Union of Poor Peasants

The organization initially operated under the guise of a theater group associated with the Coliseum theater in Huliaipole. The leaders were Czech - Woldemar Antoni (pseudonym Zarathustra, son of a socialist, worker, brought up from childhood in an anti-capitalist atmosphere) and a Ukrainian - Oleksandr Semeniuta (an anarchist defector from Odessa). They had about fifty permanent members and several hundred supporters. Initially, they dealt with the distribution of anarchist leaflets and appeals among the population. In 1905, Nestor Makhno became a member of the Poor Peasants (he took part in the first action in 1906).[1] Due to the lack of financial resources for its day-to-day operations (members lived in poverty or extreme poverty), the organization launched armed attacks on the local rich,[2] which was called expropriation by its members. There were many deaths then. Weapons were usually bought in Czerniowce in Bukovina, from where revolutionary literature was also brought. Spherical bombs were cast illegally at Kerner's plant in Huliaipole (they also attacked Boris Kerner himself). In July 1908, the group was weakened, some members died, including Ołeksander Semeniuta's wounded brother - Prokop, who shot himself in the head. Oleksandr was also killed later. On August 27, 1908, the group was finally exposed, 15 people were arrested, including Makhno. They waited for the sentence until March 1910. The punishments were death (including for Makhno), hard labor, imprisonment or penal colonies. Makhno avoided death only thanks to the forgery of his birth certificate, which indicated that he was a minor.[3]

• 1905 Russian Revolution
  • Bolshevik Military Organizations
  • Potemkin Mutiny
  • Russian Peasants' uprising of 1905–6
  • Sevastopol Uprising
  • SR Combat Organization