Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War by Michael Malet Review by: John F. N.

Bradley The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 1983), pp. 292-293 Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4208659 . Accessed: 24/03/2013 01:33
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teleological growth. In other words should Soviet Russia proceed at the pace desired by its inhabitants or should the party dictate the tempo from above? She examines Stalinism in some detail and sees it as a reflection of the historical conflict between Russia's Asiatic roots and the pressure for Western reform. Her final chapter is optimistically entitled 'The end of Stalinism' and it examines the course of events from Stalin's death to Khrushchev's Secret Speech in I956. Stalinism, however, is still with us, although in a modified form. These volumes are very informative, lucid and well written. Professor Carrere d'Encausse is particularly strong on the nationalities and on the internal power struggles in the communist party. She highlights the changes in the morality of the party which occurred under Stalin when differentials, privilege and ambition reasserted themselves. Lenin had stressed self-sacrifice and egalitarianism but even during his lifetime the party elite had become a privileged stratum. One can argue that an important reason for the failure of the October Revolution to live up to Lenin's expectations was that the transformation in human behaviour, which was absolutely essential for its success, had not occurred by the first Bolshevik leader's death. The political revolution had to be accompanied by a redemptive revolution in everyone's life in order to build a new society. The author has many interesting things to say but both books are marred by poor editing and an appalling number of typographical errors: Chernichevsky for Chernyshevsky (i: I3); Alexrod for Axelrod (I: I8); Gushkov for Guchkov (I: 46); Vikjel for Vikzhel (I: 82); Perteyaslev for Pereyaslav (ii: 66), are only a few. The same name is often given in different spellings: Berdyayev and Berdayev; Yudenic and Yudenich; Azerbaijan and Azerbaidzhan. Sometimes the error reveals a lack of familiarity with the terminology: plus value for surplus value (I: 30); Pan-Russian for AllRussian (often); Varegues for Varangians (II: 2I6). The transliteration of Russian is replete with errors. The bibliography sometimes gives incorrect English translations and it has not been fully revised for the English reader. There are also factual mistakes: Stalin used the word comrades when he addressed the nation on 3 July 194I (ii: I Io), for example. Both books are without footnotes. Before these volumes are reprintedthey should be rigorouslyre-edited by a competent Soviet specialist. London MARTIN MCCAULEY

Malet, Michael. Nestor Makhnoin the Russian Civil War. Macmillan, in association with the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, I982. XXVII + 232 PP. References. Bibliography. Index. ?25.00. IN the Russian civil war the peasants invariably held the balance of power in a conflict fought out by two elites, the 'intellectual' Reds and 'ancien regime' Whites. Thus, for example, in Siberia the peasants controlled the political balance through the Socialist Revolutionary party, and when the

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Whites annihilated the SRs, the peasants' support evaporated and Siberia was easily conquered by the Reds. Nowhere was the balance hypothesis more valid than in Southern Ukraine and the Don territory. There it comprised all the power components: political, military and ideological power. Dr Malet demonstrates this hypothesis in his book, based on his doctoral dissertation. Even before the I9I7 revolution the Southern Ukrainian and Russian peasantry was addicted to anarchism as an ideology and the tsarist government briskly persecuted its practitioners, whether real or potential, above all one Nestor Makhno. The latter was released from prison in I917 and returned south to put his philosophy really into practice. Makhno and his Green movement have been noticed by historians of the civil war (some seemed almost fascinated by them) but no one was fully aware of their crucial role in the outcome of the civil war in the South, so consequently Makhno and his movement have been relatively neglected. Curiously enough it was the Allied secret missions, the French and the British, who appreciated Makhno's movement's effect on the balance of power in the South and tried to 'lure Makhno and his Greens to their cause', but they had no success. The author puts the Greens finally into a correct historical perspective after ProfessorPalij's pioneering work, and he does even more: he analyses the Greens' civil and military organizations and for the first time demonstrates the real source of anarchist power. The author's ideological analysis of Makhno and Green anarchism covers better known ground; it also fails to solve conclusively many ideological issues of Ukrainian anarchy, particularlythat of anti-Semitism. Just like other political-ideological movements in the Russian civil war, Green anarchism was subject to anti-Semitic moods and despite the leaders' wishes and intentions the Green rank and file indulged in uncontrollable pogroms, albeit their extent still has to be determined. The Greens had very little in common with the Whites and therefore were bound to become allies of the Reds when a point in the civil war was reached. Equally inevitably the Reds had to destroy the Greens, when their turn came, in order to become supreme in the Green territory. Manchester JOHN F. N. BRADLEY Narkiewicz, Olga A. Marxismand the Realityof Power, 19rg-i980. Croom Helm, London, I98I. 337 pp. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index.
?14.95.
STUDIES of individual communist countries are coming to be plentiful; studies of the non-ruling communist parties, benefiting handsomely from the flow and ebb of the Eurocommunist tide, are coming on well; but there are still very few studies of the communist movement as a whole. The task of providing such studies is, of course, formidable, and increasingly so. Olga Narkiewicz should be congratulated therefore on taking the bull by the horns and composing a timely history of the movement from i Ig9,dealing with the ruling and non-ruling parties alike and to some extent with their interrelationships.

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