Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (; 1887 – 1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the

Makhnovshchina The Makhnovshchina (, ) was a Political movement#Mass movements, mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern Ukraine, southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, ...

. Initially a

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

, during the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, he became active within the Ukrainian anarchist movement, taking part in a number of terrorist attacks against Tsarist officials. He was arrested for his activities and imprisoned in Butyrka prison, where he met

Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (, ; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ( , ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War o ...

. Following the 1917 Revolution, he was released from prison and returned to Ukraine to join Makhno's partisan movement. Arshinov became a leading intellectual figure within the Makhnovist movement, as editor of its main newspaper, and chronicled the development of events as the movement's official historian. When the movement was suppressed by the Bolsheviks, he went into exile, where he participated in the publication of the '' Organisational Platform'' and the debates surrounding it. By the 1930s, he had moved back towards

Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...

and decided to return to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, where he was executed during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

Biography

In 1887, Peter Andreyevich Arshinov was born into a working-class family, in a village in

Penza Governorate Penza Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, located in the Volga Region. It existed from 1780 to 1797 and again from 1801 to 1928 ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. At the age of 17, Arshinov moved to

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

, where he worked as a machinist.

Early revolutionary activities

With the outbreak of the

, he joined the

faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party and edited its underground newspaper ''Molot'' (). When Arshinov caught the attention of the police for his revolutionary activity, he moved to the Ukrainian city of Katerynoslav, where he split with the Bolsheviks over ideological disagreements and became a member of the anarchist movement. In December 1906, following the repression of revolutionary elements, Arshinov led the formation of an anarchist terrorist cell in Katerynoslav and organised a series of attacks, including the bombing of a police station and the assassination of a government official. On 7 March 1907, Arshinov publicly assassinated a railway boss in Oleksandrivsk. He was quickly arrested and sentenced to be hanged, but his sentence was commuted and he used this time to plan an escape. He broke out of prison on

Easter Sunday Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek language, Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, de ...

, and fled first to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

then to

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, where he engaged in

arms trafficking Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal tra ...

and the smuggling of anarchist propaganda into the

. In 1911, he was arrested again and extradited to Russia, where he was sentenced to 20 years in Butyrka prison.

With the Makhnovshchina

In prison, Arshinov was acquainted with the young Ukrainian anarchist

, who he took under his wing as a pupil, teaching him

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

. Following the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, they were released from prison as part of a general amnesty. While Makhno returned home to Ukraine, Arshinov remained behind in Moscow and began organising with the local Anarchist Federation, spending most of his time in Moscow publishing the works of

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

and

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

. Following the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, he quickly became demoralised by the direction of events and lost interest in himself returning to Ukraine. As a consequence of the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, Ukraine was invaded and occupied by the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...

, with support from the Ukrainian nobility. The peasants reacted by carrying out a campaign of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

against the occupation forces and their Ukrainian collaborators, as part of a

war of independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

that spread throughout the country. One of these peasant insurgent bands was led by Nestor Makhno, who defeated the occupation forces at the battle of Dibrivka and captured much of his home region, becoming the leader of a mass movement of the Ukrainian peasantry which declared him their ''Bat'ko'' (). In the wake of the anarchist victory, Arshinov joined a number of other Russian anarchist intellectuals in emigrating to Ukraine, where they established the

Nabat The Nabat Confederation of Anarchist Organizations, better known simply as the Nabat (; ), was a Ukrainian anarchist organization that came to prominence during the Ukrainian War of Independence. The organization, based in Kharkiv, had branche ...

, a confederation of anarchist organisations. In April 1919, Arshinov arrived in

Huliaipole Huliaipole ( ; ) is a small city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of Huliaipole was attacked by ...

, where he was reunited with Makhno and joined his movement, becoming a leading ideologue within the Cultural-Educational Department. The following month, Arshinov began editing the movement's newspaper '' The Road to Freedom'', which published 50 issues in the Katerynoslav region until November 1920. During this period, Arshinov observed the nascent Makhnovist movement establishing

agricultural commune An agricultural commune is a Intentional community, commune based on Farmworker, agricultural labor. It is usually differentiated from other forms of collective agriculture by near-complete collective ownership of capital assets and collective co ...

s, organised according to the communist principle of " from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". The anarchist region soon came under attack by the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

, which forced them to negotiate an alliance with the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, which had also invaded Ukraine. While on their way to meet the Bolshevik delegate

Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

, Arshinov witnessed Makhno execute one of his own followers for

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. He then observed Makhno and Kamenev's meeting, which initially seemed amicable, but which Arshinov later came to question the intent of. By May 1919, relations between the Bolsheviks and anarchists had become strained by political divisions and by the collapse of the Donbas front, which Arshinov blamed on Red Army commanders, who he claimed had deliberately deprived the insurgents of weaponry. Makhno soon resigned his command and, now under attack by both the Reds and the Whites, resolved to retreat into the west. Arshinov joined the Makhnovists in their westward retreat, during which he witnessed large numbers of people joining the newly constituted Insurgent Army, was present for the assassination of Nykyfor Hryhoriv, and at the battle of Peregonovka. There the Insurgent Army defeated the

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (; ), abbreviated to (), also known as the Southern White Army was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920. The Volunteer Army fought against Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists on the ...

and subsequently captured most of

southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine (, ) refers, generally, to the territories in the South of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern Economical District of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The region ...

, to which Arshinov himself attributed the defeat of the entire White movement. Arshinov then observed what he considered to be a failure to establish either political or military control over

left-bank Ukraine The Left-bank Ukraine is a historic name of the part of Ukraine on the left (east) bank of the Dnieper River, comprising the modern-day oblasts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy as well as the eastern parts of Kyiv and Cherkasy. Left-bank Ukrain ...

, which he blamed on the outbreak of

epidemic typhus Epidemic typhus, also known as louse-borne typhus, is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters where civil life is disrupted. Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact wit ...

within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina. The Red Army took the opportunity to attack the Makhnovshchina, which Arshinov estimated to have eventually resulted in the execution of almost 200,000 Ukrainian peasants by the Bolsheviks. After months of fighting between the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks, a White offensive into

Taurida The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as ''Tauris'', ''Taurica'' (), and the ''Tauric Chersonese'' (, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast ...

forced them into an

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus (disambiguation), a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of ...

, which brought about the brief cessation of hostilities between the two factions. Arshinov himself justified the pact as a way of bringing them closer together with the mass base that the Bolsheviks had in the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

. But following their combined victory over the Whites in the siege of Perekop, Arshinov witnessed the subsequent Bolshevik offensive against the Makhnovshchina on 26 November, in what Arshinov insisted to have been a premeditated attack. He then witnessed the subsequent period of

against the Red Army, documenting their pursuit across the country. Despite the danger, Arshinov remained with Makhno until the spring of 1921, when he and his wife clandestinely crossed the border into

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and then went on to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Exile

In 1922, Arshinov arrived in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, where he completed his ''History of the Makhnovist Movement''. He then moved on to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1925, where he established the anarchist journal ''

Delo Truda ''The Cause of Labor'' () was a anarcho-communism, libertarian communist magazine published by exiled Anarchism in Russia, Russian and Anarchism in Ukraine, Ukrainian anarchists. Initially under the editorship of Peter Arshinov, after it publis ...

'' (). Meanwhile, he earned a living by making handmade shoes, as part of a scheme for Russian refugees, which lasted until competition from a French industrial manufacturer made it no longer profitable. On 20 June 1926, Arshinov participated in the publication of the '' Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists'', which lay out a framework for how anarcho-communists could politically organise, through theoretical and tactical unity,

collective responsibility Collective responsibility or collective guilt is the responsibility of organizations, groups and societies. Collective responsibility in the form of collective punishment is often used as a disciplinary measure in closed institutions, e.g., b ...

and

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

. This caused an immediate controversy within the anarchist movement, with Arshinov being accused of

by anarchists such as

Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing. Be ...

and

Volin Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum (18 September 1945), commonly known by his pseudonym Volin, was a Russian anarchist intellectual. He became involved in revolutionary socialist politics during the 1905 Russian Revolution, for which he was forc ...

, the latter of whom claimed Arshinov intended to establish an anarchist political party along

bureaucratic Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

and

centralist Centralisation or centralization (American English) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning, decision-making, and framing strategies and policies, become concentrated within a particular ...

lines. By 1931, Arshinov had broken with the anarchist movement and began openly expressing support for the

Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. By this time, Arshinov's wife grown weary of life in exile and wanted their family to return to Russia, which the Bolshevik politician

Sergo Ordzhonikidze Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, ; (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman. Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an e ...

offered to sponsor. Despite warnings by Volin, who predicted that he would be executed for his anarchist past, in 1934, Arshinov finally returned to the

, where he found work as a proofreader. Only three years later, Arshinov was arrested and shot during the

, on charges of having allegedly propagandised for anarchism upon his return to Russia.

Works

*
History of the Makhnovist Movement
' (1923) *

' (1927) *

' (1927) *

' (1928) *

' (1928) * ''Anarchism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat'' (1931) * ''Anarchism in our age'' (1933)

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links