‘Down with Authority and Capital!’: Anarchist Media and Revolutions, 1917-1921

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The anarchist movement was indispensable to the events of the Russian Revolution, just as the Makhnovist movement was crucial to the progress of the Ukrainian one. Yet how these movements interpreted the rapidly developing events and how they strove to direct them towards their goals – indeed, what exactly these goals were and how they changed - remains under-researched. This panel considers how the interpretation of surviving media produced by Makhnovist and anarchist movements can advance our understanding of the Revolution in the former Russian Empire, and the place of anarchists and Makhnovists in it. The papers engage with various primary sources including a run of a trans-Atlantic anarcho-syndicalist newspaper, a collection of leaflets and periodicals issued by an anarchist-influenced Ukrainian peasant insurgent movement, and a data set of publications produced by Russian-speaking anarchists. More broadly, the panel seeks to address the commonalities, differences, and links between the anarchist movements of Ukraine and Russia during the revolutionary period.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Victoria Buyanovskaya, U of Wisconsin-Madison

Papers

• What was the Capital of the Russian-Language Anarchist Press in 1917? - Dmitrii Ivanov, Independent Scholar

• 'What Do We Strive For?': Makhnovist Newspapers and Proclamations, 1918-1921 - Sean Patterson, U of Alberta (Canada)

Discussant

• Ania Aizman, U of Chicago

Session Manager

• Benedict Edward DeDominicis, Catholic U of Korea (South Korea)