Customer Reviews

The Struggle Against the State and Other Essays

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This book presents some excellent essays by Nestor Makhno, military leader of the anarchists in the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War. Makhno's work is not well-known, but he explains anarchism quite lucidly and gives the reader good reasons to prefer it over capitalism and state socialism.

This book offers an interesting insight into the Second Russian Revolution. It is a collection of essays written by the military leader of the Ukranian anarchists who fought first along side of and then against the Bolsheviks. Mr. A. Skirda also deserves a mention for his excellent translation.

While this book is certainly not of any philosophical weight, it offers several interesting arguments against the state and capital. Makhno also includes in his essays contemporary events, and his commentary. This is almost a handbook for organisation along eglatarian lines.

I found this book well worth the short read time. It has given me invaluable insight into the methods of the Bolsheviks and their "counter-revolutionary" opponents. I say this is a "must-read" for anybody interested in the Second Russian Revolution and the Soviet State that followed.

Nestor Makhno is a peculiar figure in the history of anarchism. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Makhno organised an autonomous anarcho-communist military movement in the Ukraine, in the goal of establishing an anarchist society. His army, gaining support from the peasantry, fought against the Whites, the nationalists, the Germans and the Bolsheviks, until it was defeated by the Red Army.

Nestor Makhno's brief moment in history is one of the few occasions where anarchism had become an organised force in a significant conflict (the other being, of course, the Spanish civil war). Makhno was not a theorist, nor a political activist - he was a man of action, as it was proven in the events after 1917. This collection of his essays address a number of topics, such as the events in the Ukraine, the Soviet Union, the Kronstadt Rebellion, the Spanish civil war and the philosophy of anarchism. Most essays are only two pages long, although some are lengthier. Makhno's works are hard to find in a printed form, making this edition a nice contribution to anyone's library. Although it would probably be appreciated by mostly anarchists, this book can be valuable both as a historical document of anarchism, and a primary source for the Russian revolution and the Russian civil war.

On another note, the book, has no introduction, and no index. It does however, contain an afterword.

I had never read Nestor Makhno until I got this version of his works from AK Press, and was only vaguely familiar with his name. Now I know who he is -- the most brilliant anarchist writer of the past two hundred years. While Stirner may offer more lessons on life, Makhno offers more lessons on revolutionary struggle -- lessons which the feuding factions of would-be anarchists today would do well to learn from. I recommend this whole heartedly to every anarchist everywhere. Get this book now!

Bill White Public Relations Coordinator Utopian Anarchist Party