7/28/2019 1979 The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921

1/3

The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921: An Aspect of the Ukrainian Revolution. byMichael PalijReview by: Ivan AvakumovicSlavic Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Sep., 1979), pp. 514-515Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496749 .

Accessed: 24/03/2013 01:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve

and extend access to Slavic Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 61.129.42.30 on Sun, 24 Mar 2013 01:34:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496749?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2496749?origin=JSTOR-pdf

7/28/2019 1979 The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921

2/3

514 SlavicReviewstantialoverlapof thosecategories.Dziewon'skioffers detailed accountof the roleofpopulation roblemsn Polish regional economicplanning, racing the evolution fprojectionmethods n the face of progressive realization of the complexity f therelationshipsnvolved.Kostanick surveys developments n southeastern urope. Bul-garia andYugoslavia receivedetailed ttention n otherpapers. Hoffman nd Hatchettpresent comparative tudyof the effects f regional development rograms n thosecountries. hey note that, t least when viewed at the republic evel, investment oli-cies favoring he ess-developed reas in Yugoslavia have continued espitethe reformsof the 1960s. Taaffe provides a provocativediscussion of the remarkable peed andunusual pattern f urbanizationn Bulgaria, suggesting hat Bulgaria is indeed pur-suing serious nd effective rbandevelopment olicies.Although he bulk of the volume s concernedwith internalmigrationflows andthe causes and consequences f urbanization, he role of foreign ourism n the settle-ment pattern f the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia is evaluated by Poulsen, and themassive Yugoslav migration o northern nd westernEurope-with special attentionto the ethnicorigins of the migrants nd their likely destinations-is analyzed byBaucic. A comparison fthe regionalmigration atterns n the United States with thehighlyunevenmovement f Yugoslavs abroad would have been interesting. andersprovides briefdiscussionof the effects f the passage of fortyyears on the familiesincludednhisBalkan Villagevolume.Articlesby Brumbaugh n a coastal village in Crete and by Clark on the densityofAnkara expand the reader's view beyond he traditional oundariesof Eastern Eu-rope,but they are not integratedwith the remainderof the book and seem out ofplace.Unfortunately,here s littlediscussion of the effectivenessf the regionaldevel-opmentpolicies said to have been undertaken.Given the keyrole of employment p-portunitiesn migratorymovements nd the role of the state in determining he loca-tion of new investments hich would create employment,ow and why does "exces-sive urban concentration" ccur? Does it represent "planningfailure" or simplythe factthatregional policy per se is a concern, utnota particularly mportantne?

ROBERTJ. MCINTYREBowdoinCollegeTHE ANARCHISM OF NESTOR MAKHNO, 1918-1921:AN ASPECT OF THEUKRAINIAN REVOLUTION. By Michael Palij. Institutefor Comparativeand Foreign Area Studies, Publicationson Russia and Eastern Europe, no. 7.Seattle and London: University f WashingtonPress, 1976. xiv, 428 pp. Photo-graphs.$14.50.This usefulmonographs an ambitious tudyof a glamorousand highlycontroversialpersonality ho attractedwidespread ttention nd support n the wake of the Bolshe-vik seizureof power in Petrograd.A semiliterate easant who embracedanarchism,Nestor Makhno displayedconsiderablecharisma and amazing military kills as heled thousands f Ukrainianvillagers gainst theRed Army,Ukrainiannationalists,heAustro-Hungarian rmyof occupation, nd Denikin's and Wrangel's forces.Fearedand hatedby his rivals,he became an outstanding uerrillaleader and died a poorandembitteredmigre nParis in 1934.Palij's book is based on a wide range of printed ources in Russian, Ukrainian,and other anguages.The unpublished eminiscences f several eyewitnesses re alsoused. Unfortunately,he authordoes not appear to have done research n Austrian,British,or French archives,all of which contain nterestingmaterialon living con-ditionsand thepoliticalsituation n the Ukrainian countryside.Nor has he exploredthe collections f documents epositedby Russian anarchists n the International n-stitute orSocial History nAmsterdam.

This content downloaded from 61.129.42.30 on Sun, 24 Mar 2013 01:34:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

7/28/2019 1979 The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921

3/3

Reviews 515The author approaches Makhno in the contextof events n the Ukraine between1917 and 1921. Much attentions paid to the Ukrainian strugglefor self-determinationand the vicissitudesof Ukrainian nationalists.He produces evidence to show that

Makhno was not eager to fight he troops raised by Ukrainiangovernments n 1919-20 and thathe became ncreasingly ware of the appeal of Ukrainian nationalism.Heseems to regretMakhno's failure to join forces with those who advocated an inde-pendentUkraine. In the opinion of this reviewer, Palij does not sufficientlytressMakhno's dislike of those of his compatriotswho made major compromises o estab-lish a viable state machine, an institution hat was anathema to Makhno and hisanarchist ollaborators.More disappointing s Palij's failure to examine in depththe dilemmaof anar-chists who had a large peasant following.The temptation o use arms in a revolu-tionary ituationwas great; equally great was the anarchists'failure when anothersocial movement acked by the power of the state decided to brook no rivals in thecountryside. he fate of Makhno-and of the anarchists n the Spanish Civil War-indicates hat n anarchist rmed force s at a distinct isadvantagewhen facingmoreruthless pponents.These criticisms otwithstanding,alij has placed all students f agrarian revoltand libertarian ocialism n his debt. Just s he was able to buildon the less detailedstudies f MakhnobyPaul Avrich,David Footman,and Victor Peters,other cholarswilldrawheavilyon thematerial hat Palij has collected nd on someofhis interpre-tations n future ttempts o explain why peasants on the leftbank of the Dnieperfoughto hard under he black banner f anarchy.

IVAN AVAKUMOVICUniversityfBritish Columbia

PRASA DEMOKRATYCZNA WIELKIEJ EMIGRACJI: DZIEJE I GLOWNEKONCEPCJE POLITYCZNE (1832-1863). By Slawomir Kalemnbka. oruni:Uniwersytet ikolaja Kopernika,1977. v, 205 pp.41 zl.,paper.The "Great Emigration"of the 1830s-1850s occupies an important lace in Polishpolitical nd intellectual istory.Amongthe exiles were someof the country's eadingwriters nd politicians.Moreover, migregroups were formed n France and Englandon thebasis of programsmoreradical thanany hitherto nown n Poland. The mostsuccessful f thesegroups was the Polish DemocraticSociety,and Dr. Kalembka hasalreadydevoted valuable monograph o the history f this group. He has now turnedto examine the extensive eft-wing migrepress: exiled radicals produced a largenumber f periodicals n Polish as well as a few ournals in Frenchand English.Mostofthesepublicationswere, of course, ephemeral, ut a few, such as the organ of thePolish DemocraticSociety (Demokrata Polski), lastedfor manyyears.The first art of the book is devotedto a history f the left-wingmigrepress.In these chapters, he authordiscusses such topics as the financing f the variousjournals,theirformat,he honorariums f their uthors, henumber f copies printedand sold, relationswith Westernradical journalism,and so forth.The treatmentsmainlyfactual, he informationssembledhere representinghe resultof painstakingresearch nto archivesand the filesof dustyperiodicals.During its firsthalf-decade,the eft-wingmigrepress was primarilyhe outcome f individual fforts. rom 1836,however,until the defeat of the revolutionaryause in 1849, the initiativecame, inmostcases, from rganizedgroupssuchas theDemocraticSociety,the more moderateUnion of the Polish Emigration (Zjednoczenie Emnigracji olskiej), or the UtopianSocialists centeredn GreatBritain.From March to November1849,thepoet AdamMickiewicz edited La Tribunedes Peuples, whichfor a brieftime became the organoftheEuropean revolutionarymovement. y the 1850s,however, he Polish radicals

This content downloaded from 61.129.42.30 on Sun, 24 Mar 2013 01:34:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp