The Makhnovist movement, or Makhnovshchina, was an attempt by revolutionary peasants in southeastern Ukraine to construct an anarchist society during a savage civil war. The survivors of this failed project were forced to defend their movement from critics and also analyze their own shortcomings.
The present collection provides translations of a number of rare documents, including a substantial work by Nestor Makhno, responding to one of his Soviet critics and two diaries by participants of the movement. The diary of Galina Kuzmenko, Makhno’s wife, is of particular interest as it was used in Soviet times to discredit the Makhnovists.
