The Green Armies: Peasants Who Fought Everyone

In the chaos of the Russian Civil War, a third force rose: the Green Armies. Peasant fighters who rejected both Reds and Whites, they defended their villages against Bolshevik grain requisition and White restoration alike. This episode follows the rise and fall of the largest Green movement, the Makhnovshchina, led by the anarchist Nestor Makhno. From the steppes of southern Ukraine, Makhno built a peasant army that at times allied with the Bolsheviks, only to be crushed by them after victory. We explore Makhno's peasant republic, his guerrilla tactics, the brutal repression under the Cheka, and his tragic exile. Along the way, we meet figures like Maria Nikiforova, the 'Black Maria', and discuss the Green movement's broader impact on Soviet policy, including the shift to NEP. For anyone who thought the Russian Civil War was a two-sided fight, this episode reveals a forgotten third path that threatened Lenin's revolution from below.

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