The Makhnovist Movement grew out of the traditions of the peasantry of the South East Ukraine, a tradition of freedom and autonomy that had been suppressed by over two hundred years of foreign rule from Russia but had not been destroyed. The driving force behind the movement was born into this tradition and it shaped his life as he shaped the movement that bears his name. During three years of constant military campaigns the Makhnovist army was not defeated, it was destroyed by the collapse of its support due to exhaustion and war-weariness and the overwhelming power of the massive Bolshevik Armies.

To understand the Makhnovist movement it is necessary to first look at its origins. The movement grew in the South Eastern Ukraine an area that had a tradition of peasant independence and rebellion. The Southern area of the Ukraine comprised almost a third of the Ukraine, and has a tradition different to that of the rest of the country, and a history of independence. The Cossack republic of the Zaporozhian Sich existed in the area until it was destroyed in 1775, the Sich was a self governed community of Cossacks (run-away serfs and their descendants) who raided the Turkish communities along the Azov, Crimea and north Black sea coasts for centuries. This independent area was destroyed by the Imperial Russian army, its lands distributed among the Russian nobility and incoming settlers, and as in the rest of Ukraine its language and culture suppressed. When the Russians came they attempted to impose Serfdom upon the Ukrainian peasantry however the traditions of the Sich remained strong and the system of Serfdom was not as widespread or as exploitative as in the rest of the Ukraine. Even before the 1861 Reform’s banning Serfdom most peasants paid their landlords with money rather than with labour. While the majority of peasants in the South East remained Ukrainian, settlers from Germany, Greece and many Russian Jews started agricultural colonies encouraged by the Russian government to settle in this vast under exploited region. Newly raised industrial towns attracted many ethnic Russians to the Ukraine in the late 19th century. During this period a line was drawn in the popular mind of the Ukrainian peasant between the Ukrainian village, economically and nationally oppressed, and the non Ukrainian town as the agent of that oppression.

For the Ukrainian peasant of the South East the traditions of the Zaporozhian Sich and the Cossacks remained strong. Land and the freedom to be left alone to order their own affairs were important issues in which sides they offered support to in the Civil War, as was a mistrust of outsiders and a hatred of foreign invaders. The Makhnovists Anarchism appealed to these sentiments, land was distributed when it was taken and the movement was home-grown rather than imposed. The peasant supporters of Makhno were not Anarchists, rather they recognised that the Anarchists would give them what they wanted namely an end to outside interference and land.

Nestor Ivanovich Mikhenko (Makhno) was born on 27 October 1889 the fourth son of a peasant family just outside the large village of Gulyai-Pole in the province of Ekaterynoslav. His father died when he was less than a year old, and he was raised by his mother. Between seven and thirteen he attended school during the winter and drove oxen carts during the summer. On leaving school he first worked herding cattle, then at seventeen as a cart painter and then later as a labourer in an iron foundry. While in the foundry he joined a local Anarchist group that was involved in local propaganda funded by criminal activities. In 1908 the group robbed a post office cart carrying money to the railway station five miles outside of Gulyai-Pole, during the robbery a police guard was killed and the group went underground. Makhno was arrested in August 1908 and kept in prison until his trial in 1910 before a Court Martial of the Odessa military district. Condemned along with fifteen other Anarchists to death for various crimes, Makhno’s sentence was commuted to life in prison due to being under twenty at the time of the offences. Makhno was sent to Butyrki prison in Moscow and it was his prison experience that shaped his later activities. Here he met Peter Arshinov a former metal worker and revolutionary Anarchist who gave Makhno what formal education and Anarchist theory he had. Long periods in solitary confinement also led to Pulmonary Tuberculosis that would eventually kill him. Following the February revolution of 1917 Makhno and Arshinov were released under a general amnesty for political prisoners and Makhno returned to Gulyai-Pole.

Back in Gulyai-Pole he helped organise a peasants union with himself as chairman, this organisation was the power base from which he built his influence. The peasant union forcibly removed the land from the local landowners and distributed it among the peasants, in open defiance of the orders of the Russian Provisional Government who had failed to establish control in the Ukraine as did its Bolshevik successor, leaving the way for the Ukrainian Central Rada (a grouping of various nationalist parties and organisations) to declare independence from Russia in January 1918. To defend themselves from the Bolsheviks the Rada called in the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary) to prevent the Bolsheviks conquering the Ukraine. In the face of the Central powers who occupied Gulyai-Pole, Makhno escaped to Bolshevik controlled Ukraine and then Moscow. While in Moscow he met with both Lenin and Peter Kropotkin. By the time he had returned to Gulyai-Pole in July 1918 the Bolsheviks had signed the Brest Litovsk treaty with the Central Powers, giving Germany and Austro-Hungary control over the Ukraine and they had replaced the Central Rada with Hetman Skoropadsky;

"the Central Rada was dispersed by a German Lieutenant and its place taken by the Ataman of the free Cossacks, General Skoropadski. His Highness, of course was subject to the will of the Lieutenants and carried out all their orders".

Makhno organised partisan groups round Gulyai-Pole to fight the Hetman’s forces and his German and Austrian allies. In October 1918 after an attack on the garrison in Gulyai-Pole Makhno and 50 partisans fled to Dibrivki forest closely followed by a large force of Austrian infantry, cavalry and artillery. Hopelessly outnumbered Makhno and his men charged head on at the Austrians as they camped in the church square of the village of Velyka Mykhailivka routing the enemy in panic. This battle made Makhno a local hero. Makhno’s support among the peasants was not total however one Austrian officer reported talking to peasants in Gulyai-Pole reported a peasant saying;

"Oh, he should die this Makhno, so much trouble and misfortune he has brought us, but he also is defending us from plunderers, Bolsheviks and all other rascals".

With the Armistice and the end of World War One the Central Powers withdrew from the Ukraine and the Hetman’s regime collapsed.

Following the collapse of the Hetman there was a power vacuum in the Ukraine, in the South East the Makhnovist insurgents moved unopposed into the villages and towns while in the rest of the Ukraine Petliura’s Nationalist Directory seized power. In January 1919 the Bolshevik Red army captured the capital Kiev and the Nationalist forces fled to Western Ukraine and the Bolsheviks increased their control over Ukraine. The Makhnovists signed an alliance with the Bolsheviks becoming a Brigade in the Red Army to fight General Denikin’s White Army who were advancing from the Caucasus. The Bolsheviks were short of troops to fight the Whites so they were forced to allow Makhno and other Ataman’s a degree of autonomy in return for their support. The Makhnovists were aware of the threat the Communist authorities posed towards their regional autonomy but they hoped that as Arshinov say’s;

"that the struggle with the Bolsheviks could be confined to the realm of ideas".

In May 1919 another allied insurgent leader Hyrhor’iv revolted against the Bolsheviks and the Red army had to withdraw troops from the Southern front to deal with him. This withdrawl weakened the Bolsheviks front and led to Denikin advancing into the Ukraine. The Makhnovists had been acting as the anchor for the Red Army’s left flank and were pushed back by the Whites retreating 23 miles in one day. The Bolsheviks took this opportunity to order the arrest of the Makhnovist leadership under Trotsky’s notorious order 1824, banning the Makhnovists fourth peasant conference. Makhno ordered his troops to continue to fight with the Red Army against the Whites and with his personal bodyguard the ‘Black Sotnia’, fled to an area of the Ukraine controlled by Hyrhor’iv. Hyrhor’iv a former Czarist officer wanted an alliance with Makhno, but the Makhnovists were uneasy due to Hyrhor’iv’s Anti-Semitism (many of Makhno’s senior staff and insurgents were Jewish). Due to the circumstances however an agreement was signed. On 27th July 1919 in the village of Sentovo a congress of insurgents and peasants was called, attended by nearly 20,000 people, Hyrhor’iv spoke first calling for an alliance with Denikin against the Communists, the next speaker one of Makhno’s lieutenants Chubenko argued violently with Hyrhor’iv during which Hyrhor’iv was shoot dead. With the death of their leader many of Hyrhor’v’s men joined Makhno who soon after recalled his troops from the Red Army, by August he had an estimated 15,000 soldiers including several Brigades of Red infantry who arrested their staff officers and commissars and defected to the Makhnovists. Makhno was now fighting the retreating Bolsheviks and Denikin’s advancing Whites (his army avoided confrontation with the Nationalists). The Makhnovists had to retreat 400 miles in four months in what Voline described as "a Kingdom on Wheels". By late September they were camped in the villages of Perehonivka and Tekucha surrounded by White troops who attacked on the 25th of September before dawn, the insurgents fell back after bitter fighting and prepared to fight to the last man, then at 9.00am Makhno and the insurgents cavalry managed to attack the White infantry from the rear scattering the enemy in confusion, completely destroying the Whites 1st Simferopol and 2nd Labzinski Regiments. This was a major victory for the Makhnovists and led to a general advance into the Whites rear. Denikin was advancing on Moscow and seriously threatened the Bolsheviks position, Makhno’s campaign in his rear threatened Denikin’s line of supply. On the 10th of October 1919 they captured the port of Berdyansk, Denikin’s main artillery dump. The Whites had to send troops from the Moscow front to deal with the Makhnovists and this and the disruption in supplies gave the Red Army the time to organise a counter attack;

"It is certain that Denikin’s defeat owed more to the peasant insurrection under the black Makhnovist banner than to the successes of Trotsky’s regular army. The Makhnovist bands tipped the scales in favour of the Reds, and if Moscow may now want to forget the fact, impartial history will remember it".

With the White’s retreating towards Crimea and the Red’s advancing across the Ukraine the Makhnovists had to withdraw from most of the Ukraine to the region surrounding Gulyai-Pole. During this retreat the Makhnovist army was ravaged by a Typhus epidemic effecting half of the Makhnovist troops, and continuously fighting both Reds and Whites. During early 1920 the Makhnovists engaged in Guerrilla warfare against the Bolshevik civil authorities, Red Army and the White Army now commanded by Baron Wrangel. In the summer of 1920 the Whites began to gain the upper hand threatening the entire Donets Basin. In October the Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists signed an agreement guaranteeing autonomy for the area controlled by the Makhnovists in return for their help in the defeat of the White army. The Makhnovists were attached to the Red fourth Army and helped drive the Whites back to their prepared defences lines protecting the Crimea peninsula. In November the Makhnovists re-enforced the Red units penetrating the Whites defences across the Gulf of Sivash, with the White army evacuating the last of their strongholds the Bolsheviks prepared to destroy the Makhnovist movement who had outlived their usefulness. On the 26th November the Makhnovists were outlawed by the Bolsheviks who sent three armies including the elite 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies to the Ekaterinoslav region to deal with the insurgents with orders to shoot any Makhnovist prisoners. At 11am on the 26th the Red army launched simultaneous attacks on the Makhnovists in Gulyai-Pole and those still fighting alongside them in the Crimea of who only 250 of the 1500 cavalry escaped. The Red Army swept into the Makhnovist region and pursued the insurgents relentlessly, The Makhnovists manoeuvred across South Ukraine slowly being worn down by Red attacks. For ten months operating in small detachments the Makhnovists fought a Guerrilla war against the Red army who began garrisoning villages with infantry to stop the peasants from giving the insurgents support or supplies. Without supplies from the villages the insurgents could not operate effectively and the Red army hunted down those insurgents not forced to surrender by starvation or forced into exile. On the 28th of August 1921 Makhno, his wife and fifty of his cavalry bodyguard crossed the river Dniester into Rumania, the Makhnovist movement was at an end. Makhno was first interned by the Rumanians and then expelled into Poland in 1922, the Poles immediately arrested Makhno worried that he may cause trouble among the Ukrainian minority in recently acquired Eastern Galicia. Imprisoned, tried and acquitted on treason charges, Makhno left Poland in 1924 and arrived in Paris via Berlin where he was to spend the rest of his life in poverty, dying of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in July 1934, his ashes interred in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery (Cemetery of the Paris Commune).