1983书评nestor makhno in the russian civil war by michael malet

7/28/2019 1983 Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War by Michael Malet

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Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War by Michael Malet

Review by: John F. N. BradleyThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 1983), pp. 292-293Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European Studies

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292 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWSteleological growth. In other words should Soviet Russia proceed at thepace desired by its inhabitants or should the party dictate the tempo fromabove? She examines Stalinism in some detail and sees it as a reflection ofthe historical conflict between Russia's Asiatic roots and the pressureforWestern reform. Her final chapter is optimistically entitled 'The end ofStalinism' and it examines the course of events from Stalin's death toKhrushchev's Secret Speech in I956. Stalinism, however, is still with us,although in a modifiedform.These volumes are very informative, lucid and well written. ProfessorCarrered'Encausse is particularly strong on the nationalities and on theinternal power struggles in the communist party. She highlights thechanges in the morality of the party which occurred under Stalin whendifferentials, privilege and ambition reasserted themselves. Lenin hadstressed self-sacrifice and egalitarianism but even during his lifetime theparty elite had become a privileged stratum. One can argue that animportant reason for the failure of the October Revolution to live up toLenin's expectations was that the transformation in human behaviour,which was absolutely essential for its success, had not occurredby the firstBolshevik leader's death. The political revolution had to be accompaniedby a redemptive revolutionin everyone'slifein order to build a new society.The author has many interesting things to say but both books aremarredby poor editing and an appalling number of typographical errors:Chernichevsky for Chernyshevsky (i: I3); Alexrod for Axelrod (I: I8);Gushkov for Guchkov (I: 46); Vikjel for Vikzhel (I: 82); Perteyaslev forPereyaslav (ii: 66), are only a few. The same name is often given in differentspellings: Berdyayev and Berdayev; Yudenic and Yudenich; Azerbaijanand Azerbaidzhan. Sometimes the errorreveals a lack of familiarity withthe terminology: plus value for surplus value (I: 30); Pan-Russian for All-Russian (often); Varegues for Varangians (II: 2I6). The transliteration ofRussian is replete with errors. The bibliographysometimes gives incorrectEnglish translations and it has not been fullyrevised forthe Englishreader.There are also factual mistakes: Stalin used the word comrades when headdressed the nation on 3 July 194I (ii: IIo), for example. Both books arewithout footnotes.Beforethesevolumes arereprinted they shouldbe rigorouslyre-edited bya competent Soviet specialist.London MARTIN MCCAULEY

Malet, Michael. NestorMakhno n the Russian Civil War. Macmillan, inassociation with the London School of Economics and PoliticalScience, London, I982. XXVII + 232 PP. References. Bibliography.Index. ?25.00.INthe Russian civil war the peasants invariablyheld the balance of powerin a conflict fought out by two elites, the 'intellectual' Reds and 'ancienregime' Whites. Thus, for example, in Siberia the peasants controlled thepolitical balance through the Socialist Revolutionaryparty, and when the

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REVIEWS 293Whites annihilated the SRs, the peasants' support evaporated and Siberiawas easily conquered by the Reds. Nowhere was the balance hypothesismore valid than in Southern Ukraine and the Don territory. There itcomprised all the power components: political, military and ideologicalpower. Dr Malet demonstrates this hypothesis in his book, based on hisdoctoral dissertation.Even before the I9I7 revolution the Southern Ukrainian and Russianpeasantry was addicted to anarchism as an ideology and the tsaristgovernment briskly persecuted its practitioners,whether real or potential,above all one Nestor Makhno. The latter was releasedfromprison in I917and returned south to put his philosophy reallyinto practice. Makhno andhis Green movement have been noticed by historians of the civil war (someseemed almost fascinated by them) but no one was fully aware of theircrucial role in the outcome of the civil war in the South, so consequentlyMakhno and his movement have been relatively neglected. Curiouslyenough it was the Allied secret missions, the French and the British, whoappreciated Makhno's movement's effect on the balance of power in theSouth and tried to 'lure Makhno and his Greens to their cause', but theyhad no success. The author puts the Greens finally into a correcthistoricalperspective after ProfessorPalij's pioneeringwork,and he does even more:he analyses the Greens' civil and military organizations and for the firsttime demonstrates the real sourceof anarchistpower.The author's ideological analysis of Makhno and Green anarchismcovers better known ground; it also fails to solve conclusively manyideological issues of Ukrainian anarchy,particularly that of anti-Semitism.Just like other political-ideological movements in the Russian civil war,Green anarchism was subject to anti-Semitic moods and despite theleaders' wishes and intentions the Green rank and file indulged inuncontrollablepogroms, albeit theirextent still has to be determined. TheGreens had very little in common with the Whites and therefore werebound to become allies of the Reds when a point in the civil war wasreached. Equally inevitably the Reds had to destroy the Greens, when theirturn came, in order to become supremein the Green territory.Manchester JOHN F. N. BRADLEYNarkiewicz, Olga A. Marxismand theRealityof Power,19rg-i980. CroomHelm, London, I98I. 337 pp. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index.?14.95.STUDIES of individual communist countries are coming to be plentiful;studies of the non-ruling communist parties, benefiting handsomely fromthe flow and ebb of the Eurocommunisttide, are coming on well; but therearestill very few studiesof the communistmovement as a whole. The task ofproviding such studies is, of course, formidable,and increasingly so. OlgaNarkiewicz should be congratulated therefore on taking the bull by thehorns and composing a timely history of the movement from i Ig9,dealingwith the ruling and non-rulingparties alike and to some extent with theirinterrelationships.

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1983书评nestor makhno in the russian civil war by michael malet

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