Revolutionary_insurrectionary_army_of_ukraine

The Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Революційна Повстанська Армія України, Revolyutsiyna Povstans’ka Armiya Ukrayiny), also known as the Black Army, was an anarchist army under the command of the famous anarchist Nestor Makhno during the Russian Civil War.

Ukrainian guerrilla bands were active during the Civil War period. Some claimed to be loyal to the Ukrainian state, but others acknowledged no allegiance, and all fought both Reds and White Russians with equal ferocity. After 1920 they constituted the only Ukrainian forces left in Soviet Ukraine. At that date they were said to number some 40,000; some of them fought until 1924.

The most famous of these groups was that of the peasant anarchist leader Nestor Makhno, who began operations in the south-eastern Ukraine against the Hetmanate regime in July 1918. In September he formed the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine with arms and equipment obtained from the retreating Austro-Hungarian and German forces. He fought Denikin\'s Whites until they retreated in late 1919, then continued to fight the Reds until his forces were defeated and dispersed in August 1921. Makhno himself managed to slip across the Romanian border.

Organisation

In mid-1919 the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine had a strength of some 15,000 men organised into 1 cavalry and 4 infantry Brigades, a machine gun regiment with 5000 guns, and an artillery detachment. At its peak in December 1919 it had about 83,000 infantry, 20,135 cavalry, 1,435 machine guns, and 118 guns, as well as 7 armored trains and some armored cars.Belash, Victor & Belash, Aleksandr, Dorogi Nestora Makhno, p. 340 It was organized into 4 Corps and the strategic reserve. Each Corps had 1 infantry and 1 cavalry Brigade; each Brigade had 3-4 Regiments of the appropriate type.Belash, Victor & Belash, Aleksandr, Dorogi Nestora Makhno, pp. 333 & 340

The structure of the RIAU was not that of a traditional army. Instead, the RIAU was a democratic militia based on soldier committees and general assemblies. Officers in the ordinary sense were abolished; instead all commanders were elected and recallable. Unlike the Red and White armies the RIAU relied on voluntary enlistment instead of conscription. Regular mass assemblies were held to discuss policy. The army was based on self-discipline, with all of the army’s disciplinary rules approved by soldier assemblies.

This organizational structure was later used in organizing militias created by anarchists in the Spanish revolution and Spanish Civil War.

Commanders

• Batko Makhno (Huliaipole (Гуляйполе); anarchist-communist)
• Simon Karetnik (Huliaipole; anarchist-communist)
• Marchenko (Huliaipole; anarchist-communist (1907))
• Grigory Vasilevsky (Huliaipole)
• Boris Veretelnikov (Huliaipole; SR; anarchist-communist (1918))
• Peter Gavrilenko (Huliaipole; anarchist-communist (1905))
• Vasily Kurilenko (Novospassovka)
• Viktor Belash (Novospassovka; anarchist)
• Kalašnikov (Huliaipole; anarchist)
• Mikhalev-Pavlenko (deminer)
• Fedir Shchus (Bolšaja Mihailovka)
• Ivan Lepetchenko (Huliaipole; anarchist)
• Aleksandr Lepetchenko (Huliaipole; anarchist)
• Dmitry Ivanovich Popov (Moscow; left SR)
• Lev Zadov

References

See also

• Black Guards
• Battle of Peregonovka (1919)

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