The hrigoriyev and makhno insurgent movements: history and historiography of the relations

Recently Ukrainian historical science has made a significant step forward in researching a certain number of questions connected with the Ukrainian insurgent movement of 1918-1921.However, they still have many poorly studied aspects , including the social base of the peasant movements, reasons that made them change their political orientations, relationship between insurgents headed be different atamans. It is these and some other so-called blank points of history that promoted our choosing the topic of relations between Makhno's and Hrigoriyev's rebels. This topic used to become a subject of consideration and research on the part of Soviet, White Guard, Makhno, Western, modern Russian and modern Ukrainian historians. As a result of their studies there appeared three different concepts according to which a) the relations between Makhno's and Hrigoryev's men were for some exceptions good and that of allies b) those were relations of not friends but constant adversaries and enemies c) these relations were different ( both friendly and hostile) in different periods of the Civil War. Along with the concrete merits of their studies their concrete drawbacks should be also revealed. These are above all political tendentiousness (this is applied to the first and second concepts) and clear-cut fragmentism. Proceeding from this situation the purpose of our article consists of two different aspects: a) to consistently consider and analyse the course of relations between Makhno's and Hrygoriyev's men; b) to reveal concrete factors that determined the contents of their relationship at different times; c) to provide a periodization of these relations from their beginning to the end; d) to access the abovementioned concepts by the degree of their proximity to the truth of history. The relations between the rebels of the two military chiefs passed several different stages. From the summer of 1918 till the mid-December of 1918 the insurgents of the atamans were allies in the struggle against the Hetman state and Austro- German occupation. From the end of December, 1918 till the end of January, 1919 they acted as enemies (Hrigoriyev's troops were fighting on the side of the Directory while Makhno's men were struggling against this government. From 29 January, 29 1919 to the mid-March, 1919 they were allies again, fighting against various counterrevolutionary antibolshevik forces (Petluira's army, Entente's armed forces and Denikin's white troops). In the second half of March, 1919 by unknown reasons Makhno's men revolted against Hrigoriyev during the struggle for Odessa. Later, at the second half of April, 1919 to the beginning of May, 1919 the two atamans were on the way to becoming allies in the struggle against Bolsheviks. But later when Hrigoriyev's men rebelled against the Communists Makhno participated in suppressing this movement (it was caused by ataman's anti-Jewish actions Makhno considered a kind of counterrevolution and the real possibility of the White army to restore the pre-revolutionary orders in Ukraine). However, from the mid-June till the July, 26, 1919 the both military leaders became allies again, they united their forces in the struggle against Communists. But on July, 27 1919 Makhno's men assassinated Hrygoriyev which resulted from the two political movements having become too different by that time.