Nestor Makhno

Nestor Makhno grew up in a Ukrainian peasant family and joined a local anarchist group during the 1905 revolution, spending seven years in prison for it. Released in 1917, he returned to his hometown of Huliaipole and began redistributing estates to peasants, then built the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. He defeated occupying Central Powers forces at the Battle of Dibrivka and established the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement attempting anarchist communism across the region. His forces fought alongside the Bolsheviks twice — first in 1919, then again in 1920 to expel the White Army fro…