The Russian Revolution was the time when the old order was totally swept away. Everything was changing and Nestor Makhno and his anarchist army were able to stamp out the forces of the ‘Whites’.
But in the midst of this revolution the Bolsheviks were growing and developing their own repression, far more brutal and totalitarian than what it replaced…
Nestor Makhno stood for freedom, and his struggle to destroy both the old and the new oppressors is as powerful today as it was then.
It was in prison in 1911 that Peter Arshinov established a close personal and political friendship with Makhno, which continued after their release following the February Revolution in 1917. In 1919 Arshinov became Makhno’s secretary, and remained with the Makhnovists until 1921. In 1922 he settled in Berlin and published the Russian edition of his story. Arshinov’s history of the Makhnovists is undoubtedly the most important source work available.