Nestor Makhno and the Black Army: Anarchists vs Bolsheviks

In 1918 Ukraine, the collapse of tsarist and imperial authority gave rise to a unique peasant army under Nestor Makhno. This episode explores the Black Army's guerrilla tactics, their brief alliance with the Bolsheviks against Denikin's White forces, and the brutal suppression that followed. We trace Makhno's path from political prisoner to commander of a 40,000-strong insurgent force, his experiments in libertarian communism in the Huliaipole region, and the Red Army's betrayal at the Battle of Peregonovka. Through the lens of the Makhnovshchina, we see the Russian Civil War's forgotten third side: a peasant anarchist movement that fought both Reds and Whites, only to be crushed by Trotsky's Red Army after the defeat of their common enemies.

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