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Makhno and Memory: Anarchist and Mennonite Narratives of Ukraine's Civil War, 1917�1921
Nestor Makhno has been called a revolutionary anarchist, a peasant rebel, the Ukrainian Robin Hood, a mass-murderer, a pogromist, and a devil. These epithets had their origins in the Russian Civil War (1917-1921), where the military forces of the peasant-anarchist Nestor Makhno and Mennonite colonists in southern Ukraine came into conflict. In autumn 1919, Makhnovist troops and local peasant sympathizers murdered more than 800 Mennonites in a series of large-scale massacres. The history of that conflict has been fraught with folklore, ideological battles and radically divergent cultural memories, in which fact and fiction often seamlessly blend, conjuring a multitude of Makhnos, each one shouting its message over the other. Drawing on theories of collective memory and narrative analysis, Makhno and Memory brings a vast array of Makhnovist and Mennonite sources into dialogue, including memoirs, histories, diaries, newspapers, and archival material. A diversity of perspectives are brought into relief through the personal reminiscences of Makhno and his anarchist sympathizers alongside Mennonite pacifists and advocates for armed self-defense. Through a meticulous analysis of the Makhnovist-Mennonite conflict and a micro-study of the Eichenfeld massacre of November 1919, Sean Patterson attempts to make sense of the competing cultural memories and presents new ways of thinking about Makhno and his movement. Makhno and Memory offers a convincing reframing of the Mennonite / Makhno relationship that will force a scholarly reassessment of this period.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 15, 2021
A compact but really well-done book, a microhistory in all but name. The study focuses on a massacre in a Mennonite village carried out by Makhnovist forces in Autumn 1919. Both sides generated large historiographical traditions, which cannot quite be reconciled, but their collision produces an explanation of the events which does not absolve the killers but shows who they were, what they were motivated by, and what provoked their actions. The author's BS detector is working better than in most Makhno movement histories, but the Kuzmenko diary is still not a reliable source, especially since S. Semanov had a role in its legitimisation. All in all, a powerful contribution to this histories of Russian Civil War, violence in general, and memory studies.
May 4, 2024
Going into this monograph, I wasn't sure what I was really going to get. It turns out that Patterson's objective is spelled out on the cover, as he aims to subject the surviving sources relating to a controversial and enigmatic person, who is known for his problematic acts in a violent time, to close analysis. This I have to conclude Patterson does very well, as one has the small matter of Makhno's split image as a principled warlord on one hand, and a sociopathic mass killer on the other; depending on whether you're an anarchist sympathizer or a descendant of his victims.
What much of this is wrapped up with is the fate of the German Mennonite colonists in Tsarist Russia, protected subjects of the Tsar who suddenly found themselves less than desired, as nationalist conflict ramped up in the late 19th-century. These are far from unsympathetic people, but there is a certain cluelessness about their collective behavior, as in seeking protection from the rising storm of civil war in Russia they made alliance with the Austro-German occupation in Ukraine, thus proving their untrustworthiness to their neighbors, and making them all the more attractive as targets of retribution.
This was a bad deal all around, and maybe all it really says is that, when the dam burst in Russia in 1917, there were no sanctuaries. Well-worth reading, but it probably isn't the first book you should read in relation to post-1917 Russia.
What much of this is wrapped up with is the fate of the German Mennonite colonists in Tsarist Russia, protected subjects of the Tsar who suddenly found themselves less than desired, as nationalist conflict ramped up in the late 19th-century. These are far from unsympathetic people, but there is a certain cluelessness about their collective behavior, as in seeking protection from the rising storm of civil war in Russia they made alliance with the Austro-German occupation in Ukraine, thus proving their untrustworthiness to their neighbors, and making them all the more attractive as targets of retribution.
This was a bad deal all around, and maybe all it really says is that, when the dam burst in Russia in 1917, there were no sanctuaries. Well-worth reading, but it probably isn't the first book you should read in relation to post-1917 Russia.
March 10, 2025
Canadian-Mennonite author Sean Patterson gives a short but probing analysis of the Ukrainian revolution of the early 20th century, based on the narratives around its most representative and controversial figure. As revolutionary symbol, Nestor Makhno was the Che Guevara of his time and place, memorialized in radically polarized fashion to this day. As a Canadian, Patterson was able to source two rival sets of memory - that of German Mennonite immigrants from Ukraine, whose family histories consistently see Makhno as Satan incarnate; and his supporters in the Ukrainian diaspora and of the libertarian left, for whom he exemplifies the pure principles of social justice with freedom.
The narrative is doubly interesting as its two rival belief systems - Mennonite Protestantism and socialist anarchism - have common roots in social rebellion. Seeds of hostility were planted from the first in the rich soil of the Ukraine, however, when German colonists were invited by Tzarina Katherine to settle on lands expropriated from the free peasantry. The Mennonite colonists prospered, forgetting their own stormy roots in 16th century Prussia as their transplanted settlements flowered. Their gain became another's loss. Ukrainian peasants were not only displaced, but compelled by necessity to work for German employers. Thus, for all their radical roots, the Mennonite colonists found themselves on the wrong side of imperial war and social revolution.
Though by doctrine enjoined to withdraw cooperation from the state and its militarism, the colonists responded to wartime scapegoating by identifying with German invaders, forming self-defense militias in support of the German army. When the revolution erupted in Ukraine they were again losers with something to lose, and again chose the opposing side of the White Russian counter-revolution. This left them ill-prepared to deal with the temporarily triumphant whirlwind of the steppes, Batko Nestor Makhno and his Free Insurgent Army.
Family memories and research in Mennonite sources compelled Patterson to re-evaluate Makhno's legacy as principled revolutionary freedom-fighter. His troops' plunder, pillage, rapine and murder visited upon the Mennonite colonists in the name of social justice bore no difference to outright banditry for its own sake. Bitter recollections abound in the testimony of surviving sufferers and their descendants a century later, ignored in the glowing accounts of Makhno's sympathetic biographers. Though Mahkno insisted the Mennonites were not punished for their Germaness, but as exploiters, this disclaimer did not help much.
Against Mennonite accusations came Makhno's counter-charges: abandoning pacifism to sell out to plundering foreign armies, all to protect property gained through others' labor. Hardline Mennonites even agreed in a backhanded way, rationalizing Makhno as a godly scourge visited upon the Mennonite communities in judgement of their backsliding. Patterson's study concludes with an in-depth review of the notorious attack on the Eichenfeld settlement.
A compelling, short but vital study for those interested in the time and place, with broader lessons in the psychology of mutual demonization so necessary to war. Rest assured this work could not have been written by any modern American, both for its intimate understanding of the particular parties and for its deepest insights.
The narrative is doubly interesting as its two rival belief systems - Mennonite Protestantism and socialist anarchism - have common roots in social rebellion. Seeds of hostility were planted from the first in the rich soil of the Ukraine, however, when German colonists were invited by Tzarina Katherine to settle on lands expropriated from the free peasantry. The Mennonite colonists prospered, forgetting their own stormy roots in 16th century Prussia as their transplanted settlements flowered. Their gain became another's loss. Ukrainian peasants were not only displaced, but compelled by necessity to work for German employers. Thus, for all their radical roots, the Mennonite colonists found themselves on the wrong side of imperial war and social revolution.
Though by doctrine enjoined to withdraw cooperation from the state and its militarism, the colonists responded to wartime scapegoating by identifying with German invaders, forming self-defense militias in support of the German army. When the revolution erupted in Ukraine they were again losers with something to lose, and again chose the opposing side of the White Russian counter-revolution. This left them ill-prepared to deal with the temporarily triumphant whirlwind of the steppes, Batko Nestor Makhno and his Free Insurgent Army.
Family memories and research in Mennonite sources compelled Patterson to re-evaluate Makhno's legacy as principled revolutionary freedom-fighter. His troops' plunder, pillage, rapine and murder visited upon the Mennonite colonists in the name of social justice bore no difference to outright banditry for its own sake. Bitter recollections abound in the testimony of surviving sufferers and their descendants a century later, ignored in the glowing accounts of Makhno's sympathetic biographers. Though Mahkno insisted the Mennonites were not punished for their Germaness, but as exploiters, this disclaimer did not help much.
Against Mennonite accusations came Makhno's counter-charges: abandoning pacifism to sell out to plundering foreign armies, all to protect property gained through others' labor. Hardline Mennonites even agreed in a backhanded way, rationalizing Makhno as a godly scourge visited upon the Mennonite communities in judgement of their backsliding. Patterson's study concludes with an in-depth review of the notorious attack on the Eichenfeld settlement.
A compelling, short but vital study for those interested in the time and place, with broader lessons in the psychology of mutual demonization so necessary to war. Rest assured this work could not have been written by any modern American, both for its intimate understanding of the particular parties and for its deepest insights.
September 12, 2022
This is a well-written study, authored by an anarchist, that brings to light important research about German Mennonite communities that suffered at the hands of Makhnovist radicals during the Russian Civil War (CW). Patterson uncovers the Eichenfeld massacre of Mennonites in November 1919, perpetrated by Makhnovists and Ukrainian peasants, as a grisly episode of "class justice" against an ethno-religious minority that is nowhere to be found in the scholarship of pro-Makhno sources.
As wealthy landowners who allied themselves with the Austro-Germans in WWI, and then with the Whites during the CW, while organizing self-defense units (Selbstschutz) to defend life and property, the Mennonite settler communities in "New Russia" (southeastern Ukraine) became the target of peasant radicals with the collapse of the State during the CW. At the same time, what makes this conflict even more tragic is that Mennonites, as Anabaptists, have anti-authoritarian practices that are unusual for mainstream Christians.
In the end, neither side comes out innocent in this account. The charges of mass-rape and indiscriminate murder raised by Mennonite sources against the Makhnovists should prove haunting to anarchist readers, and lead us to pause.
As wealthy landowners who allied themselves with the Austro-Germans in WWI, and then with the Whites during the CW, while organizing self-defense units (Selbstschutz) to defend life and property, the Mennonite settler communities in "New Russia" (southeastern Ukraine) became the target of peasant radicals with the collapse of the State during the CW. At the same time, what makes this conflict even more tragic is that Mennonites, as Anabaptists, have anti-authoritarian practices that are unusual for mainstream Christians.
In the end, neither side comes out innocent in this account. The charges of mass-rape and indiscriminate murder raised by Mennonite sources against the Makhnovists should prove haunting to anarchist readers, and lead us to pause.
February 8, 2021
An interesting case study on the interplay between recorded history, the memories of the different recorders. How we understand history is no more objective than those who document it.
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