down with the Provisional Government!”, “Anarchy and self-organization!”. Active propaganda was launched among the population.

The main support of the anarchists was the 1st machine gun regiment. The regiment's barracks were not far from Durnovo's retreat, and the anarchists had great influence there. On July 2, a rally was held in the People's House under the leadership of the Bolshevik G. I. Petrovsky. The anarchists sought to win over the soldiers to their side. On the afternoon of July 3, on the initiative of soldier Golovin, who was a supporter of the anarchists, a regimental meeting was opened against the will of the regimental committee. Bleichman spoke from the anarchists at the rally. He urged "to take to the streets today, July 3rd, with weapons in hand, for a demonstration to overthrow ten capitalist ministers." Other anarchists spoke out, posing as representatives of the workers of the Putilov factory, Kronstadt sailors and soldiers from the front. They didn't have a specific plan. “The street will show the target,” they said. The anarchists also said that other factories were already ready to go. The Bolsheviks tried to stop the crowd, but the indignant soldiers did not listen to them. At the rally, a decision was made: to immediately go out into the street with weapons in their hands.

The machine gunners decided to draw the sailors of Kronstadt into the armed uprising and sent a delegation to them, which included the anarchist Pavlov. In the fortress, the delegation got to a meeting of the executive committee of the Council and asked for the support of the sailors in an armed uprising, but was refused. Then the delegates decided to turn directly to the sailors, where at that time the anarchist E. Yarchuk was giving a lecture on war and peace to a small audience (about 50 people). Arriving there, the anarchists issued calls for an immediate uprising. “Blood is already shed there, and the Kronstadters are sitting and lecturing,” they said. These speeches caused unrest among the sailors. Soon, 8-10 thousand people gathered on Anchor Square. The anarchists reported that the purpose of their uprising was to overthrow the Provisional Government. The excited crowd was looking forward to the performance. The Bolsheviks tried to stop the sailors from leaving for Petrograd, but they only succeeded in delaying it.

Delegations of machine gunners sent to many plants and factories, as well as to the military units of Petrograd, called on workers and soldiers to an armed uprising. The machine-gun regiment began to erect barricades. The machine gunners were followed by the Grenadier, Moscow and other regiments. By 9 pm on July 3, seven regiments had already left the barracks. They all moved to the Kshesinskaya mansion, where the Central Committee and the PC of the Bolshevik Party were located. Delegations from factories also reached out there. The Putilovites and the workers of the Vyborg side came out.

The whole demonstration went to the Tauride Palace. Among the slogans of the strikers were both Bolshevik slogans ("All power to the "Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies"") on red banners, and anarchist ones ("Down with the Provisional Government", "Long live anarchy!"). Nevsky Prospekt was filled with workers and revolutionary soldiers. There was a shooting that lasted no more than 10 minutes.

On July 4, the revolutionaries took to the streets again. At 12 noon, the Kronstadt sailors joined them. At least 500 thousand people took to the streets. They all rushed to the Tauride Palace. Government troops on Nevsky Prospekt opened fire. They also shot at Liteiny Prospekt, near the Tauride Palace and in other places. The dead and wounded began to appear. The demonstration went downhill.

The uprising of July 3-4, 17 ended in failure. Until October 1917, the anarchists calmed down, while continuing to conduct propaganda among the population.

On the eve of October 1917, the Bolsheviks did not fail to use the anarchists as a destructive force, assisting them with weapons, food, and ammunition. The anarchists, having plunged into their native element of destruction and struggle, participated in armed clashes in Petrograd, Moscow, Irkutsk and other cities.

After the October events, some anarchists partially changed their previous views and went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Among them are such famous people as Chapaev, Anatoly Zheleznyakov, who dispersed the constituent assembly, Dmitry Furmanov and Grigory Kotovsky. Some anarchists were members of the main Bolshevik revolutionary organizations: the Petrograd Soviet, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets.

However, the coming of the Bolsheviks to power was met with hostility by many anarchists. Literally from the first hours, the anarchists began to disagree with the Bolsheviks. Having previously advocated for the Soviets, the anarchists hastened to dissociate themselves from this organizational form of power. Others, recognizing Soviet power, were against the creation of a centralized government.

Anarchists still advocated the continuation of the revolution. They were not satisfied with the results of the October Revolution, which overthrew the power of the bourgeoisie, but established the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the view of anarchists, the transition from capitalism to communism, and then to anarchy, should not be a long process, it takes only a few days. The transition was conceived as an "explosion", one "big leap". Based on this project of theirs, the anarchists proclaimed a course towards the transition to communism. “The struggle for the communist system must begin immediately,” wrote A. Ge.

Anarchists put forward the slogan of a "third revolution". In their opinion, the following came out: the February Revolution overthrew the autocracy, the power of the landlords; October - the Provisional Government, the power of the bourgeoisie; and the new, "third" one must overthrow the Soviet power, the power of the working class, and abolish the state in general, i.e., liquidate the state of the proletarian dictatorship.

Anarchists also opposed the ratification of the Brest peace. They declared their disagreement with the Bolsheviks, while emphasizing in every possible way the difference between their position and the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik ones. The resolution of the anarchists proposed to reject the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk "as an act of conciliation, and ... practically and in principle incompatible with the dignity and interests of the Russian and world revolution." Brest further divided the anarchists into supporters and opponents of the October Revolution. Some recognized the need for measures taken by the Bolsheviks to save the revolution, and took the path of cooperation with the Soviet government. Others, on the contrary, were preparing to fight the Soviet regime, creating detachments of the "black guard".

The Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups in the winter of 1917-1918 seized several dozen merchant mansions, which turned into "Houses of Anarchy" - clubs, lecture halls, libraries, printing houses were set up there, "Black Guard" detachments were based, numbering three to four thousand fighters. The Union of Anarchist Propaganda and the rapidly growing youth anarchist organizations and unions launched a wide agitation activity.

In the front-line cities of Kursk, Voronezh, Yekaterinoslav, the anarchists came out with weapons in their hands. Raids and expropriations of mansions became more frequent in Moscow. Although the leaders of the anarchists have repeatedly stated that "no action against the Soviets will be allowed," the threat of the action of the "black guard" detachments was obvious.

Anarchists fought against the dictatorship of the proletariat for such ideals of the revolution as the transfer of land to peasants and factories - to workers (and not to the state), the creation of free non-party Soviets (not hierarchical authorities, but based on the principle of delegating organs of people's self-government), general arming of the people, etc. . Therefore, the anarchists were very resolutely opposed to the "white" counter-revolution.

Many criminals penetrated the environment of anarchists, who understood the ideas of anarchism in an extremely vulgar way. Spontaneous anarchism also arose, engulfing a part of the soldiers and sailors of the decaying old army, who sometimes turned into ordinary bandit groups operating under the flag of anarchism.

Since the middle of 1918, the Russian anarchist movement has been going through a period of splits, interspersed with temporary associations of individual groups.

The Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups was dissolved in April 1918. On its basis, the Union of Anarchist-Syndicalist Communists, the Union of Moscow Anarchists and the so-called First Central Sociotechnical School arose. The program of activity of the anarchists, regardless of their shades, increasingly assumed an anti-Bolshevik content and form. The main criticism was directed against the construction of the Soviet state. Some anarchists, recognizing the idea of ​​a transitional period in the form of a Republic of Soviets, invested in it a stateless content. “Free Voice of Labor”, an organ of anarchist-syndicalists, defined the task as follows: “... The Republic of Soviets, that is, the dispersion of power over local Soviets, communities (urban and rural communes), the organization of free Soviet cities and villages, their federation through the Soviets - that’s the task of the anarcho-syndicalists in the coming communal revolution." The anarchists considered the organization of management to be generally necessary: ​​with this they associated the electoral principle, but not in the form of representation, which they considered a bourgeois offspring, but in the form of delegation - “free councils”, which establish connections on the principles of federation, without any centralizing principle. .

The slogan of a “third revolution”—against the “party of stagnation and reaction” (as they dubbed the Bolshevik Party)—would increasingly grip members of anarchist organizations. Like the Left SRs, they accused the Bolsheviks of "dividing the working people into two hostile camps" and "inciting the workers to crusade into the countryside."

Anarchist-communists took an active part in the development of the economic transformation of society. Common to them was the thesis about the economic failure of the Bolsheviks because of their commitment to the methods of political violence and the removal of workers from the management of production. Anarchist communists justified their own concept of "economic labor revolution" as opposed to the workers' control of the Bolsheviks, the concept of socialization instead of Bolshevik nationalization.

At the same time, not all anarchist leaders were so unambiguous about the policy of the Bolsheviks.

At the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, representatives of the anarchists assessed the food policy of the Council of People's Commissars as an attempt "to get closer to the peasant poor ... to awaken their independence and organize them." This group of "Soviet anarchists" began to help the Bolsheviks in building a socialist society. The dictatorship of the proletariat was supported by a section of anarchist-syndicalists.

During 1918 - 1919. anarchists sought to organize their forces and expand their social base. They tried to achieve this by diametrically opposed means. On the one hand, cooperation, albeit inconsistent, with the Bolsheviks. On the other hand, in March 1919 they, together with the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, tried to provoke workers' strikes. At the end of March 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) decided on measures to combat such activities: a number of anarchist publications were closed, some of their leaders were arrested. On June 13, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), it was decided to allow the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee to personally release the arrested in some cases. Anarchist leaders were also released on bail. Most of the anarchists switched to the positions of "active terror" and armed struggle against the Soviet regime.

The most striking episode of the civil war in Russia, associated with the anarchist movement, of course, was the activity of the Insurrectionary Army led by N.I. Makhno. The peasant movement in Ukraine was broader than anarchism itself, although the leaders of the movement used anarchist ideology.

The roots of the Makhnovshchina lie in the insurrectionary movement of the Ukrainian people against the German occupation and the Hetmanate. It originated in the spring of 1918 in the form of partisan detachments fighting the Germans, Austrians and the hetman's "sovereign Varta". Makhno also belonged to one of these detachments in the Gulyai-Polsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno (Mikhnenko) was born into a peasant family in the Ukrainian village of Gulyai-Pole, Zaporozhye region, in 1888. He graduated from the Gulyai-Polskaya elementary school (1897). Since 1903, he worked at the iron foundry of M. Kerner in Gulyai-Pole. From the end of August - the beginning of September 1906, he was a member of the Youth Circle of the Ukrainian Anarchist-Communist Grain Growers Group, which operated in Gulyai-Pole. Participated in several robberies on behalf of communist anarchists. He was arrested several times, was imprisoned, and in 1908 was sentenced to death, which was then replaced by indefinite hard labor. The following year, he was transferred to the hard labor department of the Butyrskaya prison in Moscow. In the cell, Makhno met the famous anarchist activist, former Bolshevik Pyotr Arshinov, who would become a significant figure in the history of the Makhnovshchina in the future. Arshinov took up the ideological preparation of Makhno.

After the February Revolution, Makhno, like many other prisoners, both political and criminal, was released early from prison and returned to Gulyai-Polye. There he was elected deputy chairman of the volost zemstvo. Soon he created the Black Guard group, and with its help established a personal dictatorship in the village. Makhno considered dictatorship a necessary form of government for the final victory of the revolution and declared that “if possible, we must throw out the bourgeoisie and take positions with our people”.

In March 1917, Makhno became chairman of the Gulyai-Pole Peasants' Union. He advocated immediate radical revolutionary changes, before the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. In June 1917, at the initiative of Makhno, workers' control was established at the enterprises of the village; in July, with the support of supporters, Makhno dispersed the former composition of the zemstvo, held new elections, became chairman of the zemstvo, and at the same time declared himself commissar of the Gulyai-Polsky district. In August 1917, at the initiative of Makhno, a committee of laborers was created at the Gulyai-Pol Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, whose activities were directed against local landowners; in the same month he was elected a delegate to the provincial congress of the Peasants' Union in Yekaterinoslav.

In the summer of 1917, Makhno headed the "committee for the salvation of the revolution", disarmed the landowners and the bourgeoisie in the region. At the district Congress of Soviets (mid-August 1917) he was elected chairman and, together with other anarchists, called on the peasants to ignore the orders of the Provisional Government and the Central Rada, proposed “Immediately take away church and landlord land and organize a free agricultural commune on estates, if possible with the participation of the landlords and kulaks themselves in these communes”.

On September 25, 1917, Makhno signed a decree of the county council on the nationalization of the land and its division among the peasants. From December 1 to December 5, 1917, in Yekaterinoslav, Makhno took part in the work of the provincial congress of Soviets of workers', peasants' and soldiers' deputies, as a delegate from the Gulyai-Polye Soviet; supported the demand of the majority of delegates to convene the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets; elected to the judicial commission of the Alexander Revolutionary Committee to consider the cases of persons arrested by the Soviet government. Soon after the arrests of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, he began to express dissatisfaction with the actions of the judicial commission, proposed to blow up the city prison and release the arrested. He reacted negatively to the elections to the Constituent Assembly, called the current situation a “card game”: “The parties will not serve the people, but the people will serve the parties. Already now ... only his name is mentioned in the affairs of the people, and the affairs of the party are decided.. Not having received support in the Revolutionary Committee, he left its composition. After the capture of Yekaterinoslav by the forces of the Central Rada (December 1917), he initiated an emergency congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Pole region, which passed a resolution demanding the "death of the Central Rada" and spoke in favor of organizing the forces opposing it. January 4, 1918 resigned as chairman of the Council, decided to take an active position in the fight against the opponents of the revolution. He welcomed the victory of the revolutionary forces in Yekaterinoslav. Soon he headed the Gulyai-Polye Revolutionary Committee, created from representatives of anarchists, left SRs and Ukrainian socialist revolutionaries.

The anarchist influence on the insurgent movement of Makhno increased significantly due to the appearance among the rebels of visiting anarchists of various directions. The highest command positions in Makhno's rebel army were occupied by the most prominent anarchists. V.M. Volin was at the head of the Revolutionary Military Council, P.A. Arshinov headed the cultural education department and edited the newspapers of the Makhnovists. V.M. Volin, one might say, was the main theoretician, and Arshinov was the political leader of the Makhnovshchina. Influencing the views of Makhno, they determined the goals and objectives of the insurrection. Nestor Makhno himself, more than other anarchists, was subject to the idea of ​​anarchy and never retreated from it. An alliance with the Bolsheviks was seen by them as a tactical necessity. The agreement concluded with the Bolsheviks of Yekaterinoslav on the joint struggle against the Petliurists in December 1918 was carried out very inconsistently. Having driven the Petliurists out of the city, the Makhnovist army showed itself in all its anarchist "brilliance". Prominent anarchists in Makhno's army did not disdain using their "official" position for personal enrichment.

In July 1918 Makhno met with Lenin and Sverdlov. To the latter, Makhno introduced himself as an anarchist-communist of the Bakunin-Kropotkin persuasion. Makhno later recalled that Lenin, pointing to the fanaticism and short-sightedness of the anarchists, noted at the same time that he considers Makhno himself "a man of reality and ebullition of the day" and if there were at least one third of such anarchist-communists in Russia, then the communists willing to work with them. According to Makhno, Lenin tried to convince him that the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the anarchists was not so hostile and was largely due to the behavior of the anarchists themselves. “I felt that I was beginning to revere Lenin, whom I recently confidently considered responsible for the destruction of anarchist organizations in Moscow,” writes Makhno. In the end, both came to the conclusion that it was impossible to fight the enemies of the revolution without sufficient organization of the masses and firm discipline.

However, immediately after this conversation, Makhno called on his comrades in Gulyai-Pole to “destroy the slave system”, live freely and “independently of the state and its officials, even if they are red.” Thus, with any hesitation, Makhno, as a rule, took the side of anarchism. Makhno came close to the Bolsheviks and was ready to completely merge with them, but the influence of anarchism on his worldview and psychology remained predominant.

In January-February 1919, Makhno organized a series of pogroms of German colonists in the Gulyai-Pole area, interfered with the activities of the Soviet government aimed at class split in the countryside (“committees of the poor”, surplus appraisal); urged the peasants to put into practice the idea of ​​"equal land tenure based on their own labor".

In February 1919, Makhno convened the 2nd District Congress of Gulyai-Pole Soviets. The congress resolution gave the same assessment to the White Guards, the imperialists, the Soviet government, the Petliurists and the Bolsheviks, who were accused of conciliating with imperialism.

The Makhnovist detachments united heterogeneous elements, including a small percentage of workers. Under the influence, first of all, of anarchism, the Makhnovshchina was a politically loose movement. In essence, it was a movement of peasant revolutionism. The position of the Makhnovists on the land issue was quite definite: the 2nd District Congress of Soviets spoke out against the state farms decreed by the Ukrainian Soviet government, demanded the transfer of land to the peasants on an equalizing basis. Nestor Makhno called himself a peasant leader.

In the context of the offensive of the troops of General A. I. Denikin to Ukraine in mid-February 1919, Makhno concluded a military agreement with the command of the Red Army and on February 21, 1919 became the commander of the 3rd brigade of the 1st Zadneprovskaya division, which fought against Denikin's troops on the Mariupol- Volnovakha.

For the raid on Mariupol on March 27, 1919, which slowed down the White advance on Moscow, brigade commander Makhno was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, number 4.

Nestor Ivanovich repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the emergency policy of the Soviet government in the liberated areas. On April 10, 1919, at the 3rd District Congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Polsky District, he was elected honorary chairman; in his speech, he stated that the Soviet government had betrayed the "October principles", and the Communist Party legitimized the government and "protected itself with emergency measures." Makhno signed a resolution of the congress, which expressed disapproval of the decisions of the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (March 1919) on the land issue (on the nationalization of land), a protest against the Cheka and the policies of the Bolsheviks, a demand for the removal of all persons appointed by the Bolsheviks from military and civilian posts; at the same time, the Makhnovists demanded the "socialization" of land, factories and factories; food policy changes; freedom of speech, press and assembly to all left-wing parties and groups; personal integrity; abandoning the dictatorship of the communist party; freedom of elections to the Soviets of Working Peasants and Workers.

From April 15, 1919, Makhno led a brigade as part of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Army. After the beginning of the rebellion of the commander of the Red Army N. A. Grigoriev (May 7), Makhno took a wait-and-see attitude, then took the side of the Red Army and personally shot Grigoriev. In May 1919, at a meeting of rebel commanders in Mariupol, Makhno supported the initiative to create a separate rebel army.

The population supported Makhno because he fought for things that every peasant understood: for land and freedom, for people's self-government based on a federation of non-party Soviets.

Makhno did not allow Jewish pogroms on his territory (which were then a common thing in territories controlled by the Petliurists or Grigorievites), severely punished marauders and, relying on the bulk of the peasantry, was harsh with the landowners and the kulaks. The Makhnovsky district was a relatively free place: political agitation of all socialist parties and groups was allowed in it: from the Bolsheviks to the Socialist Revolutionaries. Makhnovsky district was perhaps the most "free economic zone", where there were various forms of land use (of course, except for the landowners) - and communes, and cooperatives, and private labor peasant farms (without the use of farm laborers).

In the literature one can find striking characteristics of anarchist leaders. Before us appear very colorful figures of prominent anarchists.

For example, as A. Vetlugin describes, A. L. Gordin - "a little lame man ... surpassed both Martov and Bukharin, the first - by ugliness, the second - by anger." Deadly aptly said about him A.A. Borovoy: “Gordin, of course, is the Russian Marat, but Charlotte Corday is not afraid of him, because he never takes a bath! ..” He spat on everyone and everything. Kropotkin and Lenin, Longuet and Brusilov, allied ambassadors and Swiss socialists, owners of printing houses and General Mannerheim. Money was needed - and Gordin, without a moment's hesitation, organizes raids on private apartments ...

The most impromptu, most conscious, internally justified, perhaps ennobled was the anarchism of Lev Cherny. In his younger years he was close to the Marxists... Disillusioned with the socialist idea, Cherny did not believe in the goodness of any government, but even anarchy did not deceive him in its idealism. Sometimes it seemed that, first of all, he wanted to persuade himself ... Gordin - the commander in chief; Barmash - tribune; Leo Black - conscience. Wisdom and erudition were represented by Alexei Solonovich, a pupil of the old world, at the age of twenty he was a novice of the Svyatogorsk monastery, at twenty-six he was a Privatdozent of Moscow University at the Department of Mathematics.

Thus, during the years of the Civil War, anarchism experienced a painful process of disengagement and, as a result, organizational splits, which led to a change in political orientation: a transition to pro-Bolshevik positions or going to the camp of anti-Bolshevik forces, with all the ensuing consequences.

In the Civil War, not only the “reds” and “whites” fought. There was also a third force - "green". Their role is ambiguous. Some consider the "green" bandits, others - freedom-loving defenders of their land.

Green vs red & white

Candidate of Historical Sciences Ruslan Gagkuev described the events of those years as follows: “In Russia, the cruelty of the civil war was due to the destruction of the traditional Russian statehood and the destruction of the centuries-old foundations of life.” According to him, in those battles there were no losers, but only destroyed ones. That is why rural people, with entire villages, and even volosts, sought at any cost to protect the islands of their little world from an external deadly threat, especially since they had experience of peasant wars. This was the main reason for the emergence of a third force in 1917-1923 - the "green rebels".

In the encyclopedia edited by S.S. Khromov “Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR” defines this movement as illegal armed formations whose members hid from mobilization in the forests.

However, there is another version. So General A.I. Denikin believed that these formations and detachments got their name after a certain Ataman Zeleny, who fought against both the Whites and the Reds in the western part of the Poltava province. Denikin wrote about this in the fifth volume of Essays on Russian Troubles.

"Fight among yourselves"

The book by the Englishman H. Williamson "Farewell to the Don" contains the memoirs of one British officer who during the years of the Civil War was in the Don Army of General V.I. Sidorin. “At the station, we were met by a convoy of Don Cossacks ... and units under the command of a man named Voronovich, who lined up next to the Cossacks. The “greens” had practically no uniforms, they wore mostly peasant clothes with checkered woolen caps or shabby mutton hats, on which a green cross was sewn. They had a simple green flag and looked like a tough and powerful group of soldiers."

The "soldiers of Voronovich" refused Sidorin's call to join his army, preferring to remain neutral. In general, at the beginning of the Civil War, the peasantry adhered to the principle: "Fight among yourselves." However, the "whites" and "reds" every day stamped out decrees and orders on "requisitions, duties and mobilization", thereby involving the villagers in the war.

village brawlers

Meanwhile, even before the revolution, the villagers were experienced fighters, ready to grab pitchforks and axes at any moment. The poet Sergei Yesenin in the poem "Anna Snegina" cited the conflict between the two villages of Radovo and Kriushi.

One day we got them...
They are in axes, we are the same.
From the ringing and rattle of steel
A shiver ran through my body.

There were many such skirmishes. Pre-revolutionary newspapers were full of articles about mass fights and stabbings between residents of various villages, auls, kishlaks, Cossack villages, Jewish shtetls and German colonies. That is why every village had its cunning diplomats and desperate commanders who stood up to protect local sovereignty.

After the First World War, when many peasants, returning from the front, took with them three-line rifles, and even machine guns, it was dangerous to enter such villages just like that.

Boris Kolonitsky, Doctor of Historical Sciences, noted in this regard that regular troops often asked permission from the elders to pass through such villages and often received refusals. But after the forces became unequal due to the sharp strengthening of the Red Army in 1919, many villagers were forced to go into the forests so as not to fall under mobilization.

Nester Makhno and Old Man Angel

A typical commander of the "greens" was Nestor Makhno. He went through a difficult path from a political prisoner due to participation in the anarchist group "Union of Poor Grain Growers" to the commander of the "Green Army", numbering 55 thousand people in 1919. He and his soldiers were allies of the Red Army, and Nester Ivanovich himself was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the capture of Mariupol.

At the same time, being a typical "green", he did not see himself outside his native places, preferring to live by robberies of landowners and wealthy people. The book "The Most Terrible Russian Tragedy" by Andrey Burovsky cites the memoirs of S.G. Pushkarev about those days: “The war was cruel, inhuman, with complete oblivion of all legal and moral principles. Both sides sinned with a mortal sin - the murder of prisoners. The Makhnovists regularly killed all captured officers and volunteers, and we let the captured Makhnovists go to waste.

If at the beginning and in the middle of the Civil War the "greens" either adhered to neutrality, or most often sympathized with the Soviet government, then in 1920-1923 they fought "against everyone." For example, on the carts of one commander "Batko Angel" it was written: "Beat the reds until they turn white, beat the whites until they turn red"

Heroes of the Greens

According to the apt expression of the peasants of that time, the Soviet government was both mother and stepmother for them. It got to the point that the red commanders themselves did not know where -
true and where lies. Once, at a peasant gathering, the legendary Chapaev was asked: “Vasily Ivanovich, are you for the Bolsheviks or for the Communists”? He replied: - "I am for the International."

Under the same slogan, that is, “For the International,” St. George Knight A. V. Sapozhkov fought, who fought simultaneously “against the gold-chasers and against the false communists who settled in the Soviets.” His unit was destroyed, and he himself was shot dead.

The most prominent representative of the "greens" is considered to be a member of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party A. S. Antonov, better known as the leader of the Tambov Uprising of 1921-1922. In his army, the word "comrade" was in use, and the struggle was fought under the banner "For Justice". However, most of the "Green Army" did not believe in their victory. For example, in the song of the Tambov rebels "Something the sun does not shine ..." there are such lines:

They will lead us all around,
They will give the command "Pli!"
Chur, do not whimper at the barrel,
Don't lick the ground at your feet!

Greens vs. Reds & Whites Candidate of Historical Sciences Ruslan Gagkuev described the events of those years as follows: “In Russia, the cruelty of the civil war was due to the destruction of traditional Russian statehood and the destruction of centuries-old foundations of life.” According to him, in those battles there were no losers, but only destroyed ones. That is why rural people, with entire villages, and even volosts, sought at any cost to protect the islands of their little world from an external deadly threat, especially since they had experience of peasant wars. This was the main reason for the emergence of a third force in 1917-1923 - the "green rebels".

In the encyclopedia edited by S.S. Khromov “Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR” defines this movement as illegal armed formations whose members hid from mobilization in the forests. However, there is another version. So General A.I. Denikin believed that these formations and detachments got their name after a certain Ataman Zeleny, who fought against both the Whites and the Reds in the western part of the Poltava province. Denikin wrote about this in the fifth volume of Essays on Russian Troubles. “Fight among yourselves” The book of the Englishman H. Williamson “Farewell to the Don” contains the memoirs of a British officer who during the years of the Civil War was in the Don Army of General V.I. Sidorin. “At the station, we were met by a convoy of Don Cossacks ... and units under the command of a man named Voronovich, who lined up next to the Cossacks. The “greens” had practically no uniforms, they wore mostly peasant clothes with checkered woolen caps or shabby mutton hats, on which a green cross was sewn. They had a simple green flag and looked like a tough and powerful group of soldiers." The "soldiers of Voronovich" refused Sidorin's call to join his army, preferring to remain neutral. In general, at the beginning of the Civil War, the peasantry adhered to the principle: "Fight among yourselves." However, the "whites" and "reds" every day stamped out decrees and orders on "requisitions, duties and mobilization", thereby involving the villagers in the war. Village fighters Meanwhile, even before the revolution, the villagers were experienced fighters, ready to grab pitchforks and axes at any moment. The poet Sergei Yesenin in the poem "Anna Snegina" cited the conflict between the two villages of Radovo and Kriushi. Once we caught them ... They are in axes, we are the same. From the ringing and gnashing of steel, a shiver rolled through the body. There were many such skirmishes. Pre-revolutionary newspapers were full of articles about mass fights and stabbings between residents of various villages, auls, kishlaks, Cossack villages, Jewish shtetls and German colonies. That is why every village had its cunning diplomats and desperate commanders who stood up to protect local sovereignty. After the First World War, when many peasants, returning from the front, took with them three-line rifles, and even machine guns, it was dangerous to enter such villages just like that. Boris Kolonitsky, Doctor of Historical Sciences, noted in this regard that regular troops often asked permission from the elders to pass through such villages and often received refusals. But after the forces became unequal due to the sharp strengthening of the Red Army in 1919, many villagers were forced to go into the forests so as not to fall under mobilization. Nester Makhno and Old Man Angel A typical commander of the "greens" was Nestor Makhno. He went through a difficult path from a political prisoner due to participation in the anarchist group "Union of Poor Grain Growers" to the commander of the "Green Army", numbering 55 thousand people in 1919. He and his soldiers were allies of the Red Army, and Nester Ivanovich himself was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the capture of Mariupol.

At the same time, being a typical "green", he did not see himself outside his native places, preferring to live by robberies of landowners and wealthy people. The book "The Most Terrible Russian Tragedy" by Andrey Burovsky cites the memoirs of S.G. Pushkarev about those days: “The war was cruel, inhuman, with complete oblivion of all legal and moral principles. Both sides sinned with a mortal sin - the murder of prisoners. The Makhnovists regularly killed all captured officers and volunteers, and we let the captured Makhnovists go to waste. If at the beginning and in the middle of the Civil War the "greens" either adhered to neutrality, or most often sympathized with the Soviet government, then in 1920-1923 they fought "against everyone." For example, on the carts of one commander "Batko Angel" it was written: "Beat the reds until they turn white, beat the whites until they turn red." It got to the point that the red commanders themselves did not know where - the truth, and where - a lie. Once, at a peasant gathering, the legendary Chapaev was asked: “Vasily Ivanovich, are you for the Bolsheviks or for the Communists”? He replied: - "I am for the International." Under the same slogan, that is, “For the International,” St. George Knight A. V. Sapozhkov fought, who fought simultaneously “against the gold-chasers and against the false communists who settled in the Soviets.” His unit was destroyed, and he himself was shot dead. The most prominent representative of the "greens" is considered to be a member of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party A. S. Antonov, better known as the leader of the Tambov Uprising of 1921-1922. In his army, the word "comrade" was in use, and the struggle was fought under the banner "For Justice". However, most of the "Green Army" did not believe in their victory. For example, in the song of the Tambov rebels "Something the sun does not shine ..." there are such lines: They will lead us all indiscriminately, They will give the command "Pli!" Chur, do not whimper at the barrel, Do not lick the ground at the feet! ..

Among the variety of terms that we use when talking about the world around us, there is one that was born during the years of the Civil War and has survived to this day, but has received a completely different meaning. This is the green movement. In ancient times, this was the name given to the insurrectionary actions of peasants who defended their rights with weapons in their hands. Today, this is the name given to communities of people who protect the rights of the nature around us.

Russian peasantry in the post-revolutionary years

The "green" movement during the years of the Civil War is the mass demonstrations of the peasants, directed against the main contenders for seizing power in the country - the Bolsheviks, the White Guards and foreign interventionists. As a rule, they saw free Soviets as the governing bodies of the state, formed as a result of the independent expression of the will of all citizens and alien to any form of appointment from above.

The "green" movement was of great importance during the war, already because its main force - the peasants - made up the majority of the country's population. The course of the Civil War as a whole often depended on which of the warring parties they would support. This was well understood by all the participants in the hostilities and, to the best of their ability, they tried to win over the many millions of peasant masses to their side. However, this was not always successful, and then the confrontation took extreme forms.

The negative attitude of the villagers towards the Bolsheviks and the Whites

Thus, for example, in the Central part of Russia the attitude of the peasants towards the Bolsheviks was ambivalent. On the one hand, they supported them after the well-known decree on land, which secured the landowners' land for the peasants, on the other hand, the wealthy peasants and most of the middle peasants opposed the food policy of the Bolsheviks and the forced seizure of agricultural products. This duality was reflected in the course of the Civil War.

Socially alien to the peasants, the White Guard movement also rarely found support from them. Despite the fact that many villagers served in the ranks, most of them were recruited by force. This is evidenced by numerous memoirs of participants in those events. In addition, the White Guards often forced the peasants to perform various household duties, without compensating for the time and effort expended. This also caused resentment.

Peasant uprisings caused by the surplus appraisal

The "green" movement in the Civil War, directed against the Bolsheviks, as already mentioned, was caused mainly by dissatisfaction with the policy of the surplus appraisal, which doomed thousands of peasant families to starvation. It is no coincidence that the main heat of passions fell on the year 1919-1920, when the forced seizure of agricultural products took on the widest scale.

Among the most active actions directed against the Bolsheviks, one can name the "green" movement in Stavropol, which began in April 1918, and the mass uprising of peasants in the Volga region that followed a year later. According to some reports, up to 180,000 people took part in it. In general, in the first half of 1019, there were 340 armed uprisings, covering more than twenty provinces.

Social Revolutionaries and their Third Way program

During the years of the Civil War, representatives of the Mensheviks also tried to use the "Green" movement for their political purposes. They worked out a joint tactic of struggle aimed at two fronts. They declared their opponents both the Bolsheviks and A. V. Kolchak and A. I. Denikin. This program was called the "Third Way" and was, they say, a struggle against reaction from the left and right. However, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, far from the peasant masses, were unable to unite significant forces around themselves.

Peasant army of Nestor Makhno

The slogan proclaiming the "third way" gained the greatest popularity in Ukraine, where the peasant rebel army under the command of N. I. Makhno fought for a long time. It is noted that its main backbone was made up of wealthy peasants who were successfully engaged in agriculture and traded in bread.

They were actively involved in the redistribution of the landlords' land and had high hopes for it. As a result, it was their farms that became the objects of numerous requisitions carried out alternately by the Bolsheviks, the White Guards and the interventionists. The "green" movement that spontaneously arose in Ukraine was a reaction to such lawlessness.

The special character of Makhno's army was given by anarchism, the adherents of which were both the commander-in-chief himself and most of his commanders. In this idea, the most attractive was the theory of "social" revolution, which destroys all state power and thus eliminates the main instrument of violence against the individual. The main tenet of Makhno's program was popular self-government and the rejection of any form of diktat.

Popular movement under the leadership of A. S. Antonov

No less powerful and large-scale movement of the "greens" was observed in the Tambov province and in the Volga region. By the name of its leader, it received the name "Antonovshchina". As early as September 1917, the peasants in these areas took control of the landowners' lands and began to actively develop them. Accordingly, their standard of living rose, and a favorable prospect opened up ahead. When, in 1919, a large-scale surplus appropriation began, and the fruits of their labor began to be taken away from people, this caused the sharpest reaction and forced the peasants to take up arms. They had something to protect.

The struggle took on a special intensity in 1920, when a severe drought occurred in the Tambov region, which destroyed most of the crop. In these difficult conditions, what nevertheless managed to be collected was seized in favor of the Red Army and the townspeople. As a result of such actions of the authorities, a popular uprising broke out that engulfed several counties. About 4,000 armed peasants and more than 10,000 people with pitchforks and scythes took part in it. The leader and inspirer was a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party A.

The defeat of Antonovshchina

He, like other leaders of the "green" movement, put forward clear and simple slogans, understandable to every villager. Chief among them was the call to fight the communists in order to build a free peasant republic. We should pay tribute to his commanding abilities and the ability to conduct a flexible guerrilla war.

As a result, the uprising soon spread to other areas and took on an even larger scale. It cost the Bolshevik government great efforts to suppress it in 1921. For this purpose, units removed from the Denikin Front, led by M.N. Tukhachevsky and G.I. Kotovsky, were sent to the Tambov region.

Modern social movement "Green"

The battles of the Civil War died down, and the events described above are a thing of the past. Much of that era has sunk into oblivion forever, but an amazing thing is that the term “Green Movement” has been preserved in our everyday life, although it has acquired a completely different meaning. If at the beginning of the last century this phrase meant a struggle for the interests of those who cultivated the land, then today the participants in the movement are fighting for the preservation of the land itself with all its natural wealth.

"Green" - the ecological movement of our time, which opposes the harmful effects of the negative factors of technological progress on the environment. In our country, they appeared in the mid-eighties of the last century and have gone through several stages of development in their history. According to data published at the end of last year, the number of environmental groups included in the all-Russian movement reaches thirty thousand.

Leading NGO

Among the most famous are the movement "Green Russia", "Motherland", "Green Patrol" and a number of other organizations. Each of them has its own characteristics, but all of them are united by a common task and the mass enthusiasm that is inherent in their members. In general, this sector of society exists in the form of a non-governmental organization. It is a kind of third sector, not related to either government agencies or private business.

The political platform of representatives of modern "green" movements is based on a constructive approach to the restructuring of the economic policy of the state in order to harmoniously combine the interests of people and their natural environment. There can be no compromises in such issues, since not only the material well-being of people, but also their health and life depends on their solution.

The civil war in Russia was a tragedy for the entire population of the country. The confrontation embraced all segments of the population, entered every home. The Kuban was no exception, where the confrontation involved the Cossack and nonresident population. The first battles took place in early January 1918 near the city of Ekaterinodar and ended in the defeat of the Bolsheviks. January 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of this tragedy.

I do not pretend to consider in detail all the aspects related to those distant events, but I will try to consider the readiness of the military units of the warring parties at the initial stage of the confrontation. It should be noted that in this period of time, the confrontation embraced the masses of soldiers, who stood mainly on the side of the Bolsheviks, and the Cossack formations, who tried to resist the aspirations of the Bolshevik leaders. The Kuban Cossacks did not yet understand the threats that arose before them as one of the classes to be eliminated, and tried to defend their traditional rights. Unfortunately, this came at a high cost.

The Black Sea region was the first to come under the rule of the Bolsheviks. In this regard, the Kuban regional food committee refused to send trains with grain to Novorossiysk, which served to strengthen anti-Cossack sentiment, although the committee was not Cossack in composition.

The Bolsheviks, guided by the decisions worked out at the first conference of the party organizations of the Kuban and the Black Sea, held on November 25-26, 1917 in Novorossiysk, focused on the formation of Red Guard detachments and the strengthening of work in military units returning from the front. Bolshevik leader A.A. Yakovlev offered to go to Trebizond for troops in order to immediately move to the Kuban. This decision was unanimously adopted.

At the end of December 1917, meetings of military workers were held in the villages of Krymskaya and Primorsko-Akhtarskaya. They make decisions on the transition to an active struggle against the regional government. By the end of 1917, the power of the Kuban government extended only to Yekaterinodar and the villages closest to it.

The events of 1917-1918 showed the inability of the democratic forces of the region to resolve economic and political issues peacefully. Passions boiled around the issue of land, but it was resolved only in favor of the Cossack part of the population, which meant attempts to establish a dictatorship. Land lease speculation deepened the split in society. The intensity of political passions led to the fact that most political parties and movements saw the possibility of their existence only in support on an armed basis. The process of militarization of parties began. From local clashes, the parties moved on to a large-scale civil war.

On January 12, 1918, in the village of Krymskaya, the Bolsheviks made a decision to storm Yekaterinodar. Their forces, according to the ataman Vyacheslav Naumenko, amounted to 4,000 people. The regional government could oppose them with about 600 fighters with four guns.

The opposing side did not sit idly by. I will give an assessment of the historian D.E. Skobtseva: “N.M., a member of the government for military affairs, finally arrived from the Caucasian front. Uspensky and began to put together parts of the Kuban volunteers. In a hurry, he passed through the Government Council the regulation on service in the Kuban volunteer detachments. The volunteers were given a decent allowance, the military regulations were adjusted, the regulations on rank-keeping, discipline, revolutionary field courts, etc. were revised.

The phase of active formation of the first units began. The author mentioned above noted: “By the end of Christmas time, there were already several Kuban volunteer detachments that took the name of their chiefs: military foreman Golaev, Colonel Demenik and others. At the same time, the initiative and popularity of the bosses were of great importance.

At the end of January 1918, near Enem and Georgi-Afipskaya, the struggle took on a large-scale character. Skobtsev noted: “... three directions of the Bolshevik offensive on Yekaterinodar were determined: Caucasian, Tikhoretsk and Novorossiysk - along the main railway lines. At first, Novorossiysk turned out to be the most stormy - led by the "Minister of War of the Novorossiysk Republic", Ensign Seradze. The battle began at the very approach to Yekaterinodar, at the Enem junction. Seradze was opposed by Galaev and Pokrovsky.

In the very first battle near the Enem station, the Bolsheviks suffered a serious defeat. During the battle, the military foreman P.A. Galaev shot the commander of the Red Guard Junker Alexander Yakovlev and was immediately killed himself. An interesting fact is that during the First World War, Yakovlev served as a supplier of uniforms for the needs of the army and was not a professional commander. During one of the trips near the city of Molodechko, a grenade flew into the window of the car where he was, the cadet was wounded, after which he underwent treatment on the Black Sea coast. After the events of 1917, he was sent by the Bolsheviks to Novorossiysk.

The second fight was also not successful. The Left Socialist-Revolutionary ensign Seradze, appointed to replace Yakovlev, was captured and died from his wounds in a military hospital.

In Novorossiysk, several armored trains were prepared for an attack on the capital of the Kuban. The number of Red Army soldiers, according to Soviet and émigré specialists, was about 4,000 people. Supporters of the regional government threw no more than 600 Cossacks against this group. Cossack cavalry and several guns were thrown against the armored trains.

The result of this operation is impressive. The Red Guard on armored trains with artillery was defeated, and most of its members fled: “The Bolsheviks fled, leaving numerous trophies on the battlefield and their commander-in-chief Seridze, mortally wounded. Here, in a battle near the Enem junction, a girl, ensign Barkhash, died. Pokrovsky was given a triumph like the Caesars.

Thus, it turned out that the Cossacks were more prepared for the conduct of hostilities, and the motive for defending their land among the Cossacks was much higher. In addition, the level of command training among the leaders of the Bolsheviks was highly questionable.

The population of Kuban reacted negatively to the performance of the Bolsheviks. The gathering of the inhabitants of the village of Pashkovskaya condemned this action. The Cossacks of the villages of Voronezhskaya, Platnirovskaya, Novotitarovskaya and others spoke out in support of the regional government. The villagers of Kushchevskaya refused to submit to the authority of the Soviets.

The first attempt by Bolshevik supporters to seize power in the Kuban capital failed. A new stage in the escalation of the civil war began. To replenish supplies, the Novorossiysk executive committee continued to disarm parts of the Caucasian front that were moving through the city.

An attempt to agitate among seven thousand soldiers in the capital of the Black Sea province about a second speech led to a split in their ranks. The soldiers of the 22nd Varnavinsky Regiment and the 41st Artillery Battalion agreed to participate in the fight against the regional government. The sailors of the Black Sea Fleet played an active role. At the request of the Novorossiysk Bolshevik Committee, a detachment of F.M. Karnau-Grushevsky.

The Kuban-Black Sea Military Revolutionary Committee received weapons from the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Caucasian Army, the Central Executive Committee of the Navy from Kerch, Sevastopol, and Odessa. Contact was established with Armavir and Tikhoretskaya to form a new front against Yekaterinodar.

The base of armed resources for a new assault on the Kuban capital was created. Moreover, support was provided in all directions. Supporters of the Cossacks did not have such a broad base, the industrial regions of Russia were under the control of the Bolsheviks. There were no ammunition, small arms, cartridges, military equipment and ammunition.

On the one hand, we see excellent command cadres among the opponents of the Bolsheviks, and on the other, the lack of material support for hostilities.

The situation among the supporters of the Bolsheviks was absolutely opposite. And time was not long in coming, the next stage of the armed confrontation began, which ended in the spring of 1918 with the defeat of the anti-Bolshevik coalition in the Kuban. The process of accumulation of forces began again, which grew into a confrontation in the summer of 1918, when the Volunteer Army, together with units of the Kuban Cossacks, took full control of the territory of the former Kuban region.

"White-green" of the 20s

Most of the Kuban, tired of the war, supported the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1920. The peasants and workers joyfully greeted the Red Army, and the Cossacks maintained a benevolent neutrality. Pilyuk and Savitsky, the leaders of the "Green Army" who rebelled against Denikin, hoped for the moderation of the Bolsheviks, the agreement of the socialist parties, the granting of autonomy to the Cossack regions. It seemed to them that the Bolsheviks would not introduce the system of war communism in the Kuban. A peculiar situation arose in the Sochi and Tuapse districts, where the Committee for the Liberation of the Black Sea, headed by the Social Revolutionary Voronovich, created the Black Sea Peasant Republic, fighting against both the Volunteer and the Red Army.

In the spring of 1920, only a few continued to fight against the Bolsheviks. But by May 1920, the introduction of labor duties and surplus appropriations, the redistribution of Cossack lands and lawless reprisals, the ban on the participation of kulaks in elections heated up the atmosphere. At the end of April, the 14th Cavalry Division of the 1st Cavalry Army, formed mainly from former whites, revolted. Knowing about the direction against Wrangel, the division raised a riot in the village of Umanskaya with the call "Down with the war, down with the commune!" Near the village of Kushchevskaya, the rebels, led by Colonel Sukhenko, were defeated and dispersed.

The anti-Bolshevik movement represented a wide range of forces. Agents of foreign states and criminals acted, a protracted war demoralized many and devalued life. But it is wrong to neglect the heterogeneity and complex alignment of the forces of the rebels. The reason for reflection gives the opinion of the political worker of the 1st Cavalry Army Stroilo: "Pure banditry is a property of very few small detachments that have nothing to do with large political organizations."

The social composition of the “white-greens” was complex. Usually, the detachments were led by officers or Cossacks, there were many former soldiers of the Volunteer Army, refugees from Central Russia. During the capture of the villages, all Cossacks of military age were subjected to mobilization. Relations between the White-Green groups are contradictory, they were united by hatred of the Soviet regime.

An accurate assessment of the number of insurgents, their deployment and equipment is difficult. A special department of the Caucasian Front believed that the number of large detachments of the "white-green" in June-July 6, 1920 increased in the south from 5,400 to 13,100 people in 36 detachments with 50 machine guns and 12 guns. The historian Stepanenko summarized the data, according to which in August 1920 the counter-revolutionary forces in the Don, Kuban and Terek reached 30,000 people. Military operations had a seasonal rhythm, fading during the sowing and harvest seasons, flaring up in autumn and early spring. The next peak of speeches falls on February-March 1921, a period of exacerbation of the food crisis and a turning point in the policy of the RCP (b).
The main centers of the insurgent movement were the Trans-Kuban region (deployment of the Russian Renaissance Army), the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov (Wrangel landings), and the Sochi District.

In mid-April 1920, General Fostikov began to create a plastun regiment and a cavalry brigade near Maikop. In July, a spontaneous revolt, caused by surplus appropriation and the seizure of ¾ of hay stocks, swept the villages of the Labinsk department. On July 18, Colonel Shevtsov, with a detachment of 600 sabers, captured the village of Prochnookopskaya and announced the mobilization of the Cossacks. The total forces of the "white-green" Labinsk, Batalpashinsky and Maikop departments reached 11,400 people in mid-July with 55 machine guns and 6 guns.

On July 23, the military foreman Aprons restored ataman rule in the mountainous strip of the Maikop department.

Growing rebellions forced to ask for military assistance. On August 1, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Cheka received a telegram from the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee: “The entire Kuban is engulfed in uprisings. Detachments are operating, led by a single hand - the Wrangel agents. Green squads grow and expand significantly with the end of the hot season of field work - around August 15th. If Wrangel is not liquidated within a short time, we risk temporarily losing the North Caucasus.”

The authorities have taken drastic measures. On July 29, 1920, Order No. 1247 was issued for the troops of the Caucasian Front, signed by Trifonov and Gittis. By August 15, residents were ordered to hand over their weapons under pain of confiscation of property and execution on the spot. The same punishment was set for joining gangs, assisting the "greens" or harboring them. The rebellious villages were subject to pacification "by the most decisive and merciless measures, up to their complete ruin and destruction."