The Makhnos of Memory: Mennonite and Makhnovist Narratives of the Civil War in Ukraine, 1917-1921 by Sean David Patterson A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of History Joint Master’s Program University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2013 by Sean David Patterson All that we have a right to demand of history is that it shall point us with faithful and sure hand to the general causes of human suffering - among these causes it will not forget the immolation and subordination (still too frequent, alas!) of living individuals to abstract generalities – at the same time showing us the general conditions necessary to the real emancipation of individuals living in society. That is its mission, those are its limits, beyond which the action of social science can only be impotent and fatal. - Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State This thesis is dedicated to all victims of Ukraine’s revolution and civil war. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1 – Theory and Methodology ...................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 – Through Makhnovist Eyes ................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3 – Through Mennonite Eyes .................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 4 – The Eichenfeld Massacre: A Re-Narrativization ............................................... 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 155 Endnotes ...................................................................................................................................... 167 iii Abstract This thesis examines the conflict between the military forces of Nestor Makhno and Mennonites colonists in southern Ukraine during the Russian Civil War (1918- 1921) through the historical narratives found in each group’s literature. Employing a methodology derived from deconstructionist approaches to history and James Wertsch’s theory of distributed collective memory, this thesis considers the nature of each group’s historical narratives, their biases, the context of their respective productions and how these same narratives contain intimations of the other side’s perspective. The thesis explores Makhnovist and Mennonite narratives in relation to each other. Regarding the Makhnovists, the thesis argues that the personal writings of Nestor Makhno, Victor Belash, the Makhnovist Chief of Staff, and Makhno’s wife, Galina Kuzmenko, as well as histories by two of the movement’s intellectuals, Voline and Peter Arshinov, understood the Mennonite colonists through categories of class. The thesis divides Mennonite narratives of Makhno into Selbstschützler and pacifist accounts, both found in newspaper accounts, memoirs and secondary historical accounts. The thesis shows how both of these Mennonnite accounts identified Makhno as the enemy but ultimately narrativized Makhno in different ways. The thesis analyzes eyewitness accounts of the 1919 Eichenfeld massacre and its representation in current historiography, arguing that this tragic event was the consequence of organized class- based terror. By reframing Eichenfeld within the context of “revolutionary terror” a multi-perspectival narrative emerges, embracive yet critical of both Makhnovist and Mennonite narratives. iii Acknowledgements This thesis has involved working with sources in French, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. I take full responsibility for all translations from the original French, German and Russian. I would like to acknowledge the generous support of Malcolm Archibald in providing translations from the Ukrainian and Polish sources, and in assisting me with the Russian translations. His assistance and materials provided have been indispensible in the completion of this thesis. Malcolm’s dedication to the study of anarchist history has been a constant inspiration. While I have had the honour of narrating the story contained in this thesis, it could not have been accomplished without the voices of those who have assisted me over the past four years. Foremost, I want to thank my advisor Dr. Royden Loewen and the Mennonite Studies department at the University of Winnipeg. I want to thank Dr. Oleh Gerus for first setting me upon the path of this thesis. I would like to thank the archives at the International Institute of Social History, the Canadian Mennonite Heritage Centre, the University of Michigan and Harvard University for providing copies of critical sources. I want to especially thank Marianne Janzen for access to her files on the Eichenfeld massacre, and Margie Koop for generously providing information on the Janzen family. Finally, I want to express a heartfelt thank you to Ludmilla Karyaka for her assistance during my visit to Zaporozhye, as well as the Gulyai-Pole Museum and Dnepropetrovsk Museum for their generous accommodation to my schedule. iv The remaining list consists of those individuals that in some way contributed to the completion of this thesis. If I have missed anyone I take full responsibility. Lisa Gislon, Mary Marshall, Dr. Felix Schnell, Dr. Colin Darch, D.D. Johnston, Joel Penner, Peter and Lorna Doerksen, Dave Berg, Eldon Heinrichs, Marilyn Heidebrecht, Paul Patterson and Kelly Ruth. v Chapter 1 Theory and Methodology In the summer of 2011 I traveled to the Zaporozhye region in southeastern Ukraine.1 Amongst the locals of Gulyai-Pole circulates a legend that upon abandoning his struggle and fleeing Ukraine, Nestor Makhno ordered a cache of loot to be buried in a secret location. The intention was to safeguard funds for a renewed future struggle. Makhno never did return to his homeland and according to local rumour the treasure remains buried to this day. In my travels to Gulyai-Pole, I panned the sources and even spoke with a relative of Makhno, but never were any clues to the treasure’s location revealed. In the end, the gold at the end of the Makhnovist rainbow proved as ephemeral as any pirate’s tale, but even if Makhno’s gold did exist what could be expected by finding it? For myself I hoped to transform the imaginings of my mind into something “real” by capturing a tangible piece of the past.2 Somehow I believed it might bring me closer to the historical Makhno and a clearer understanding of his movement and its legacy. In a sense all history is alchemy. Whether turning lead to gold or the past into “objective history” the goal is frustratingly elusive. Descending into the rabbit hole of Makhnovist research has inevitably led me to confront a multitude of competing histories, memories, myths and legends, all jostling to assert their own unique perspective. Poet and blogger Marie Marshall writes of Makhno: My peering into the life and character of Nestor Ivanovich Makhno has grown arms and legs, and the more it goes on the less I am able to grasp hold of truth, the more he becomes a wisp of smoke, a man whose legend seems more important than his reality. That reality retreats into iconography – can it be recaptured?3 1 Marshall articulates a fundamental reality confronting any attempt to accurately represent the life of Makhno and his movement. In a topic whose literature is fraught with folklore, ideological battles and radically divergent cultural memories, how is one to discern fact from fiction? Who is the real Makhno? Or to phrase it differently: who are the Makhnos of memory? I. Background Nestor Ivanovitch Makhno was the youngest child of a poor peasant family from the town of Gulyai-Pole. As a youth Makhno embraced philosophical anarchism and became active in a local anarchist group. After the group assassinated a local police chief, Makhno was arrested and sentenced to a life of hard labour. Following the 1917 February Revolution Makhno’s release from prison was secured. Returning to his hometown, he and other local anarchists organized the peasantry for the expropriation and redistribution of land in the region. During the German and Austro-Hungarian occupation of Ukraine in 1918 Makhno directed a peasant insurgency against the occupiers. Out of this insurgency emerged what would be called the Makhnovshchina [“Makhno movement”]. The movement was locally popular and successful in its harassment of German and Austrian units stationed in the area. Ideologically, the movement associated itself with the principles of anarchist- communism and actively recruited anarchist intellectuals to assist with propaganda and social reform.4 The Makhnovist program was primarily concerned with the organization of freely elected local soviets and the egalitarian redistribution of land. The Makhnovist 2 army came to see itself as guardians of the civil population’s right to freely organize themselves without any compulsion from outside forces. The movement was highly suspicious of centralized authority and virulently opposed to party politics.5 With the end of World War I and the withdrawal of the occupying powers, a power vacuum emerged in Ukraine. Given the weak Bolshevik presence in Ukraine, various local powers asserted their control over the regions of Ukraine.