The Anarchist Movement in Ukraine at the Height of the New Economic Policy (1924-25)

• Main Author: Viktor Savchenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies 2017-09-01
• Series: East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies
• Online Access: https://www.ewjus.com/index.php/ewjus/article/view/328

This paper examines a virtually unknown period of the development of the anarchist movement in Ukraine, ignored by both Soviet and post-Soviet historians, for whom the history of anarchism in the Soviet Union ended in 1921. The author,basing his information on archival materials,including the archives of the Soviet secret police agencies (ChK, GPU, OGPU), extends the life of the anarchist movement through the mid-1920s. This was a period of revitalization of the movement, especially among students, young workers, and the unemployed in the cities of Eastern and Southern Ukraine (Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava). Despite repression by the government, the anarchist movement in the USSR in the 1920s was able to sustain itself by going underground.