As anarchists, they wanted to overthrow the Soviet government. The Black Banned Underground in the 1920s - 1930s
Since the middle of the 1920's. Anarchists, as well as representatives of other political parties and organizations, were deprived of the opportunity to legally act on the territory of the Soviet Union. By many Russian historians, the cessation of the legal activities of anarchists in the second half of the 1920-s. regarded as the end of the anarchist movement in the Soviet Union. However, studies of such Russian and Ukrainian scientists as S.M. Bykovsky, L.A. Dolzhanskaya, A.V. Dubovik, I.V. Leontyev, A.L. Nikitin, D.I. Rublev, devoted to the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR in the 1920-th - 1930-s, can refute this conclusion. Based on the study of archival materials, foreign anarchist press, as well as memoirs, it becomes obvious that in the Soviet Union in the 1920-e - 1930-e. the anarchist movement continued to exist and was quite active.
A clear idea of the degree of activity of anarchists in the study period is given by documents of state security bodies. In the OGPU, a special 1st department was established specializing in the fight against anarchists. His boss A.F. Rutkovsky, in a memorandum, reported that between November 1924 and January 1925 "the activities of the anarchists proceeded briskly, with a tendency to deepen and expand." At that time, about 750 anarchists were under the supervision of the organs of the OGPU in Moscow alone, while in the whole of the Soviet Union there were 4000 anarchists, who were monitored by the Soviet special services. As a result of only two OGPU operations in Leningrad, over 90 people were arrested, another 20 people were arrested in the case of sailor anarchists in the Baltic navy.
The documents of the international organization “Anarchist Black Cross”, created to help anarchist political prisoners, are estimated only by the number of prisoners that correspondents informed about their existence, in 1925-1926. - 1200-1400 Anarchists and 700 Left Social Revolutionaries.
According to researcher Ya.V. Leontyev, the peak of the illegal activities of anarchists in the Soviet Union fell on the 1926 year. It was at this time that the number of participants in the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR actually became equal to the number of the anarchist movement of the era of the first Russian revolution. Researcher V.V. Krivenky estimated the number of anarchists in 1903-1910. approximately in 7 thousands of people, whereas in 1925-1926. only anarchists registered with the OGPU were 4 thousands of people. Therefore, as noted by Ya.V. Leont'ev, one can speak of the existence of the “third wave” of anarchism forgotten by researchers (the first is 1903-1917, the second is 1917-1921).
In 1920 - 1930 - s. in the ranks of the anarchist movement continued to act as veterans, including with the experience of underground work, leaving the era of the revolution 1905-1907, and young people. It is significant that many young people in 1924-1926's. were 18-20 years old, that is, by definition, had nothing to do with anarchism before the 1917 revolution of the year.
Daughter of Chukovsky and "Black alarm"
One example of the wide participation of young people in the activities of the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR is the so-called. "The case of the magazine" Black alarm ". It gained fame, among other things, because the daughter of the famous writer Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky, Lydia Chukovskaya, passed as one of the main defendants (see photo)
The background of the case of the magazine "Black Nabat" refers to 1924 year, when in Leningrad, in the Russian Institute stories Arts (RII), appeared anarchist circle. The initiator of the creation of an anarchist circle was a student of the RIII, Yuri Krinitsky, who previously lived in Tashkent and had connections with the Tashkent anarcho-syndicalists. On the night from 3 to 4 in November 1924, Krinitsky and the students of RIII who supported him Alexander Kvachevskaya, Maria Krivtsova, Yevgenia Olshevskaya, Veniamin Rakov and Panteleimon Skrypnikov were arrested. Krinitsky was exiled for three years to the Zyryansky Krai, Kvachevskaya and Rakov - for two years to Kazakhstan, the rest - were released. 25 September 1926 of the Year Krinitsky publicly denied his anarchist views in Ust-Sysolskaya newspaper and wrote detailed testimony on the 16 sheets, addressing them to the deputy head of the Zyryansk OGPU (Razumov A. In memory of Lydia Chukovsky’s youth - Zvezda, 1999, No. 9.).
However, anarchist activity continued at the RII. Repressions of the OGPU continued: 13 March 1925 was decided to send Aida Basevich to Kazakhstan, 19 June 1925 of the year 3 was sent to Central Asia Raisa Shulman, named in the OGPU documents as “the leader of the anarcho-underground circle among RIIU students”. After the arrest of Shulman, Ekaterina Boronina became the inspiration behind the underground work at the RIIA. On her initiative, in July 1926 of the year, the first and only issue of the magazine “Black alarm” was printed in several copies. Publishers dedicated magazine 50 anniversary of the death of M.A. Bakunin.
The authors expressed their position clearly and uncompromisingly about their position in relation to the Soviet regime: all forms of capitalism must be fought, but in the USSR all the main forces of anarchists should be directed against state capitalism held by the Bolshevik party. The publishers expressed solidarity with the Makhnovist movement and the uprising in Kronstadt. They saw a way out of this situation in the construction of anarchist federative organizations of a syndicalist type.
Immediately after the journal was released, the circle came to the attention of the OGPU bodies. It was decided: Sturmer K.A. and Goloulnikova A.E. to conclude in a concentration camp on 3, Boronin EA and Solovyov V.S. send to Turkestan on 3, Kochetova G.P., Chukovskaya L.K., Saakova A.N. send to Saratov on 3 of the year, Mikhailov-Garin F.I. and Ivanova I.I. send to Kazakhstan on 3 of the year, Izdebskaya S.A., Budarina I.V., Golubevu A.P. send to Siberia on 3 of the year, Stürmer G.A. send to Ukraine on 3, Zimmerman, TA, Kokushkina, TM and Volzhinsky N.G. send from Leningrad conditionally. Circles similar to those used at the RIIA also appeared in other cities of the Soviet Union.
Heirs of Makhno in Ukraine
More active than in the RSFSR, in the described period, anarchists showed in Ukraine. In a number of cities in the Ukrainian SSR, anarchist organizations continued to operate, which were the direct heirs of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine. Despite the mass arrests of anarchists in Ukraine following the defeat of the Makhnov movement, already in 1923, Kharkov's anarchists managed to unite scattered circles into one citywide organization based on the previous principles of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine.
Anarchists have been active in a number of large enterprises in Kharkov, including the locomotive building plant and the railway depot.
In the tram depot, a veteran of the movement Abner Uryadov, who had left the royal penal servitude, led the campaign. The artisans united in the artels, among whom the veterans of the movement P.Zakharov and G.Tsesnik worked, were also covered by propaganda. A student group headed by A. Volodarsky and B. Nemiretsky was set up at the Kharkov Institute of Technology (AV Dubovik. Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-xNUMX-s. Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1930) - http // socialist.memo.ru). In the first half of 1917, Kharkov anarchists organized several economic strikes at enterprises and in railway workshops, putting forward demands for lowering production rates or refusing to raise them.
The second most important role in the anarchist movement of Ukraine after Kharkov was played by Odessa. Odessa anarchists across the Soviet-Polish border in the Rovno region established a corridor for the delivery of anarchist literature to the USSR, published abroad by anarchist Russian émigrés. Through the Rovno Canal, as the historian of Ukrainian anarchism A.Dubovik points out, literature was delivered not only to Ukraine, but also to Moscow, Leningrad, Kursk, and the Volga city.
Anarchist activity in the year 1924 was stopped by the OGPU. In the spring of 1924, illegal anarchist groups were crushed in Yuzovo, Poltava, Klintsy, in August 1924 passed a series of arrests of anarchists in Kharkov, Kiev, Yekaterinoslav. In Kharkiv alone, more than 70 people were arrested, the most active of whom were sentenced to imprisonment in the Solovki special-purpose camps.
The repressions, however, did not completely destroy the anarchist movement in Ukraine. This is evidenced, in particular, by the secret circular of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR "On the Makhnovists", in which the GPU organs were ordered to pay special attention to the regions in which in 1919-1921. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine N.I. Makhno was active.
Despite the defeat of the Makhnovist movement at the beginning of the 1920s, certain groups of Makhnovists continued to exist in a number of settlements of the Ukrainian SSR. Freed at the end of 1925 of the year from the Kharkov prison of GPU V.F. Belash, on behalf of the Kharkov group of anarchists, traveled around the Makhnovist area of operation in order to identify underground groups and establish a connection between them and Kharkov anarchists.
As a result of the trip, Belash entered the group of anarchists operating in Gulyai-Pole, headed by the brothers Vlas and Vasiliy Sharovsky. Veterans of the Makhnovist movement held periodic meetings, conducted anarchism among young people, created small communes and artels. In the village of Basan, Pologovsky district, the commune Avangard functioned; communes also existed in the villages of Kermenchik, Bolshaya Yanisol, Konstantinovka.
However, as A.V. Dubovik, who investigated in detail this issue, notes when “inspecting” the Gulyai-Polsky district, Belash experienced certain difficulties that were related to the fact that many of the former Makhnovists operating in the region did not trust Belash, who had just released himself from the prison of the GPU. In particular, Belash did not manage to obtain reliable information about the activities of an illegal anarchist group in Mariupol headed by the former Makhnovist commander Abraham Budanov.
Abraham Budanov, who was released under an amnesty at the end of 1923, organized a group in the Mariupol region that distributed leaflets among the workers of enterprises and peasants of the surrounding villages. In the 1928 year, due to the onset of total collectivization, the Budanov group decided to move from propaganda work to the organization of partisan detachments and proceeded to gather weapons. At the end of 1928, the group was arrested, and as a result of searches, its activists found a weapon. According to the verdict, Abraham Budanov and his closest aide Panteleimon Belochub were shot.
A similar armed anarchist group in the same year was exposed by the bodies of the GPU in the Mezhevsky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. She acted under the leadership of Ivan Chernoknizhny, who was also released under an amnesty. In the Makhnovist army, Chernoknizhny was the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. As a result of operational activities, the authorities of the GPU arrested 7 members of the Chernoknizhny group, seized 17 bombs, 10 rifles, 1340 cartridges. According to the OGPU “On Anarchists” Circular No. 34, in just a year 1928 in Ukraine 23 anarchists and 21 Makhnovists were arrested in Ukraine.
Arshinov promotes the Platform
It should be noted that with the anarchist groups operating in the territory of Ukraine, the anarchists operating abroad were trying to establish connections. At the end of 1920's The former Makhnovists, who emigrated from the country, consolidated around two centers - Paris and Bucharest. In Paris, as you know, Nestor Makhno himself lived, and in Bucharest there was the former artillery commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine V. Danilov. It was the Bucharest center of Danilov that played, by virtue of geographical proximity, the primary role in relations with the anarchists operating in Ukraine. Danilov showed considerable activity, sending his agents to the USSR. In September, emissaries Thomas Kusch and Konstantin Chuprina, who were sent from Bucharest, visited Odessa and Gulyai-Pole, 1928, who established contacts with anarchists and returned safely to Romania.
As you know, at the end of 1920's. The idea of revising the anarchist tactics was made by one of the most prominent figures in the movement, Peter Arshinov, supported by Nestor Makhno. A participant in the movement since the beginning of the twentieth century, later one of the leaders of the Makhnovshchina, Peter Arshinov, who was in exile in 1920, published a so-called. The “organizational platform”, in which he proposed to transform the anarchist movement, to give it a more disciplined and structured character, that is, in essence, to start building an anarcho-communist party. Arshinov and the traditional views of the anarchists on the transition to the anarchic model of society were subjected to a substantial revision. Arshinov and his supporters spoke in favor of a transitional stage to anarchism, which placed themselves in an intermediate position between anarchists themselves and Marxists. Arshinov’s views on the construction of the anarchist movement are known in historical science as platformism (from the Organizational Platform).
The performance of Arshinov and Makhno with the “Organizational Platform” provoked very active discussions in the anarchist environment, both in the emigration and in the Soviet Union. With a sharp criticism of the concept of the transition period to an anarchic society, V.M.Volin (Eikhenbaum) spoke. Among Soviet anarchists, attitudes toward the program proposed by Arshinov and Makhno also varied. A.N. Andreev spoke out against platformism, who proposed to create not a mass anarcho-communist party, but, on the contrary, a network of groups of close comrades disguised even from each other. Andreeva was supported by a prominent Italian anarchist F.Ghezzi who was in Moscow. Nevertheless, supporters of platformism appeared in the USSR, especially among the Ukrainian anarchists, who also had considerable authority on Arshinov, and, moreover, on Makhno.
In the summer of 1929, the platformists attempted to spread their activities to the territory of the Soviet Union. In Moscow, a group of veterans of the movement close to platformism developed, which began to organize the Union of Anarchist Workers. As a result of the organizational activity of the Union of Workers of Anarchists group, they appeared in a number of cities in Central Russia, the Urals and Siberia.
Union emissary David Skitalets (formerly 18 years before one of the leaders of the Black Sea Sailors Union) went to the port cities of Ukraine and Crimea to establish contact with the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. Having found comrades among sailors, the Moscow group of platformists was able to arrange deliveries to the USSR of anarchist literature, primarily the Russian-language magazine, The Work of Labor, published in Paris. However, by the end of 1929, the Union of Workers of Anarchists was crushed by the OGPU. Despite persecution by the OGPU, at the end of the 1920-ies. Anarchist activity was quite active. Moreover, not only veterans of the movement, but also young people participated in the activities of anarchist organizations, there was an influx of new members of organizations, and even a transition from the “party of power” to the ranks of anarchist organizations.
Go deep underground
At the end of 1920-x - the beginning of 1930-x. The political regime in the Soviet Union has further tightened. The suppression of the opposition within the VKP (b) proper was accompanied by repression against all other dissidents, including anarchists. Since the beginning of the 1930's. the state security organs started repressions against those anarchists who had not taken part in the movement for a long time and even were in the CPSU (b). During 1930's Almost all veterans of the anarchist movement living on the territory of the Soviet Union, including those who held high government posts, became victims of repression. One of the first, in 1930, was repressed Konstantin Akashev, the first commander in chief of the Red Army air forces, who had participated in the anarcho-communist movement since 1906.
In 1930 bodies of the OGPU conducted a series of operations against the remaining anarcho-mystical groups. In June 1930 of the year, the Order of the Spirit group in Nizhny Novgorod was liquidated, in August of 1930, the Order of the Knights Templar and Rosicrucian group in the Sochi district of the North Caucasus region. When eliminating them, it turned out that they maintained close ties with the Moscow center of anarcho-mystics. In September 1930, the anarcho-mystics were arrested in Moscow. All the leaders of the anarcho-mystics, as well as the members of the anarcho-mystical groups who collaborated with them, were arrested. The most significant periods - according to 5 years of labor camps - were given to the leaders of the groups A.A. Solonovich (in the photo), N.I.Proferans, G.I. Anosov, D.A.Behm, L.A.Nikitin, V.N.Sno.
Despite the repression, the anarchists continued illegal activities. As in the second half of the 1920s, in the 1930s. The main emphasis was placed on agitation and propaganda of anarchist ideas among workers, students, peasants, employees. In the first half of 1930's. clearly identified several centers of the anarchist movement in the USSR.
Anarchists traditionally had the strongest positions in Ukraine. This situation persisted in the first half of 1930's. Among the centers of the anarchist movement in Ukraine can be noted, first of all, Kharkov, as well as Elizavetgrad, Dnepropetrovsk, Simferopol, Kiev. In Kharkov in 1930, there was a significant activation of anarchists, associated with the return of many of them from exile upon expiration. The citywide illegal organization of anarchists, which operated according to the principles of the KabU “Nabat”, was recreated. Its leaders remained Pavel Zakharov, Grigory Tsesnik, Abner Uryadov, Rebeka Yaroshevskaya - anarchists with pre-revolutionary experience of underground work (Dubovik A.V. The Anarchist Underground in Ukraine in 1920 - 1930) - the site “Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 year "socialist.memo.ru;).
In connection with the beginning of the general collectivization and the famine in Ukraine that followed it, Kharkov anarchists set the task of creating an underground press that could cover as much of the working people as possible. To cover the financial costs of publishing activities, Gregory Tsesnik, based on the experience of pre-revolutionary anarchist groups of black banners and beznachaltsev, offered to expropriate the bank, but his proposal was not supported by the rest of anarchists. It was decided to raise the funds at the expense of the proceeds of the artel for the production of ceramic goods and the commune of anarchists and social revolutionaries controlled by anarchists in the village of Merefa, Kharkiv region.
In Elizavetgrad an anarcho-syndicalist group was created led by “Vanya Cherny”. In Dnepropetrovsk, the group created back in 1928 was continued to exist under the guidance of locomotive driver Leonid Lebedev. In Simferopol, the anarchist group was reconstructed by Boris and Lyubiretsky, who were freed from exile, and in Kiev, Lipovetsky also developed a similar activity. The anarcho-syndicalist circle of Dmitry Ablamsky, defeated in 1932 by the state security organs (Dubovik AV Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-1930-x. Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 of the Year ”socialist. memo.ru;).
In second place in importance as a center of the illegal anarchist movement on the territory of the USSR was a number of cities in Central Russia. By this time many active anarchists were exiled to Voronezh, Kursk and Oryol, both from Ukraine and from Moscow and Leningrad. In Voronezh, in the 1931 year, after serving the link in Siberia and Central Asia, Aron Baron, a prominent figure in the anarchist movement, settled. In Kursk, anarchist group was created by immigrants from Odessa Berta Tubisman and Aron Weinstein.
In the summer of 1933, the VF Belash, who had been recruited by the OGPU by this time, traveled to the southern regions of the RSFSR, with the aim of identifying the existing illegal groups of anarchists. Belash visited Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Tikhoretskaya, Novorossiysk, Berdyansk, Tuapse and a number of cities in the Crimea region, but did not get in touch with anyone. He gave detailed testimony about his trip only in 1937, after his arrest in Krasnodar. According to these testimonies, the anarchists of Kharkov were the initiators of uniting anarchists into a single organization. On their initiative, Belash went on an inspection trip, and the negative results of the Kharkov anarchists did not bother her. The absence of anarchist groups in the south of the RSFSR and in the Crimea will not interfere, as one of the Kharkov anarchist leaders Petr Zakharov claimed, to unite the anarchists in Ukraine itself. In 1934, the anarchists of Kharkov planned to hold a recovery congress of the Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine “Nabat”. According to the testimony of V.F. Belash, Kharkiv anarchists, indeed, managed to establish contacts with representatives of a number of illegally operating anarchist groups, both in Ukraine and abroad, including contacting Aron Baron, who settled in Voronezh.
However, the state security agencies managed to prevent the anarchists from holding a congress. At the same time, a large-scale operation was carried out in Kharkiv, Voronezh, Kursk, Orel to arrest members of illegal anarchist groups. In Kharkiv, several dozens of anarchists were arrested (however, only 8 people were expelled), in Voronezh, Kursk and Orel - 23 people, including veterans of the movement, such as Aron Baron (in the photo) or 48-year-old Berta Tubisman, and young people 1908-1909's. of birth. By the decision of the Special Meeting at the Board of the OGPU from 14 in May 1934, all of them were exiled for a period of 3 each.
Suppression of the anti-Soviet underground
In Leningrad in the first half of the 1930-ies. some of the anarchists who returned from exile - members of the group at the Russian Institute of Art History (RIIE) in the middle of the 1920-s, resumed their activities. Veniamin Rakov and Alexander Saakov returned from Saratov, Aida Basevich - from Kazakhstan. In addition, in Leningrad, at the suggestion of Lydia Chukovskaya, who herself, however, broke off her ties with the anarchist movement, Dina Zeurif arrived, with whom Lydia Chukovskaya met in the Saratov exile. Almost immediately after arriving in Leningrad, the anarchists came under the supervision of the OGPU. By the Decree of the Out session of the OGPU College of 8 in December 1932, Dina Zoyrif, Nikolai Viktorov and Veniamin Rakov were detained for three years as a political isolator, Yuri Kochetov was also exiled to Central Asia for three years.
In 1934-1936 A number of prominent anarchists who had worked closely with the Soviet authorities were arrested. Herman Sandomirsky, who was from the beginning of the 1920-ies. in the service of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, he was arrested and exiled to Yeniseisk. In December, 1934 was arrested in the town of Rudni, Smolensk Region, by Alexander Taratuta, who worked as an agronomist-economist at the Soyuzkonservmoloko Trust. He was placed in the Upper Ural, and then - in the Suzdal political isolator. Also around the year 1936, Daniil Novomirsky, a former leader of anarcho-syndicalists, who had been in the RCP (b) since 1920, was arrested. Pyotr Arshinov, who returned to the USSR in 1935 under the security guarantees given by his cellmate Sergo Ordzhonikidze, was also arrested and died during interrogation.
In 1937, the overwhelming majority of active members of the anarchist movement found themselves in detention centers and camps, as well as in exile in Siberia, Central Asia and the Urals. In the repressive policy of the state security bodies of the USSR, a shift in priorities occurred. The main target of repression in 1937 was not the non-partisan dissidents, but the members of the CPSU (b), who were suspected of sympathizing with the "right-Trotskyist bloc."
In 1937, the anarchist 23 was arrested in the Ukrainian SSR, including in Nikolaev an anarchist group of 15 people. Others arrested were surviving single anarchists from the Donetsk region, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kiev region. In mid-February, 1938 in Gulyai-Polye and Dnepropetrovsk arrested more than 30 former active members of the Makhnov movement who were charged with belonging to the illegal organization “Gulyai-Polsky Military-Makhnovsky Counterrevolutionary Insurgent Regiment”, ties with the Ukrainian nationalist center in Kiev the center of the Makhnovist movement in Bucharest and the Central Anarchist Group in Moscow, armed struggle with the Soviet authorities, the preparation of an uprising, anti-Soviet agitation, the preparation of terror ra and sabotage. In Leningrad in 1937-1938 Rimma Nikolaeva, Alexander Sparionapte and Julian Shutsky, members of the anarcho-anthroposophical circle defeated back in 1930 in Tashkent, were shot.
In 1937-1938 Repressions also continued against veterans of the anarchist movement, who, before, during the first half of the 1930, were arrested. In 1937, Alexander Taratuta was shot, in 1938, Olga Taratuta, Herman Sandomirsky and Ivan Strod - one of the commanders of the Eastern Siberian partisans during the Civil War, the closest associate of N.A. Kalandarishvili, who participated in the activities of the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Irkutsk, were shot in 1918-1921 In 1937, Vladimir (Bill) Shatov, the famous anarcho-syndicalist, was repressed in 1921-1934. former member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and occupying a number of important government posts (including Deputy People’s Commissar of Railways, Acting Head of the Main Directorate for Railway Construction of the People’s Commissariat of Railways). In 1939, Italian anarchist Francesco Ghezzi was arrested, who was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment for "counter-revolutionary agitation."
Judging by the further turn of events in the Gezzi case, he continued active anarchist activities in prison as well, since in 1943, in the Gezzi case, it was decided to sentence him to death, but Gezzi died in the camp a little earlier. More favorable fate turned out to be the leaders of the “neonigilists” A.N. Andreev and his wife Z.B.Gandlevskoy. Arrested in 1937, in Yaroslavl-on-Volga, they were sentenced to 8 years of camps and transferred to the Vologda prison and then to the camps of the Kolyma Territory. Many of the anarchist survivors continued their activities in prisons. They declared hunger strikes to protest, wrote complaints to the leaders of the party and the state, including I.V. Stalin. It is known, in particular, that the spouses A.N. arrested in 1937 in Yaroslavl. Andreev and Z.B. Gandlevskaya went on a hunger strike.
End of 1940's characterized by a new wave of repression against those few anarchists who, after serving in the late 1930-x - early 1940-x. the term of imprisonment, were once again free. At least several such cases are known. In 1946, A.N. was freed from the Kolyma camps. Andreev and Z.B. Gandlevskaya. They arrived in Cherkasy, Kiev region. UkSSR, where Andreev was able to get a job as the head of the material warehouse of the OKS at the machine-building plant to them. Petrovsky. However, 24 February 1949, Andreev and Gandlevskaya were again arrested. During the search, they were found a copy of Andreev's book “Neonigilism”, two volumes of works by P. A. Kropotkin and M. A. Bakunin. Through the 8 months in prison, Andreev and Gandlevskaya were exiled to the Novosibirsk region, to the Dubrovinsky state farm No. 257 of the Ust-Tarksky district, where they remained until the liberation that followed in the 1954 year.
At the same time, the arrest of those few surviving leaders of the anarchist movement of the revolutionary years who had long been in the service of the Soviet state followed. So, 2 March 1949 was arrested by Alexander Ulanovsky, a member of the anarchist movement since the 1905-1907 revolution, after coming to power of the Bolshevik Party, he worked in Soviet military intelligence - first in foreign agents, then in teaching positions in schools of the Red Army Intelligence Directorate . Ulanovsky was convicted on 10 years of imprisonment, because in his youth he belonged to the anarchist movement.
In the Soviet camps, there was a widow of N.I. Makhno, G.A. Kuzmenko, who, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, returned to her homeland, where she received 10 years of imprisonment and, after being released, lived with her daughter Elena in Dzhezkazgan in deep poverty (in the photo - Makhno's wife and daughter - Galina Kuzmenko and Elena Mikhnenko).
In the summer of 1950, the famous Soviet writer Yevgeny Taratuta was arrested, who was the daughter of the famous anarchist of the pre-revolutionary years, Alexander Taratuta, who was shot in 1937 year. In 1951, Lyubov Altshul, who had already served time for several periods, was expelled from Moscow in the past - an active anarchist in the past, the wife of the celebrated hero of the Civil War, Anatoly Zheleznyakova (“sailor Zheleznyak”). The persecution of former members of the anarchist circle in the RIIA, which was still active in the middle of the 1920, continued. So, in 1946-1947. State security agencies collected materials for the arrest of Fyodor Garin-Mikhailov, Aleksandr Saakov and Tamara Zimmerman. In 1953, the Bryansk Department of the MGB of the USSR prepared materials for an announcement on the all-Union search of Yury Kochetov. Significant easing of policy towards former active anarchists followed after the death of I.V. Stalin in 1953 and the arrest of L.P. Beria.
Thus, we can conclude that in the second half of 1920-x - 1930-x. in the Soviet Union there really was an illegal anarchist movement. This movement directly inherited its immediate predecessors - the anarchist movement of the 1917 revolution of the year and the Civil War, and the pre-revolutionary anarchist movement.
The ideological orientation of the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR in the second half of the 1920's - 1930's. differed variety. At the same time, representatives of anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism played a leading role in the movement. It was on the basis of the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism that illegal organizations were united. Smaller circles could orient themselves to other directions in anarchism, including anarcho-individualism and anarcho-mysticism. The activities of illegal organizations in the second half of the 1920-x - 1930-x. wore, in the first place, agitation and propaganda nature. At the same time, the creation of communes and artels of anarchists, as well as attempts to create armed underground organizations and the transition to expropriation and terrorist activities took place. As a result of the systematic policy of the Soviet government to combat opposition and anti-state political forces, by the beginning of the 1940's, the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR had actually been defeated.
The following materials were used in writing the article:
1. Bykovsky S. Anarchists - members of the All-Union Society of political prisoners and deportees. In the book: All-Union society of political prisoners and exiled settlers: education, development, liquidation. 1921-1935. M., 2004. C. 83-108.
2. Dolzhanskaya L.A. “I was and remained an anarchist”: the fate of Francesco Ghezzi (based on the materials of the investigative case) // Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin and the problems of modeling the historical and cultural development of civilization. Proceedings of the international scientific conference. St. Petersburg, 2005.
3. Dubovik A.V. Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-x - 1930-s. // site “Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 of the Year” socialist.memo.ru.
4. Ya. Leontiev, S. Bykovsky. From the history of the last pages of the anaronist movement in the USSR: the case of A. Baron and S. Ruvinsky (1934). In the book: Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin and problems of modeling the historical and cultural development of civilization: materials of the international scientific conference / Comp. P.I. Thalers. - SPb. 2005. C. 157-171.
5. Razumov A. In memory of Lydia Chukovskaya's youth // Star. 1999. No.9.
6. Shubin A.V. The problems of transition in the ideology of the Russian anarchist emigration 20 - 30-ies. // Anarchy and power: Sat. Art. M., 1992.
A clear idea of the degree of activity of anarchists in the study period is given by documents of state security bodies. In the OGPU, a special 1st department was established specializing in the fight against anarchists. His boss A.F. Rutkovsky, in a memorandum, reported that between November 1924 and January 1925 "the activities of the anarchists proceeded briskly, with a tendency to deepen and expand." At that time, about 750 anarchists were under the supervision of the organs of the OGPU in Moscow alone, while in the whole of the Soviet Union there were 4000 anarchists, who were monitored by the Soviet special services. As a result of only two OGPU operations in Leningrad, over 90 people were arrested, another 20 people were arrested in the case of sailor anarchists in the Baltic navy.
The documents of the international organization “Anarchist Black Cross”, created to help anarchist political prisoners, are estimated only by the number of prisoners that correspondents informed about their existence, in 1925-1926. - 1200-1400 Anarchists and 700 Left Social Revolutionaries.
According to researcher Ya.V. Leontyev, the peak of the illegal activities of anarchists in the Soviet Union fell on the 1926 year. It was at this time that the number of participants in the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR actually became equal to the number of the anarchist movement of the era of the first Russian revolution. Researcher V.V. Krivenky estimated the number of anarchists in 1903-1910. approximately in 7 thousands of people, whereas in 1925-1926. only anarchists registered with the OGPU were 4 thousands of people. Therefore, as noted by Ya.V. Leont'ev, one can speak of the existence of the “third wave” of anarchism forgotten by researchers (the first is 1903-1917, the second is 1917-1921).
In 1920 - 1930 - s. in the ranks of the anarchist movement continued to act as veterans, including with the experience of underground work, leaving the era of the revolution 1905-1907, and young people. It is significant that many young people in 1924-1926's. were 18-20 years old, that is, by definition, had nothing to do with anarchism before the 1917 revolution of the year.
Daughter of Chukovsky and "Black alarm"
One example of the wide participation of young people in the activities of the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR is the so-called. "The case of the magazine" Black alarm ". It gained fame, among other things, because the daughter of the famous writer Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky, Lydia Chukovskaya, passed as one of the main defendants (see photo)The background of the case of the magazine "Black Nabat" refers to 1924 year, when in Leningrad, in the Russian Institute stories Arts (RII), appeared anarchist circle. The initiator of the creation of an anarchist circle was a student of the RIII, Yuri Krinitsky, who previously lived in Tashkent and had connections with the Tashkent anarcho-syndicalists. On the night from 3 to 4 in November 1924, Krinitsky and the students of RIII who supported him Alexander Kvachevskaya, Maria Krivtsova, Yevgenia Olshevskaya, Veniamin Rakov and Panteleimon Skrypnikov were arrested. Krinitsky was exiled for three years to the Zyryansky Krai, Kvachevskaya and Rakov - for two years to Kazakhstan, the rest - were released. 25 September 1926 of the Year Krinitsky publicly denied his anarchist views in Ust-Sysolskaya newspaper and wrote detailed testimony on the 16 sheets, addressing them to the deputy head of the Zyryansk OGPU (Razumov A. In memory of Lydia Chukovsky’s youth - Zvezda, 1999, No. 9.).
However, anarchist activity continued at the RII. Repressions of the OGPU continued: 13 March 1925 was decided to send Aida Basevich to Kazakhstan, 19 June 1925 of the year 3 was sent to Central Asia Raisa Shulman, named in the OGPU documents as “the leader of the anarcho-underground circle among RIIU students”. After the arrest of Shulman, Ekaterina Boronina became the inspiration behind the underground work at the RIIA. On her initiative, in July 1926 of the year, the first and only issue of the magazine “Black alarm” was printed in several copies. Publishers dedicated magazine 50 anniversary of the death of M.A. Bakunin.
The authors expressed their position clearly and uncompromisingly about their position in relation to the Soviet regime: all forms of capitalism must be fought, but in the USSR all the main forces of anarchists should be directed against state capitalism held by the Bolshevik party. The publishers expressed solidarity with the Makhnovist movement and the uprising in Kronstadt. They saw a way out of this situation in the construction of anarchist federative organizations of a syndicalist type.
Immediately after the journal was released, the circle came to the attention of the OGPU bodies. It was decided: Sturmer K.A. and Goloulnikova A.E. to conclude in a concentration camp on 3, Boronin EA and Solovyov V.S. send to Turkestan on 3, Kochetova G.P., Chukovskaya L.K., Saakova A.N. send to Saratov on 3 of the year, Mikhailov-Garin F.I. and Ivanova I.I. send to Kazakhstan on 3 of the year, Izdebskaya S.A., Budarina I.V., Golubevu A.P. send to Siberia on 3 of the year, Stürmer G.A. send to Ukraine on 3, Zimmerman, TA, Kokushkina, TM and Volzhinsky N.G. send from Leningrad conditionally. Circles similar to those used at the RIIA also appeared in other cities of the Soviet Union.
Heirs of Makhno in Ukraine
More active than in the RSFSR, in the described period, anarchists showed in Ukraine. In a number of cities in the Ukrainian SSR, anarchist organizations continued to operate, which were the direct heirs of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine. Despite the mass arrests of anarchists in Ukraine following the defeat of the Makhnov movement, already in 1923, Kharkov's anarchists managed to unite scattered circles into one citywide organization based on the previous principles of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine.
Anarchists have been active in a number of large enterprises in Kharkov, including the locomotive building plant and the railway depot.
In the tram depot, a veteran of the movement Abner Uryadov, who had left the royal penal servitude, led the campaign. The artisans united in the artels, among whom the veterans of the movement P.Zakharov and G.Tsesnik worked, were also covered by propaganda. A student group headed by A. Volodarsky and B. Nemiretsky was set up at the Kharkov Institute of Technology (AV Dubovik. Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-xNUMX-s. Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1930) - http // socialist.memo.ru). In the first half of 1917, Kharkov anarchists organized several economic strikes at enterprises and in railway workshops, putting forward demands for lowering production rates or refusing to raise them.
The second most important role in the anarchist movement of Ukraine after Kharkov was played by Odessa. Odessa anarchists across the Soviet-Polish border in the Rovno region established a corridor for the delivery of anarchist literature to the USSR, published abroad by anarchist Russian émigrés. Through the Rovno Canal, as the historian of Ukrainian anarchism A.Dubovik points out, literature was delivered not only to Ukraine, but also to Moscow, Leningrad, Kursk, and the Volga city.
Anarchist activity in the year 1924 was stopped by the OGPU. In the spring of 1924, illegal anarchist groups were crushed in Yuzovo, Poltava, Klintsy, in August 1924 passed a series of arrests of anarchists in Kharkov, Kiev, Yekaterinoslav. In Kharkiv alone, more than 70 people were arrested, the most active of whom were sentenced to imprisonment in the Solovki special-purpose camps.
The repressions, however, did not completely destroy the anarchist movement in Ukraine. This is evidenced, in particular, by the secret circular of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR "On the Makhnovists", in which the GPU organs were ordered to pay special attention to the regions in which in 1919-1921. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine N.I. Makhno was active.
Despite the defeat of the Makhnovist movement at the beginning of the 1920s, certain groups of Makhnovists continued to exist in a number of settlements of the Ukrainian SSR. Freed at the end of 1925 of the year from the Kharkov prison of GPU V.F. Belash, on behalf of the Kharkov group of anarchists, traveled around the Makhnovist area of operation in order to identify underground groups and establish a connection between them and Kharkov anarchists.As a result of the trip, Belash entered the group of anarchists operating in Gulyai-Pole, headed by the brothers Vlas and Vasiliy Sharovsky. Veterans of the Makhnovist movement held periodic meetings, conducted anarchism among young people, created small communes and artels. In the village of Basan, Pologovsky district, the commune Avangard functioned; communes also existed in the villages of Kermenchik, Bolshaya Yanisol, Konstantinovka.
However, as A.V. Dubovik, who investigated in detail this issue, notes when “inspecting” the Gulyai-Polsky district, Belash experienced certain difficulties that were related to the fact that many of the former Makhnovists operating in the region did not trust Belash, who had just released himself from the prison of the GPU. In particular, Belash did not manage to obtain reliable information about the activities of an illegal anarchist group in Mariupol headed by the former Makhnovist commander Abraham Budanov.
Abraham Budanov, who was released under an amnesty at the end of 1923, organized a group in the Mariupol region that distributed leaflets among the workers of enterprises and peasants of the surrounding villages. In the 1928 year, due to the onset of total collectivization, the Budanov group decided to move from propaganda work to the organization of partisan detachments and proceeded to gather weapons. At the end of 1928, the group was arrested, and as a result of searches, its activists found a weapon. According to the verdict, Abraham Budanov and his closest aide Panteleimon Belochub were shot.
A similar armed anarchist group in the same year was exposed by the bodies of the GPU in the Mezhevsky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. She acted under the leadership of Ivan Chernoknizhny, who was also released under an amnesty. In the Makhnovist army, Chernoknizhny was the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. As a result of operational activities, the authorities of the GPU arrested 7 members of the Chernoknizhny group, seized 17 bombs, 10 rifles, 1340 cartridges. According to the OGPU “On Anarchists” Circular No. 34, in just a year 1928 in Ukraine 23 anarchists and 21 Makhnovists were arrested in Ukraine.
Arshinov promotes the Platform
It should be noted that with the anarchist groups operating in the territory of Ukraine, the anarchists operating abroad were trying to establish connections. At the end of 1920's The former Makhnovists, who emigrated from the country, consolidated around two centers - Paris and Bucharest. In Paris, as you know, Nestor Makhno himself lived, and in Bucharest there was the former artillery commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine V. Danilov. It was the Bucharest center of Danilov that played, by virtue of geographical proximity, the primary role in relations with the anarchists operating in Ukraine. Danilov showed considerable activity, sending his agents to the USSR. In September, emissaries Thomas Kusch and Konstantin Chuprina, who were sent from Bucharest, visited Odessa and Gulyai-Pole, 1928, who established contacts with anarchists and returned safely to Romania.
As you know, at the end of 1920's. The idea of revising the anarchist tactics was made by one of the most prominent figures in the movement, Peter Arshinov, supported by Nestor Makhno. A participant in the movement since the beginning of the twentieth century, later one of the leaders of the Makhnovshchina, Peter Arshinov, who was in exile in 1920, published a so-called. The “organizational platform”, in which he proposed to transform the anarchist movement, to give it a more disciplined and structured character, that is, in essence, to start building an anarcho-communist party. Arshinov and the traditional views of the anarchists on the transition to the anarchic model of society were subjected to a substantial revision. Arshinov and his supporters spoke in favor of a transitional stage to anarchism, which placed themselves in an intermediate position between anarchists themselves and Marxists. Arshinov’s views on the construction of the anarchist movement are known in historical science as platformism (from the Organizational Platform).
The performance of Arshinov and Makhno with the “Organizational Platform” provoked very active discussions in the anarchist environment, both in the emigration and in the Soviet Union. With a sharp criticism of the concept of the transition period to an anarchic society, V.M.Volin (Eikhenbaum) spoke. Among Soviet anarchists, attitudes toward the program proposed by Arshinov and Makhno also varied. A.N. Andreev spoke out against platformism, who proposed to create not a mass anarcho-communist party, but, on the contrary, a network of groups of close comrades disguised even from each other. Andreeva was supported by a prominent Italian anarchist F.Ghezzi who was in Moscow. Nevertheless, supporters of platformism appeared in the USSR, especially among the Ukrainian anarchists, who also had considerable authority on Arshinov, and, moreover, on Makhno. In the summer of 1929, the platformists attempted to spread their activities to the territory of the Soviet Union. In Moscow, a group of veterans of the movement close to platformism developed, which began to organize the Union of Anarchist Workers. As a result of the organizational activity of the Union of Workers of Anarchists group, they appeared in a number of cities in Central Russia, the Urals and Siberia.
Union emissary David Skitalets (formerly 18 years before one of the leaders of the Black Sea Sailors Union) went to the port cities of Ukraine and Crimea to establish contact with the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. Having found comrades among sailors, the Moscow group of platformists was able to arrange deliveries to the USSR of anarchist literature, primarily the Russian-language magazine, The Work of Labor, published in Paris. However, by the end of 1929, the Union of Workers of Anarchists was crushed by the OGPU. Despite persecution by the OGPU, at the end of the 1920-ies. Anarchist activity was quite active. Moreover, not only veterans of the movement, but also young people participated in the activities of anarchist organizations, there was an influx of new members of organizations, and even a transition from the “party of power” to the ranks of anarchist organizations.
Go deep underground
At the end of 1920-x - the beginning of 1930-x. The political regime in the Soviet Union has further tightened. The suppression of the opposition within the VKP (b) proper was accompanied by repression against all other dissidents, including anarchists. Since the beginning of the 1930's. the state security organs started repressions against those anarchists who had not taken part in the movement for a long time and even were in the CPSU (b). During 1930's Almost all veterans of the anarchist movement living on the territory of the Soviet Union, including those who held high government posts, became victims of repression. One of the first, in 1930, was repressed Konstantin Akashev, the first commander in chief of the Red Army air forces, who had participated in the anarcho-communist movement since 1906.
In 1930 bodies of the OGPU conducted a series of operations against the remaining anarcho-mystical groups. In June 1930 of the year, the Order of the Spirit group in Nizhny Novgorod was liquidated, in August of 1930, the Order of the Knights Templar and Rosicrucian group in the Sochi district of the North Caucasus region. When eliminating them, it turned out that they maintained close ties with the Moscow center of anarcho-mystics. In September 1930, the anarcho-mystics were arrested in Moscow. All the leaders of the anarcho-mystics, as well as the members of the anarcho-mystical groups who collaborated with them, were arrested. The most significant periods - according to 5 years of labor camps - were given to the leaders of the groups A.A. Solonovich (in the photo), N.I.Proferans, G.I. Anosov, D.A.Behm, L.A.Nikitin, V.N.Sno. Despite the repression, the anarchists continued illegal activities. As in the second half of the 1920s, in the 1930s. The main emphasis was placed on agitation and propaganda of anarchist ideas among workers, students, peasants, employees. In the first half of 1930's. clearly identified several centers of the anarchist movement in the USSR.
Anarchists traditionally had the strongest positions in Ukraine. This situation persisted in the first half of 1930's. Among the centers of the anarchist movement in Ukraine can be noted, first of all, Kharkov, as well as Elizavetgrad, Dnepropetrovsk, Simferopol, Kiev. In Kharkov in 1930, there was a significant activation of anarchists, associated with the return of many of them from exile upon expiration. The citywide illegal organization of anarchists, which operated according to the principles of the KabU “Nabat”, was recreated. Its leaders remained Pavel Zakharov, Grigory Tsesnik, Abner Uryadov, Rebeka Yaroshevskaya - anarchists with pre-revolutionary experience of underground work (Dubovik A.V. The Anarchist Underground in Ukraine in 1920 - 1930) - the site “Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 year "socialist.memo.ru;).
In connection with the beginning of the general collectivization and the famine in Ukraine that followed it, Kharkov anarchists set the task of creating an underground press that could cover as much of the working people as possible. To cover the financial costs of publishing activities, Gregory Tsesnik, based on the experience of pre-revolutionary anarchist groups of black banners and beznachaltsev, offered to expropriate the bank, but his proposal was not supported by the rest of anarchists. It was decided to raise the funds at the expense of the proceeds of the artel for the production of ceramic goods and the commune of anarchists and social revolutionaries controlled by anarchists in the village of Merefa, Kharkiv region.
In Elizavetgrad an anarcho-syndicalist group was created led by “Vanya Cherny”. In Dnepropetrovsk, the group created back in 1928 was continued to exist under the guidance of locomotive driver Leonid Lebedev. In Simferopol, the anarchist group was reconstructed by Boris and Lyubiretsky, who were freed from exile, and in Kiev, Lipovetsky also developed a similar activity. The anarcho-syndicalist circle of Dmitry Ablamsky, defeated in 1932 by the state security organs (Dubovik AV Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-1930-x. Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 of the Year ”socialist. memo.ru;).
In second place in importance as a center of the illegal anarchist movement on the territory of the USSR was a number of cities in Central Russia. By this time many active anarchists were exiled to Voronezh, Kursk and Oryol, both from Ukraine and from Moscow and Leningrad. In Voronezh, in the 1931 year, after serving the link in Siberia and Central Asia, Aron Baron, a prominent figure in the anarchist movement, settled. In Kursk, anarchist group was created by immigrants from Odessa Berta Tubisman and Aron Weinstein.
In the summer of 1933, the VF Belash, who had been recruited by the OGPU by this time, traveled to the southern regions of the RSFSR, with the aim of identifying the existing illegal groups of anarchists. Belash visited Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Tikhoretskaya, Novorossiysk, Berdyansk, Tuapse and a number of cities in the Crimea region, but did not get in touch with anyone. He gave detailed testimony about his trip only in 1937, after his arrest in Krasnodar. According to these testimonies, the anarchists of Kharkov were the initiators of uniting anarchists into a single organization. On their initiative, Belash went on an inspection trip, and the negative results of the Kharkov anarchists did not bother her. The absence of anarchist groups in the south of the RSFSR and in the Crimea will not interfere, as one of the Kharkov anarchist leaders Petr Zakharov claimed, to unite the anarchists in Ukraine itself. In 1934, the anarchists of Kharkov planned to hold a recovery congress of the Confederation of Anarchists of Ukraine “Nabat”. According to the testimony of V.F. Belash, Kharkiv anarchists, indeed, managed to establish contacts with representatives of a number of illegally operating anarchist groups, both in Ukraine and abroad, including contacting Aron Baron, who settled in Voronezh.
However, the state security agencies managed to prevent the anarchists from holding a congress. At the same time, a large-scale operation was carried out in Kharkiv, Voronezh, Kursk, Orel to arrest members of illegal anarchist groups. In Kharkiv, several dozens of anarchists were arrested (however, only 8 people were expelled), in Voronezh, Kursk and Orel - 23 people, including veterans of the movement, such as Aron Baron (in the photo) or 48-year-old Berta Tubisman, and young people 1908-1909's. of birth. By the decision of the Special Meeting at the Board of the OGPU from 14 in May 1934, all of them were exiled for a period of 3 each. Suppression of the anti-Soviet underground
In Leningrad in the first half of the 1930-ies. some of the anarchists who returned from exile - members of the group at the Russian Institute of Art History (RIIE) in the middle of the 1920-s, resumed their activities. Veniamin Rakov and Alexander Saakov returned from Saratov, Aida Basevich - from Kazakhstan. In addition, in Leningrad, at the suggestion of Lydia Chukovskaya, who herself, however, broke off her ties with the anarchist movement, Dina Zeurif arrived, with whom Lydia Chukovskaya met in the Saratov exile. Almost immediately after arriving in Leningrad, the anarchists came under the supervision of the OGPU. By the Decree of the Out session of the OGPU College of 8 in December 1932, Dina Zoyrif, Nikolai Viktorov and Veniamin Rakov were detained for three years as a political isolator, Yuri Kochetov was also exiled to Central Asia for three years.
In 1934-1936 A number of prominent anarchists who had worked closely with the Soviet authorities were arrested. Herman Sandomirsky, who was from the beginning of the 1920-ies. in the service of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, he was arrested and exiled to Yeniseisk. In December, 1934 was arrested in the town of Rudni, Smolensk Region, by Alexander Taratuta, who worked as an agronomist-economist at the Soyuzkonservmoloko Trust. He was placed in the Upper Ural, and then - in the Suzdal political isolator. Also around the year 1936, Daniil Novomirsky, a former leader of anarcho-syndicalists, who had been in the RCP (b) since 1920, was arrested. Pyotr Arshinov, who returned to the USSR in 1935 under the security guarantees given by his cellmate Sergo Ordzhonikidze, was also arrested and died during interrogation.
In 1937, the overwhelming majority of active members of the anarchist movement found themselves in detention centers and camps, as well as in exile in Siberia, Central Asia and the Urals. In the repressive policy of the state security bodies of the USSR, a shift in priorities occurred. The main target of repression in 1937 was not the non-partisan dissidents, but the members of the CPSU (b), who were suspected of sympathizing with the "right-Trotskyist bloc."
In 1937, the anarchist 23 was arrested in the Ukrainian SSR, including in Nikolaev an anarchist group of 15 people. Others arrested were surviving single anarchists from the Donetsk region, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kiev region. In mid-February, 1938 in Gulyai-Polye and Dnepropetrovsk arrested more than 30 former active members of the Makhnov movement who were charged with belonging to the illegal organization “Gulyai-Polsky Military-Makhnovsky Counterrevolutionary Insurgent Regiment”, ties with the Ukrainian nationalist center in Kiev the center of the Makhnovist movement in Bucharest and the Central Anarchist Group in Moscow, armed struggle with the Soviet authorities, the preparation of an uprising, anti-Soviet agitation, the preparation of terror ra and sabotage. In Leningrad in 1937-1938 Rimma Nikolaeva, Alexander Sparionapte and Julian Shutsky, members of the anarcho-anthroposophical circle defeated back in 1930 in Tashkent, were shot.
In 1937-1938 Repressions also continued against veterans of the anarchist movement, who, before, during the first half of the 1930, were arrested. In 1937, Alexander Taratuta was shot, in 1938, Olga Taratuta, Herman Sandomirsky and Ivan Strod - one of the commanders of the Eastern Siberian partisans during the Civil War, the closest associate of N.A. Kalandarishvili, who participated in the activities of the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Irkutsk, were shot in 1918-1921 In 1937, Vladimir (Bill) Shatov, the famous anarcho-syndicalist, was repressed in 1921-1934. former member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and occupying a number of important government posts (including Deputy People’s Commissar of Railways, Acting Head of the Main Directorate for Railway Construction of the People’s Commissariat of Railways). In 1939, Italian anarchist Francesco Ghezzi was arrested, who was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment for "counter-revolutionary agitation."
Judging by the further turn of events in the Gezzi case, he continued active anarchist activities in prison as well, since in 1943, in the Gezzi case, it was decided to sentence him to death, but Gezzi died in the camp a little earlier. More favorable fate turned out to be the leaders of the “neonigilists” A.N. Andreev and his wife Z.B.Gandlevskoy. Arrested in 1937, in Yaroslavl-on-Volga, they were sentenced to 8 years of camps and transferred to the Vologda prison and then to the camps of the Kolyma Territory. Many of the anarchist survivors continued their activities in prisons. They declared hunger strikes to protest, wrote complaints to the leaders of the party and the state, including I.V. Stalin. It is known, in particular, that the spouses A.N. arrested in 1937 in Yaroslavl. Andreev and Z.B. Gandlevskaya went on a hunger strike.
End of 1940's characterized by a new wave of repression against those few anarchists who, after serving in the late 1930-x - early 1940-x. the term of imprisonment, were once again free. At least several such cases are known. In 1946, A.N. was freed from the Kolyma camps. Andreev and Z.B. Gandlevskaya. They arrived in Cherkasy, Kiev region. UkSSR, where Andreev was able to get a job as the head of the material warehouse of the OKS at the machine-building plant to them. Petrovsky. However, 24 February 1949, Andreev and Gandlevskaya were again arrested. During the search, they were found a copy of Andreev's book “Neonigilism”, two volumes of works by P. A. Kropotkin and M. A. Bakunin. Through the 8 months in prison, Andreev and Gandlevskaya were exiled to the Novosibirsk region, to the Dubrovinsky state farm No. 257 of the Ust-Tarksky district, where they remained until the liberation that followed in the 1954 year.
At the same time, the arrest of those few surviving leaders of the anarchist movement of the revolutionary years who had long been in the service of the Soviet state followed. So, 2 March 1949 was arrested by Alexander Ulanovsky, a member of the anarchist movement since the 1905-1907 revolution, after coming to power of the Bolshevik Party, he worked in Soviet military intelligence - first in foreign agents, then in teaching positions in schools of the Red Army Intelligence Directorate . Ulanovsky was convicted on 10 years of imprisonment, because in his youth he belonged to the anarchist movement.
In the Soviet camps, there was a widow of N.I. Makhno, G.A. Kuzmenko, who, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, returned to her homeland, where she received 10 years of imprisonment and, after being released, lived with her daughter Elena in Dzhezkazgan in deep poverty (in the photo - Makhno's wife and daughter - Galina Kuzmenko and Elena Mikhnenko). In the summer of 1950, the famous Soviet writer Yevgeny Taratuta was arrested, who was the daughter of the famous anarchist of the pre-revolutionary years, Alexander Taratuta, who was shot in 1937 year. In 1951, Lyubov Altshul, who had already served time for several periods, was expelled from Moscow in the past - an active anarchist in the past, the wife of the celebrated hero of the Civil War, Anatoly Zheleznyakova (“sailor Zheleznyak”). The persecution of former members of the anarchist circle in the RIIA, which was still active in the middle of the 1920, continued. So, in 1946-1947. State security agencies collected materials for the arrest of Fyodor Garin-Mikhailov, Aleksandr Saakov and Tamara Zimmerman. In 1953, the Bryansk Department of the MGB of the USSR prepared materials for an announcement on the all-Union search of Yury Kochetov. Significant easing of policy towards former active anarchists followed after the death of I.V. Stalin in 1953 and the arrest of L.P. Beria.
Thus, we can conclude that in the second half of 1920-x - 1930-x. in the Soviet Union there really was an illegal anarchist movement. This movement directly inherited its immediate predecessors - the anarchist movement of the 1917 revolution of the year and the Civil War, and the pre-revolutionary anarchist movement.
The ideological orientation of the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR in the second half of the 1920's - 1930's. differed variety. At the same time, representatives of anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism played a leading role in the movement. It was on the basis of the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism that illegal organizations were united. Smaller circles could orient themselves to other directions in anarchism, including anarcho-individualism and anarcho-mysticism. The activities of illegal organizations in the second half of the 1920-x - 1930-x. wore, in the first place, agitation and propaganda nature. At the same time, the creation of communes and artels of anarchists, as well as attempts to create armed underground organizations and the transition to expropriation and terrorist activities took place. As a result of the systematic policy of the Soviet government to combat opposition and anti-state political forces, by the beginning of the 1940's, the illegal anarchist movement in the USSR had actually been defeated.
The following materials were used in writing the article:
1. Bykovsky S. Anarchists - members of the All-Union Society of political prisoners and deportees. In the book: All-Union society of political prisoners and exiled settlers: education, development, liquidation. 1921-1935. M., 2004. C. 83-108.
2. Dolzhanskaya L.A. “I was and remained an anarchist”: the fate of Francesco Ghezzi (based on the materials of the investigative case) // Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin and the problems of modeling the historical and cultural development of civilization. Proceedings of the international scientific conference. St. Petersburg, 2005.
3. Dubovik A.V. Anarchist underground in Ukraine in 1920-x - 1930-s. // site “Russian Socialists and Anarchists after October 1917 of the Year” socialist.memo.ru.
4. Ya. Leontiev, S. Bykovsky. From the history of the last pages of the anaronist movement in the USSR: the case of A. Baron and S. Ruvinsky (1934). In the book: Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin and problems of modeling the historical and cultural development of civilization: materials of the international scientific conference / Comp. P.I. Thalers. - SPb. 2005. C. 157-171.
5. Razumov A. In memory of Lydia Chukovskaya's youth // Star. 1999. No.9.
6. Shubin A.V. The problems of transition in the ideology of the Russian anarchist emigration 20 - 30-ies. // Anarchy and power: Sat. Art. M., 1992.
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