Young Rebels Against the Empire

The Youth Memoirs of Nestor Makhno and Voldemar Antoni

Nestor Makhno (1888—1934) is known mainly for his efforts to establish an anarchist society in southeastern Ukraine during the Russian Civil War (1918–1921). But the Makhnovist movement did not appear out of thin air – it had
a pre-history that started a dozen years earlier in the steppe village of Gulyai-Polye with an organization called the Union of Poor Peasants.
This Union, with a membership mainly of young people, engaged in an unequal struggle with the
forces of law and order and was soon crushed.

Makhno himself spent many years in prison,
including a harrowing 53 days on death row. His
mentor during his earlier years in the movement,
Voldemar Antoni (1886–1974), managed to
escape abroad and survived to old age. Both
anarchists left memoirs of their early years which
deserve to be better known and are offered here
in an English translation.

Translated and annotated by Malcolm Archibald.

Published by Black Cat Press 2021.

ISBN 978-1-926878-24-9
20.2 cm x 12.8 cm; 160 g
174 pp, paperback

$14.95