^{page 246 note 1} Nestor Ivanovič Machno was born in 1889 at Guljaj-Pole as the youngest son of a poor peasant family. In 1906 he joined an Anarchist-Communist group at Guljaj-Pole, and in 1908 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on account of an attack on a police officer. Until March 1917 he remained in prison in Moscow where he received further anarchist training from a fellow prisoner, P. Aršinov. In March 1917 Machno returned to his native village and was elected head of the Guljaj-Pole Soviet. At his instigation the expropriation of large estates began already some weeks before the October Revolution. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk brought about the metamorphosis of a local political leader into the most famous of all anarchist guerilla fighters. No effective resistance by the Soviet forces against the troops of Skoropadskij and his German and Austrian allies was forthcoming, and this brought Machno to the conviction that the peasants could only trust their own power. The first partisan detachment was formed. At the end of July he started with attacks on landlords' country houses and raids on isolated military units to obtain weapons. The daring and success of these ventures made Machno's name famous in the Ukrainian villages and a stream of volunteers joined him. In this way the Insurgent Army was formed. Machno continued to lead it until August 1921, when he was forced to flee the country. After many wanderings he ended up in Paris, where he lived in distressed circumstances until his death in 1935.

^{page 247 note 1} P. 253. Document IV goes further and demands the socialization of the land.

^{page 248 note 1} In the 'twenties two surveys appeared, one from anarchist quarters, P. A. Aršinov, Istorija Machnovskogo Dviženija, Berlin 1923 (translated as L'histoire du Mouvement Makhnoviste, Paris n.d.), the other written from a Soviet-Russian point of view, M. Kubanin, Machnovščina, Leningrad 1927 (not at my disposal). Then there are the memoirs of Machno and Volin: N. Machno, Russkaja Revoljucija na Ukraine (ot marta 1917 g. po aprel' 1918 god),) Paris 1929 (translated as La Révolution Russe en Ukraine, Paris n.d.), Pod udarami kontr-revoljucii (aprel'-jun' 1918 g.), Paris 1936, and Ukrainskaja revoljucija (ijul'-dekabr' 1918 g.), Paris 1937; Voline, La révolution inconnue (1917–1921), Paris 1947 (translated as The Unknown Revolution (Kronstadt 1921, Ukraine 1918–21), London 1955). Of interest is further U. Fedeli, Dalla insurrezione dei contadini in Ucraina alla Rivolta di Cronstadt, Milano 1950; four of the documents printed below are here published in Italian: Nos I, IV, VII and XI. D. Guérin translated from the Italian into French Nos I, IV, and XI in his Ni Dieu ni maître, Paris n.d. D. Footman wrote a good survey based on the first four works mentioned above but overlooked Fedeli, : “Nestor Makhno”, in: Soviet Affairs, II [St Antony's Papers, 6], London 1959, pp. 75–127Google Scholar. Semanov, S. N., “Machnovščina i ee krach”, in: Voprosy Istorii, 1966, No 9, pp. 37–60Google Scholar contains interesting bibliographical references. Avrich, P., The Russian Anarchists, New Jersey 1967, gives a very useful summary of the movement (pp. 209–222).Google Scholar

^{page 249 note 1} Nos 1–3 are in the New York Public Library, No 4 is in the Bibliothèque de la Documentation Internationale Contemporaine in Paris, and No 43 in the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis.

^{page 249 note 2} Apart from the documents printed below there are some leaflets from 1919, published by Aršinov, op. cit.

^{page 249 note 3} Aršinov, , op. cit., passim, especially p. 142.Google Scholar

^{page 250 note 1} Sovetskaja Istoričeskaja Enciklopedija, Vol. IX, Moskva 1966Google Scholar, entry Machnovščina. As to the national provenance according to Aršinov the overwhelming majority of the Machnovcy were, of course, Ukrainian. About 6–8 per cent came from Great Russia. Further Greeks, Jews, Caucasians and other nationalities participated. Aršinov, , op. cit., p. 203.Google Scholar

^{page 250 note 2} Aršinov, , op. cit., p. 160.Google Scholar At the moment it is impossible to evaluate the reliability of this figure.

^{page 251 note 1} Footman, , op. cit., p. 119.Google Scholar