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Hey kids, want a seven part series on Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno?

Ysengrimus

Active member
I've got some primo history work for you wonderful guys. I'm working on a Seven Part Series on Nestor Makhno (Ukrainian anarchist, writer, war-leader and general pain in Trotsky's ass, which means he is ok in my book) with the help of Sewer Rats Productions.


Facebook page for links to the videos and Q&A

Every Thursday at seven pm EST a new video will drop (links will appear HERE) followed by a live Q and A with me. For completionists (and my own sanity) I also post the youtube videos on my website on Fridays, along with the Q and A from the night before and an exhaustive list of my sources for the video. A sort of behind the scenes. If you choose to check it out, consider subscribing--it will inform you when the series updates and really help me.
If you want to catch up on last weeks episode, here's the link!
This is all Catherine the Great's Fault.

I realize that many of you live in the EU--and so live Q and A may not have appeal due to time differences. If you want to ask a question anyway, @ me on twitter or send me a message on SLP (or hell, leave a message on this thread) and I'll answer it on the Q and A (with attribution of course).
 
Just watched the first part there, great stuff. Looking forward to seeing where the troika of Ukrainian land rights ends up next.
 
Just watched the first part there, great stuff. Looking forward to seeing where the troika of Ukrainian land rights ends up next.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! Please, I'm happy to answer any questions/go back and forth in the forums--Makhno and the Russian Civil War are subjects of particular fascination to me.
 
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! Please, I'm happy to answer any questions/go back and forth in the forums--Makhno and the Russian Civil War are subjects of particular fascination to me.

The one that sprang to mind watching the video was whether Pugachev ever wrote anything or expanded on his beliefs other than giving land to the serfs and replacing the aristocracy with his own?
 
A fine question!Largely, the difference is between a person who believes in what he's doing--now that he has a chance to do it (for Pugachev, becoming Tsar was too tempting not to make a try at, and had a good chance at succeeding at) and a true believer who has lived through the hell of the tsarist system and believes he can make an entirely new world free of oppression from it (Makhno). Pugachev was likely illiterate, as a cossack and a soldier, he would have no reason to leave any writings behind. Certainly, Pugachev had incentive to rouse the serfs and he probably even meant what he said in the heat of the moment--land reform and demolishing the nobility sounds like a good idea. But his stated goal was to become the Tsar, which is more than a little at odds with that stated goal. The comparison between Pugachev and Makhno
Pugachev got to be romanticized into a cossack-Robin-Hood and folk hero in Ukraine because he stuck it to the Russians on a previously unheard of scale. Makhno did too, but he actually MEANT to dismantle the systems that had the peasants of Ukraine suffering as opposed to grabbing a crown. The comparison between the two actually comes from Arshinov, one of Makhno's biographers, who made the comparison favorably and explicit.
 
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