The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921: An Aspect of the Ukrainian Revolution.

by Michael Palij Review by: Ivan Avakumovic Slavic Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Sep., 1979), pp. 514-515 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496749 . Accessed: 24/03/2013 01:34
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Slavic Review

stantialoverlap of those categories.Dziewon'skioffersa detailed account of the role of populationproblemsin Polish regional economicplanning,tracingthe evolutionof projectionmethodsin the face of progressive realization of the complexityof the relationships involved.Kostanick surveysdevelopments in southeastern Europe. Bulgaria and Yugoslavia receivedetailedattention in otherpapers. Hoffmanand Hatchett presenta comparativestudyof the effects of regional development programsin those countries. They note that,at least when viewed at the republiclevel, investment policies favoring the less-developed areas in Yugoslavia have continued despitethe reforms of the 1960s. Taaffe provides a provocativediscussion of the remarkablespeed and unusual patternof urbanizationin Bulgaria, suggestingthat Bulgaria is indeed pursuingseriousand effective urbandevelopment policies. Althoughthe bulk of the volume is concernedwith internalmigrationflowsand the causes and consequencesof urbanization, the role of foreigntourismin the settlement patternof the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia is evaluated by Poulsen, and the massive Yugoslav migrationto northern and westernEurope-with special attention to the ethnic origins of the migrantsand their likely destinations-is analyzed by of the regionalmigration Baucic. A comparison patternsin the United States with the highlyuneven movement of Yugoslavs abroad would have been interesting. Sanders providesa briefdiscussionof the effects of the passage of forty years on the families includedin his Balkan Village volume. Articlesby Brumbaughon a coastal village in Crete and by Clark on the density of Ankara expand the reader's view beyondthe traditionalboundariesof Eastern Europe, but they are not integratedwith the remainderof the book and seem out of place. there is littlediscussionof the effectiveness of the regional develUnfortunately, opmentpolicies said to have been undertaken. Given the key role of employment opin migratory portunities movements and the role of the state in determining the location of new investments how and why does "exceswhich would create employment, sive urban concentration" occur? Does it representa "planning failure" or simply one? the factthat regionalpolicyper se is a concern,but not a particularly important
ROBERTJ. MCINTYRE

Bowdoin College

THE ANARCHISM OF NESTOR MAKHNO, 1918-1921: AN ASPECT OF THE By Michael Palij. Institute for Comparative UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION. and Foreign Area Studies, Publications on Russia and Eastern Europe, no. 7. Seattle and London: Universityof Washington Press, 1976. xiv, 428 pp. Photographs.$14.50. This usefulmonographis an ambitiousstudyof a glamorousand highlycontroversial and supportin the wake of the Bolshewidespreadattention who attracted personality peasant who embracedanarchism, vik seizure of power in Petrograd. A semiliterate Nestor Makhno displayed considerable charisma and amazing militaryskills as he the of Ukrainian villagersagainst the Red Army,Ukrainian nationalists, led thousands Austro-Hungarianarmy of occupation,and Denikin's and Wrangel's forces. Feared and hated by his rivals, he became an outstandingguerrilla leader and died a poor and embittered emigrein Paris in 1934. Palij's book is based on a wide range of printedsources in Russian, Ukrainian, of several eyewitnessesare also and otherlanguages. The unpublishedreminiscences the author does not appear to have done research in Austrian, used. Unfortunately, material on living conBritish,or French archives,all of which contain interesting Nor has he explored ditionsand the political situationin the Ukrainian countryside. the collectionsof documents depositedby Russian anarchistsin the InternationalInforSocial Historyin Amsterdam. stitute

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Reviews

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The author approaches Makhno in the contextof events in the Ukraine between 1917 and 1921. Much attention is paid to the Ukrainian strugglefor self-determination and the vicissitudesof Ukrainian nationalists.He produces evidence to show that Makhno was not eager to fight the troops raised by Ukrainian governments in 191920 and thathe became increasingly aware of the appeal of Ukrainian nationalism.He seems to regretMakhno's failure to join forces with those who advocated an independentUkraine. In the opinion of this reviewer,Palij does not sufficiently stress Makhno's dislikeof those of his compatriots who made major compromises to establish a viable state machine, an institution that was anathema to Makhno and his anarchist collaborators. More disappointing is Palij's failure to examine in depth the dilemma of anarchists who had a large peasant following.The temptation to use arms in a revolutionarysituationwas great; equally great was the anarchists' failure when another social movement backed by the power of the state decided to brook no rivals in the countryside. The fate of Makhno-and of the anarchistsin the Spanish Civil Warindicatesthatan anarchistarmed forceis at a distinct disadvantagewhen facing more ruthless opponents. These criticisms notwithstanding, Palij has placed all studentsof agrarian revolt and libertarian socialism in his debt. Justas he was able to build on the less detailed studiesof Makhno by Paul Avrich,David Footman,and Victor Peters, otherscholars will draw heavilyon the materialthat Palij has collectedand on some of his interpretations in futureattemptsto explain why peasants on the left bank of the Dnieper so hard undertheblack bannerof anarchy. fought
IVAN AVAKUMOVIC

University ofBritishColumbia WIELKIEJ EMIGRACJI: DZIEJE I GLOWNE PRASA DEMOKRATYCZNA Toruni: (1832-1863). By Slawomir Kalemnbka. KONCEPCJE POLITYCZNE Mikolaja Kopernika,1977. iv, 205 pp. 41 zl., paper. Uniwersytet place in Polish The "Great Emigration" of the 1830s-1850s occupies an important Among the exiles were some of the country'sleading history. politicaland intellectual and politicians.Moreover,emigregroups were formedin France and England writers known in Poland. The most on the basis of programsmore radical than any hitherto successfulof these groups was the Polish Democratic Society,and Dr. Kalembka has of this group. He has now turned to the history alreadydevoteda valuable monograph to examine the extensive left-wingemigre press: exiled radicals produced a large of periodicalsin Polish as well as a few journals in French and English. Most number but a few, such as the organ of the of these publicationswere, of course, ephemeral, Polish Democratic Society (Demokrata Polski), lasted for many years. emigre press. The firstpart of the book is devotedto a historyof the left-wing In these chapters,the author discusses such topics as the financingof the various of theirauthors,the numberof copies printed the honorariums journals,theirformat, is and sold, relationswith Western radical journalism, and so forth.The treatment the resultof painstaking assembledhere representing mainlyfactual,the information researchinto archives and the filesof dusty periodicals. During its firsthalf-decade, From 1836, the outcomeof individualefforts. the left-wing emigrepress was primarily cause in 1849, the initiativecame, in however,until the defeat of the revolutionary mostcases, fromorganizedgroups such as the Democratic Society,the more moderate Union of the Polish Emigration (Zjednoczenie Emnigracji Polskiej), or the Utopian Socialists centeredin Great Britain. From March to November 1849, the poet Adam Mickiewicz edited La Tribune des Peuples, which for a brieftime became the organ movement. By the 1850s, however,the Polish radicals of the European revolutionary

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