No Harmless Power
The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno
Published on 14. September 2023
Book
Hardback
256 pages
979-8-88744-032-3 (ISBN)
Description
Lively, incendiary, and inspiring, No Harmless Power follows the life of Nestor Makhno, who organized a seven-million-strong anarchist polity during the Russian Civil War and developed Platformist anarchism during his exile in Paris as well as advising other anarchists like Durruti on tactics and propaganda.
Both timely and timeless, this biography reveals Makhno’s rapidly changing world and his place in it. He moved swiftly from peasant youth to prisoner to revolutionary anarchist leader, narrowly escaping Bolshevik Ukraine for Paris. This book also chronicles the friends and enemies he made along the way: Lenin, Trotsky, Kropotkin, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Ida Mett, and others.
No Harmless Power is the first text to fully delve into Makhno’s sympathy for the downtrodden, the trap of personal heroism, his improbable victories, unlikely friendships, and his alarming lack of gun safety in meetings. Makhno and the movement he began are seldom mentioned in most mainstream histories—Western or Russian—mostly on the grounds that acknowledging anarchist polities calls into question the inevitability and desirability of the nation-state and unjust hierarchies.
With illustrations by N.O. Bonzo and Kevin Matthews, this is a fresh, humorous, and necessary look at an under examined corner of history as well as a deep exploration of the meaning—and value, if any—of heroism as history.
Both timely and timeless, this biography reveals Makhno’s rapidly changing world and his place in it. He moved swiftly from peasant youth to prisoner to revolutionary anarchist leader, narrowly escaping Bolshevik Ukraine for Paris. This book also chronicles the friends and enemies he made along the way: Lenin, Trotsky, Kropotkin, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Ida Mett, and others.
No Harmless Power is the first text to fully delve into Makhno’s sympathy for the downtrodden, the trap of personal heroism, his improbable victories, unlikely friendships, and his alarming lack of gun safety in meetings. Makhno and the movement he began are seldom mentioned in most mainstream histories—Western or Russian—mostly on the grounds that acknowledging anarchist polities calls into question the inevitability and desirability of the nation-state and unjust hierarchies.
With illustrations by N.O. Bonzo and Kevin Matthews, this is a fresh, humorous, and necessary look at an under examined corner of history as well as a deep exploration of the meaning—and value, if any—of heroism as history.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oakland
United States
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
20 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
438 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-88744-032-3 (9798887440323)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Charlie Allison is a writer, researcher, and storyteller based in Philadelphia. Charlie has worked as a gardener, tutor to children with learning disabilities, an English teacher, chess instructor, and as a bureaucrat. He has published short stories in Pickman’s Press, Podcastle, and Sea Lion Press. He currently runs his own website at charlie-allison.com, where the genesis for this book was formed as a series of You Tube videos with the help of Sewer Rats Productions. He is active in the Philadelphia storytelling and mutual aid communities. Charlie is frequently bullied by his cat in the small hours of the morning.
Content
PREFACE: A Japanese Anarchist in Paris (1923)
CHAPTER 1: Pugachev’s Uprising and Beyond: Setting the Stage for Makhno’s Ukraine (1772–1861)
CHAPTER 2: Makhno’s Childhood (1888–1904)
CHAPTER 3: Makhno’s Political Awakening (1905–9)
CHAPTER 4: Capture and Imprisonment (1908–10)
CHAPTER 5: The Modest One’s Life in Prison (1911–17)
CHAPTER 6: Makhno’s Education in Prison (1910–17)
CHAPTER 7: The Kerensky Jailbirds (1917)
CHAPTER 8: Makhno Returns to Moscow (1918)
CHAPTER 9: Makhno Returns to Huliaipole (1918)
CHAPTER 10: A Teacher and Terror as Method in Ukraine (1918)
CHAPTER 11: The Terrible Summer (1919)
CHAPTER 12: The War behind the Lines (1919)
CHAPTER 13: Retreating to Victory and Conspiracy (1919)
CHAPTER 14: Second Alliance with the Bolsheviks against the White Army (1920)
CHAPTER 15: The Sudden yet Inevitable Betrayal (1920–21)
CHAPTER 16: Nestor Makhno En Route to Paris (1921–25)
CHAPTER 17: Enemies and Friends in Parisian Exile (1925–34)
CHAPTER 18: Makhno’s Writings outside the Platform in Exile (1926–34)
CHAPTER 19: Makhno and the Platform (1925–33)
CHAPTER 20: No Gods, No Masters: Nestor Makhno’s Death and Legacy (1934)
CHAPTER 21: Anarchists You Should Know: Minibiographies
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the contributors
CHAPTER 1: Pugachev’s Uprising and Beyond: Setting the Stage for Makhno’s Ukraine (1772–1861)
CHAPTER 2: Makhno’s Childhood (1888–1904)
CHAPTER 3: Makhno’s Political Awakening (1905–9)
CHAPTER 4: Capture and Imprisonment (1908–10)
CHAPTER 5: The Modest One’s Life in Prison (1911–17)
CHAPTER 6: Makhno’s Education in Prison (1910–17)
CHAPTER 7: The Kerensky Jailbirds (1917)
CHAPTER 8: Makhno Returns to Moscow (1918)
CHAPTER 9: Makhno Returns to Huliaipole (1918)
CHAPTER 10: A Teacher and Terror as Method in Ukraine (1918)
CHAPTER 11: The Terrible Summer (1919)
CHAPTER 12: The War behind the Lines (1919)
CHAPTER 13: Retreating to Victory and Conspiracy (1919)
CHAPTER 14: Second Alliance with the Bolsheviks against the White Army (1920)
CHAPTER 15: The Sudden yet Inevitable Betrayal (1920–21)
CHAPTER 16: Nestor Makhno En Route to Paris (1921–25)
CHAPTER 17: Enemies and Friends in Parisian Exile (1925–34)
CHAPTER 18: Makhno’s Writings outside the Platform in Exile (1926–34)
CHAPTER 19: Makhno and the Platform (1925–33)
CHAPTER 20: No Gods, No Masters: Nestor Makhno’s Death and Legacy (1934)
CHAPTER 21: Anarchists You Should Know: Minibiographies
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the contributors