Authors

Discussion

A key debate in the history of the Makhnovist movement is its relationship to Ukrainian identity. How as an anarchist led military and social movement did it navigate its relationship with ethnicity and nationalism during the Ukrainian Revolution (1917-1921)? How did its leadership rhetorically shape the boundaries of identities? And to what extent did the changing trajectories of the broader revolution impact the movement's navigation of Ukrainian identity? From a neo-ideological perspective, my presentation will investigate the Makhnovist movement’s contentious and shifting relationship with Ukrainian ethnicity and nationalism through Makhnovist newspapers, propaganda leaflets, military orders, and memoirs. I will argue that such a relationship cannot be comprehensively explained without integrating an understanding of Makhnovist ideology—specifically the concepts of power (vlast¢) and powerlessness (bezvlastie)—and how the movement's leadership interpreted ethnic identity through that lens. From a broader perspective, my research invites the audience to reflect on how the revolutionary environment imagined different possibilities for "being Ukrainian."