Preface to the publication

The composition of the text “When the Makhnovists wiped out Grigoriev and Petliura”* began in the first days of the war and was completed in its third week. By the time the manuscript was released from prison and typed, two months of war had passed. The text in greek was then published on athens.indymedia in April ‘22. Printed information from outside to inside prison and written communication from prison to the outside, arrive with delay, even when there is an organized support group for this task for the captured fighter (which is not so in my case). However, the developments fully confirm the present analysis. Nationalists and imperialists from both sides are prolonging the conflict. And libertarians remain trapped within the conventional dilemma between fleeing and abandoning the social struggle on the field or committing political suicide by siding with nationalism. The necessity of an international dialogue for the rebirth of revolutionary anarchism grows more urgent with every day that passes, through the co-shaping of the practical responsibilities pertaining to those who wish to be active subjects in historical evolution.
(A clarifying glossary has been added at the end of the text.)

*Grigoriev was a defector from the Red Army, ex-czarist, who aspired to become leader of Ukraine. Makhno executed him during a public meeting. Petliura was the leader of ukrainian nationalists. He was killed by the Jewish makhnovist Scholem Schwarzbad in 1916 in France, who had lost fourteen of his relatives during anti-jewish pogroms perpetrated by nationalists. In the original post of this text in greek, only Petliura was mentioned, as if he was in the place of Grigoriev at his execution. The historical confusion was noticed after the publication, due to time pressure and to lack of access to resources inside prison. However, the political meaning is the same.

When the Makhnovists wiped out Grigoriev and Petliura

INTRODUCTION

As soon as the military invasion of Russian imperialism on Ukrainian territory began, a call for international mobilization for the “Territorial Defense of Ukraine” was published by anarchists, with the signature “Resistance Committee”i. Such a call, in the given situation and from within the field of an inter-state war and even more so from the perspective of active intervention in the conflict, is important and its political position, whatever it may be, is crucial for the libertarian movement worldwide.

In its life course of the past two centuries, the socialist movement, and particularly the anarchists, have often been caught in the maelstrom of the war between states. War, as the crudest reality of authority, which totally takes over the social space, is the most critical juncture for the social revolutionary movement. There have been many moments when the socialist movement has been divided in relation to a particular war or in relation to war in general, moments when it has been led to the slaughter or when it has itself reproduced warmongering and imperialist structures. On the other hand, all proletarian revolutions emerged from war or from military dictatorship. Our stance during the condensed period of militarily defined class struggle determines the development of the social movement. Continue reading Greece: Text by anarchist prisoner D.Chatzivasiliadis : When the Makhnovists wiped out Grigoriev and Petliura →