Nestor Makhno

Following military defeat, Makhno crossed into Romania and was interned, then travelled to Poland, where he was arrested on suspicion of inciting rebellion among Ukrainians in Galicia before being acquitted; he was arrested again in Danzig before reaching Berlin and then Paris.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Course of the proceedings

1. Formally charged — Formal charge before the current outcome

Makhno commanded a peasant insurgent army that fought, successively or simultaneously, German and Austro-Hungarian forces, the Hetmanate, the Whites, Ukrainian nationalist forces and the Bolsheviks. At its height, his movement controlled a large part of south-eastern Ukraine.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Makhno concluded several tactical alliances with the Red Army against the Whites while rejecting political subordination. Following victory over Wrangel, the Bolsheviks broke the agreement, attacked his forces and progressively crushed the movement.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Makhno and his movement were accused by certain opponents and sections of the press of participating in pogroms against Jews. These allegations became a major controversy extending into his exile in Paris.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Command responsibility

Makhno claimed to have ordered the execution of fighters responsible for anti-Jewish massacres and looting; secondary studies conclude that the movement did indeed maintain a strict official policy against antisemitism.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Command responsibility

After a brief attempt at an alliance, Makhno and his associates had Nykyfor Hryhoriv killed during a meeting, accusing him, among other things, of seeking an alliance with the Whites and responsibility for anti-Jewish pogroms.

State of the evidence

Documented

Following his release in 1917, Makhno took charge of the local soviet and organised peasant groups tasked with expropriating and then redistributing the lands and property of large landowners.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

As a young anarcho-communist activist in Huliai-Pole, Makhno participated in a group engaged in activities characterised as terrorist by the Tsarist authorities. Following several arrests, he was sentenced to death in 1910, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Personally implicated