Chemakin A. A. “White Makhnovists”: Peasant rebels in Northern Taurida and Russian Army in 1920 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №4. P. 92-115.
EDN: JXPIEV
Annotation
The article considers the interaction of the Russian Army of General P. N. Wrangel with Makhnovist detachments in Northern Tavria in the summer and autumn of 1920. Although Wrangel’s contacts with various insurgent groups (gangs) (mentioned in the movie “Wedding in the village of Malinovka”) are known to wider circles of the population, information about the “White Makhnovists” has not been systematized. The author revealed the names of about 15 atamans who went over to the Whites, and provides information about the most important of them (Volodin, Prochan, Grishin, Savchenko, Kravchaty, Ishchenko, Chaly) and Makhnovites who had contacts with the Russian Army (Chernyak), focusing on the number of the “White Makhnovists”, their appearance and symbols; examining the propaganda campaign of the Whites, who printed huge copies of proclamations on behalf of the Makhnovist atamans. The article mentions the betrayal of the majority of the detachments, their defection to the side of the Reds, the Makhnovists’s alliance with them, and the fate of the “White Makhnovists” atamans. The author concludes that, on the one hand, the “White Makhnovists” ensured the Russian Army relative peace in the rear and loyalty of the peasants in Northern Tavria; on the other hand, the very fact of the alliance between the Whites and the “bandits” demonstrated the weakness of the Wrangelists.
Keywords
Civil War, Russian army, “White Makhnovists”, Makhnovshchina, rebels, partisans, Northern Tavria, P. N. Wrangel, N. I. Makhno, V. G. Volodin, N. Chaly, V. F. Belash.
About the author
Anton A. Chemakin, PhD (History), Associate Professor, Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya Neb. 7–9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia.
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Additional Info
- Submitted Wednesday, 30 July 2025
- Reviewed Friday, 05 September 2025
- Copyright © Auhtors, 2025
- Distribution Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Evidence of war and occupation in the memoirs of Russian peasants: Two Cossack women near Stalingrad
May 15 2022Nakhimovsky A. D. Evidence of war and occupation in the memoirs of Russian peasants: Two Cossack women near Stalingrad // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №1. P. 69-102.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-1-69-102
Annotation
The article examines the life of Russian peasants in the steppe regions adjacent to Stalingrad and occupied by the German army at the time of the Stalingrad battle. The battle began in these regions in July–August 1942. In September, when the fighting moved into the city set on a narrow strip along the Volga River, the surrounding steppe was taken over by a more or less organized occupation regime. The occupation came to an end after the Soviet counterattack on November 19-23. While abundant literature has been devoted to the battle in the city, there is practically nothing on the life of peasants under occupation in the surrounding area. Relatively little has been written about the life of peasants during the Great Patriotic War. Studies of the occupation have focused on the western regions of the Soviet Union, where the occupation lasted for years. In the Volga Region, it lasted only for months. There was no occupation administration — only soldiers mostly preoccupied with daily fighting. The local population consisted primarily of the Don Cossacks who preserved Cossack traditions and retained sharp memories of collectivization. The article considers: (1) how the occupiers and the occupied negotiated such unusual conditions; (2) how traditional peasant values and behavioral norms were expressed; (3) how on occasion the occupiers defied their usual stereotypes. The study is based on the records of linguists, specifically dialectologists. Dialectology and oral history frequently use similar materials for different tasks. It is worth noting that the oral history began to develop in Russia only in the 1990s, while dialectology continues a tradition established in the 19th century. Especially in the study of the Russian peasantry, records made by dialectologists can be a valuable source for historians.
Keywords
Oral history, World War II, Stalingrad, Nazi occupation, peasantry, Don Cossacks, Nazi collaboration, partisans, collectivization, de-kulakization.
About the author
Alexander D. Nakhimovsky, PhD, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Linguistics (Emeritus), Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, New York, 13346 USA.
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