Today in Labor History March 22, 1910: Nestor Makhno was illegally sentenced to death, along with his comrades, for a series of bank robberies and other expropriations to raise money for their anarchist propaganda. The death sentence was illegal because they had not killed anyone. Due to the fact that he was only 17 at the time, his sentence was commuted to a life in prison. However, they released him during the 1917 Revolution. While in prison, he contracted typhoid fever and, later, tuberculosis.

Makhno was born in Huliaipole, southern Ukraine. His parents were peasants and extremely poor, and he was forced to start working at the age of ten. When the 1905 revolution occurred, at the age of 16, he joined a local anarchist group, the Union of Poor Peasants, which initiated a campaign of “Black Terror” against the wealthy landlords and local Tsarist police, ultimately leading to his arrest in 1910. After his release from prison, he returned to Huliaipole to continue his anarchist organizing, leading ultimately to anarchist and peasant control of Huliaipole's Public Committee, the local organ of the Provisional Government. As a union leader, he led a series of worker strikes against the employers resulting, ultimately, in total workers' control over all industry in the Huliaipole region.

The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU), an anarchist peasant army led by Nestor Makhno, created a stateless libertarian communist society known as the Free Territory, or Makhnovshchina, in south-eastern Ukraine. The autonomous region, which lasted from 1917-1921, had an influence that extended over nearly one-third of Ukraine. The 7 million people who lived there refused to pay rent to the landowners and seized the estates and livestock of the church, state and private landowners, setting up local committees to manage and share them among the various villages and communes of the Free State. They implemented a system of common land ownership among the peasantry and established hospitals, schools and children’s communes. In 1920, the Bolsheviks began attacking Makhnovshchina, after the Maknovists had defeated White Army, their common enemy. But many soldiers in the Red Army defected and joined the RIAU in their fight against the Bolsheviks. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks ultimately crushed Makhnovshchina in 1921. Nester Makhno barely escaped. He died in exile in Paris, July 25, 1934.

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Today in Labor History March 20, 1922: The Red Army completed their defeat of the Iakov Fomin Mutiny. In March, 1920, Iakov Efimovich Fomin, formerly a Cossack commander within the Red Army, and inspired by the Kronstadt mutineers, led a mutiny against the Bolsheviks over food requisitioning for the Cossack troops. The mutineers’ slogan was, “Down with the requisitioning! Down with non-local Communists!” They had nearly 100% support among the local population of Veshenskaia, with many local peasants and anarchists joining the uprising. The mutiny developed into a 2-year guerilla uprising against Bolshevik terror and repression and for the power of worker-led soviets. They called on all citizens to rise up and establish “the true power of the whole laboring people.”

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Today in Labor History March 7, 1921: Select forces of the Red Army (commanded by Leon Trotsky) opened fire on the rebellious sailors, soldiers and workers of Kronstadt. The left-wing rebellion against the Bolshevik government began on March 1, and continued until March 18. Bolshevik government forces killed over 1,000 Kronstadt rebels in battle, and executed another 2,100 in the aftermath. As many as 1,400 government troops died in their attempt to quash the rebellion. The rebels were demanding that soviet councils include anarchists and left socialists, the restoration of civil rights for workers, and economic freedom for workers and peasants.

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Today in Labor History March 1, 1921: Anarchist and leftwing communist soldiers, sailors and civilians rose up against the Russian Bolsheviks in the Kronstadt uprising. The rebellion, which lasted until March 16, was the last major revolt against the Bolsheviks. It began when they sent delegates to Petrograd in solidarity with strikes going on in that city, and demanded the restoration of civil rights for workers, economic and political freedom for workers and peasants, including free speech, and that soviet councils include anarchists and left socialists. Just prior to the uprising, there had been over 150 peasant revolts against the government in February, alone, and thousands of arrests of students, intellectuals, leftwing communists, and anarchists. The Bolshevik forces, directed by Trotsky, killed over 1,000 Kronstadt rebels in battle, and executed another 2,100 in the aftermath. As many as 1,400 government troops died in their attempt to quash the rebellion. The repression against the rebels turned many former supporters against the Bolsheviks, including Emma Goldman, who was living in Russia at the time, after having been deported by the U.S. during the Palmer raids.

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Today in Labor History January 9, 1905: Russia’s “Bloody Sunday” occurred, with soldiers of the Imperial Guard opening fire on unarmed protesters as they marched toward the Winter Palace. They killed as many as 234 people and injured up to 800. They also arrested nearly 7,300 people. The people were demanding better working conditions and pay, an end to the Russo-Japanese War and universal suffrage. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks opposed the march because it lacked revolutionary demands. The public was so outraged by the massacre that uprisings broke out in Moscow, Warsaw, Riga, Vilna and other parts of the empire. Over 400,000 participated in a General Strike. Protests and uprisings continued for months. The backlash was horrific. The authorities killed 15,000 peasants and sent 45,000 into exile. Another 20,000 were seriously injured. Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony is subtitled “The Year 1905.” Maxim Gorky’s novel, “The Life of a Useless Man,” depicts Bloody Sunday.

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