Nestor Makhno

Nestor Ivanovych Makhno in 1918

Nestor Ivanovych Mikhniyenko, also known as Nestor Makhno, was an Ukrainian anarchist and commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. He leaded the struggle of peasants in southern Ukraine for the establishment of a stateless society in what became known as Makhnovshchina in 1918-1921. Makhno was born in a small town of Huliaipole, which had sizeable anarchist activity before World War I. After Makhnovist defeat in Ukrainian War of Independence, he fled to Paris in 1921. Leftist circles are still debating whether Makhno's rule in controlled areas is considered to be hierarchical or a warlordism.