Ah I see it's Makhno and antisemitism discourse season again. Tankies would have an argument if they picked up a book. Makhno's army did commit pogroms, but never against Jews, but to kulak Mennonites. But were not the Stalinists even more brutal to the kulaks of all types than the anarchists?
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Abolisyonista (abolisyonista@ni.hil.ist)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 19:55:51 JST Abolisyonista
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Abolisyonista (abolisyonista@ni.hil.ist)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 20:23:28 JST Abolisyonista
@d4rkness there's this trot I know who keeps going on about Durrutists and Makhnovists, it's like, bro??? We don't follow names, we follows ideas.
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Valerie Rose (d4rkness@cyberpunk.lol)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 20:23:29 JST Valerie Rose
@abolisyonista to be fair tankies are super wrapped up in cults of personality around their "communist" dictators, they probably think anarchists operate the same way lmao
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Valerie Rose (d4rkness@cyberpunk.lol)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 20:23:30 JST Valerie Rose
@abolisyonista its just such a silly argument
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Valerie Rose (d4rkness@cyberpunk.lol)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 20:23:32 JST Valerie Rose
@abolisyonista like lets pretend for a moment makhno was actually antisemitic, how does this relate to modern anarchism? how does this change anything about our positions or change anything about the arguments we make in favor of anarchism?
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Valerie Rose (d4rkness@cyberpunk.lol)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 20:23:33 JST Valerie Rose
@abolisyonista i dont even see how this discourse is even relevant to 2025, anarchism in general has changed a lot and so has general social politics worldwide, like for historical reasons its fine to discuss but why are tankies discussing this as some kind of "gotcha"? does it really matter to modern anarchism if makhno was an antisemite when most anarchists nowadays arent antisemitic? i personally think its just such a silly argument these guys try to make.
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Abolisyonista (abolisyonista@ni.hil.ist)'s status on Saturday, 29-Mar-2025 21:00:12 JST Abolisyonista
Correction, Makhno's army did commit antisemitic pogroms, but Makhno himself was not antisemitic as he shot the pogromists and then armed Jewish communities to protect themselves. He didn't do this for Mennonites though. Makhno still has command responsibility for those.
Here's what a comrade wrote in a reply:
it's not true that Makhnovists did not commit antisemitic pogroms. there was at least one well-documented instance: on 12 May 1919, Makhnovists murdered 20 Jewish people in the Gorkaya colony. the case was investigated by the Makhnovist intelligence agent Nikolai Chubenko, who found the Makhnovist unit guilty of committing the pogrom. Nestor Makhno himself then ordered the participants be shot, rather than sending them to the front as was recommended by the investigation commission.
there's also at least a couple other cases: in August 1920, a joint group of Makhnovists and Ukrainian nationalists carried out a pogrom in Shishaki. Makhno again ordered the execution of the people who participated. Makhnovists may have committed antisemitic pogroms in Nechaevka and Kazanka, but the evidence on those is less solid.
Makhno noticed antisemitism among local anarchists and insurgents from the moment he arrived back in Huliaipole in 1917. it was so strong he gave Jewish colonies in the area rifles so they could protect themselves.
Makhno was not personally antisemitic, but that did not extend to many in his army and he constantly had to repress antisemitism.
(Source: Michael Malet's "Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War", pages 168-174)
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