Abstract
Nestor Makhno, who led the libertarian rising in southeastern Ukraine, was one of the most fascinating and heroic figures of the Russian Civil War. His movement was the only peasant uprising of the 20th century which succeeded to create a libertarian society when the tsarist one was dying. But, in the stormy years of 1917-20, the political oppositions and the clashes of power got the better of the Anarcho-peasant fight for land and freedom. At the same time, he and his partisans, the Makhnovists, tried to apply Anarchist ideas, and fought against many enemies, opposing Reds as well as Whites, Austrian invaders and Ukrainian nationalists. The role of Makhno was central in this movement called Makhnovschyna, all his life was connected with the political struggles of the ex-tsarist empire in the early 20th century.
Makhno was born in October 27th 1888 in the South of Ukraine, at Gulyai-Polye, a village situated between the Dnieper River and the Sea of Azov. He was the fifth son of a family of poor peasants, and his father died when he was a baby. Until he was 10 years old, he went to school during the winter, but very early in his life, he worked in order to help his family to survive. Then he was an agricultural worker and worked in a factory. Soon, because of his living-conditions, he became very hateful against the landlords who owned the lands where the peasants worked. As we can see, his roots were totally rural and poor, he was so very representative of the population of Ukraine. It was one of the reasons of the total adhesion by the Ukrainian people on his activities. He was a leader who was one of them, they called him "batko", an affectionate word that means little father.
