On the anniversary of Maria Nikiforova's execution by the White Army on
September 17, 1919, we present a translation by Anatoly Dubovik of thebiographical sketch of this unique Ukrainian anarchist. ---- ~ Anatoly
Dubovik, translated by Malcolm Archibald ~ translated into Italian by
Associazione Anarchici Anonimi ---- Maria Nikiforova is perhaps the most
famous anarchist who operated on the territory of the former Russian
Empire and Ukraine. ---- Maria Hryhorivna Nikiforova was born in 1888
(probably 1885). Her exact place of birth is unknown. According to some
sources, it was the town of Pechenikovo, Starodubskyi District,
Chernihiv Province; According to others, she was born in the village of
Levshikovo, Oleksandrivskyi district, Katerynoslav province. Nikiforova
was the daughter of a peasant and the only education she received,
according to her own words, was at home. There is no other reliable
information about her early youth.
In the early 1900s, while working as a seamstress, Nikiforova joined the
Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR), then switched to the
anarcho-communists. This happened in the city of Oleksandrivsk (now
Zaporizhia) or Katerynoslav (now Dnipro). She was an agitator, then
joined a combat squad and participated in terrorist attacks against the
local bourgeoisie and the police. In 1907, Nikiforova lived in Starodub,
where she was one of the leaders of a revolutionary group that included
young anarchists, SRs and SR maximalists. They conducted propaganda
among the workers of the city and the nearby settlement of Klintsy, as
well as engaging in armed actions.
In Starodub, Nikiforova was arrested for the first time in 1907 while
attempting to commit suicide, fortunately unsuccessfully. The charges of
terrorism carried the threat of the death penalty, so Maria insisted to
the investigators and the medical commission that she was born in 1889.
This made her a minor and allowed her to hope for a lighter sentence.
And so it happened. On October 13, 1907, the provisional military court
in Chernihiv found Nikiforova guilty of belonging to the
anarcho-communists, participating in the murder of a Starodub police
officer, and robbing a priest. She was sentenced to hang, but when the
sentence was confirmed, the execution was commuted to 20 years of hard
labor due to her false age.
A year after the trial, Nikiforova was transferred to Moscow. The
accompanying documents noted: "Prone to escape. In the common cell, she
is a leader and agitator. It is a good idea to keep her in solitary
confinement. Requires especially vigilant supervision as a major criminal."
Upon her arrival in Moscow in May 1909, Nikiforova was imprisoned in the
Moscow Provincial Women's Prison. She shared a cell with two other
radicals: Natalya Klimova, an SR maximalist serving an indefinite
sentence for organizing an assassination attempt on Peter Stolypin, the
Russian Interior Minister; and Ekaterina Nikitina, another maximalist.
Nikiforova spent less than two months in the Moscow prison. When she
arrived, an outside group composed of various revolutionary
organizations was preparing an assault on the prison. This motley group
included the young Vladimir Mayakovsky, who would soon gain fame as
Russia's foremost futurist poet. The conspirators' main goal was to free
Nikiforova's cellmate Klimova, but other prisoners also had the
opportunity to escape. On the evening of July 1, 1909, the warden opened
the cell doors, gave the prisoners free clothes, and led them out into
the corridor. After descending from the second floor using knotted
sheets, thirteen prisoners escaped into the street. Once freed, they
split into small groups and, accompanied by escorts, went to safe houses.
After the escape, Nikiforova ended up in Western Europe. She lived in
Paris and Brussels, joined anarchist groups, and maintained relations
with many Russian emigrants.
Returning to her homeland in June 1917, Nikiforova settled in St.
Petersburg (then called Petrograd) and joined the Federation of
Petrograd Anarchist Communists (PFAK), which at that time was preparing
an armed uprising against the Provisional Government. From the first
days of his life in the capital, he carried out intense agitation and
propaganda activities, giving speeches to soldiers and workers. He had
an undoubted oratorical talent; Zora Gandlevskaya recalled that he
"could speak at rallies for 3-4 hours with passion and captivate the
audience with his persuasiveness, passion and erudition".
But Nikiforova's activities were not limited to propaganda alone: on
June 18, she took part in an armed attack by anarchists on the Kresty
prison in St. Petersburg and the liberation of her comrades. This action
prompted the Russian government to destroy the headquarters of the PFAK
and arrest several of its activists. Nikiforova was also arrested, but
was released a few days later, like most of those arrested.
In August 1917, Nikiforova moved to Oleksandrivsk and became the most
well-known and respected member of the Oleksandrivsk Federation of
Anarchists. Under her leadership, the Federation became a mass
organization that enjoyed strong influence among the workers and
peasants of the city and the surrounding district. Nikiforova quickly
gained wide popularity in the Ukrainian anarchist movement. She traveled
throughout the district, calling for the struggle against all existing
authorities for the construction of a free anarchist society. During
this period, she first met Nestor Makhno and other anarchists from
Huliaipole. But Nikiforova did not limit herself to propaganda alone: by
the fall, she had formed a combat squad ("a detachment of
anarcho-terrorists"), which began to expropriate the local bourgeoisie.
The first victim was the owner of the Oleksandrivsk Bardovsky factory,
from whom the anarchists seized a million rubles. Part of the money was
transferred to the city's Soviet of Workers' Deputies and other
revolutionary organizations.
At the end of September 1917, Nikiforova was arrested by order of the
Oleksandrivsk District Executive Committee. In response, the anarchists,
including Makhno, who was in Oleksandrivsk, called on the city's workers
to organize a general strike. As a result, Nikiforova was released;
however, a few weeks later, she was arrested again, this time for
organizing expropriations. The second imprisonment did not last long
either. Her release was hastened by the events in St. Petersburg when,
on October 26, the Bolsheviks staged a coup, launching the revolution
into a new and bloodier phase.
The inevitability of civil war was obvious, and weapons became the
primary means of resolving disputes between different political forces.
Therefore, Nikiforova and her team of "anarcho-terrorists" began
disarming military units of the old army, keeping the weapons for
themselves or transferring them to like-minded groups in other Ukrainian
cities.
In mid-December, the Left Bloc of Bolsheviks, Left Socialist
Revolutionaries and Anarchists of Oleksandrivsk attempted to take
control of the city. After intense street fighting, on January 4, 1918,
local Soviet power was established in Oleksandrivsk, with Nikiforova
elected chairman of the city's Military Revolutionary Committee
(Revkom). According to Makhno, she was worried that the Revkom would
turn into a new government body. To prevent this, and true to her
anarchist beliefs, she informed the city workers of all the decisions
and internal functioning of the Revkom.
On instructions and funds received from the Bolshevik government,
Nikiforova formed her own armed unit, the Black Guard, which numbered
about 600 fighters with artillery and machine guns, a relatively large
military force at the time. In mid-January, the unit went to the Don,
where it fought against General Kaledin's Cossacks and then participated
in the establishment of Soviet power in the cities of southern Crimea.
At the end of the month, Nikiforova's Black Guard returned to the
Ukrainian steppes, where the struggle between the Left Bloc and the
Ukrainian Nationalist Republic was in full swing. Continued
Returning to Oleksandrivsk after a month's absence, Nikiforova and her
fighters entered into a new conflict with the Bolsheviks, this time with
the leadership of the local Soviet, which regarded her actions as a
"usurpation of power." At first, the issue was limited to mutual
accusations, but on February 20, disagreements reached a fever pitch:
the Black Guard arrested members of the city's executive committee and
there was a shootout with a group of Red Guards. Those arrested were
released the same day, but Nikiforova refused to continue working with
them and, as a principled opponent of the authorities, demonstratively
resigned from all Soviet bodies.
At this time, the Austro-German offensive to occupy Ukraine began. The
Black Guard announced a new recruitment of volunteers, increasing the
number to nearly a thousand people. By early March 1918, Nikiforova's
anarchists had been fighting against the Austro-German troops for more
than a month, slowly retreating along the railways from the Kiev region
to the Northern Azov region. As before, her Black Guard practiced
large-scale requisitions and confiscations, although, in many cases,
impostors acted on behalf of Nikiforova and her fighters, no different
from ordinary bandits.
The Ukrainian Bolsheviks were dissatisfied with Nikiforova for another
reason. As a staunch opponent of statism, she often disbanded local
soviets that had arrogated too many rights or simply sabotaged the fight
against the external threat. Nikiforova maintained the highest
reputation and real popularity among anarchists who protested against
"the constant persecution by the Bolsheviks and the bourgeoisie," and
the military command arrived in Taganrog, the temporary capital of "Red"
Ukraine, which the German army had almost completely surrounded. On the
same day, the Black Guard was disarmed and Nikiforova herself was
arrested by order of the Red Army section, which considered the Black
Guard one of the most combat-ready units in Ukraine, and Nikiforova
herself a capable commander, although she was perhaps the only female
military leader in the country. The commander-in-chief of the Red Army
in Ukraine, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, himself declared: "Marusya is a
fighter, she is selflessly engaged in combat and keeps her detachment in
iron discipline. She behaved no worse, but rather better, than many of
the vaunted Soviet leaders who cowardly fled, taking their property and
families with them, long before the Germans arrived."
https://umanitanova.org/fuoco-e-passione-la-vita-dellanarchica-ucraina-maria-nikiforova-prima-parte/
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