Makhno’s speech at the rally in Issajewka, July 1921

The communism we strive for aims at freedom of the individual, equality, self-determination, initiative, prosperity. We have tried to build society on non-violent anarchist principles. But the Bolsheviks did not allow this. They transformed the battle of ideas into a battle between people. The state apparatus, hated by the people, with its representatives, prisons, etc., has not been liquidated, but only reorganized. The Bolsheviks have declared the use of violence to be the legal norm. The foundation of society laid by the Bolsheviks has nothing in common with communism. They have destroyed all parties, all competitors. This semi-military sect of Marx soldiers, with their blind discipline, claim to infallibility, and non-tolerance of contradiction, aims at a totalitarian state without freedoms and rights for citizens. They propagate a peculiar ideological racism, dividing people into “ours” and not “ours”. Much of it borders on absurdity. They are depriving working people of all illusions about a better life, they are creating a police society, the most miserable, the most unjust society, where all joy in work, all desire to create, all initiative are excluded. Their experiments will be endless. Their rule will spit out an irresponsible generation of demagogues and dictators. They will destroy everyone and everything that does not correspond to their party or ideology. Comrades! Do not give up your weapons! Do not trust the Bolsheviks. Thank you for everything!!!