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Nestor Makhno, peasant of Ukraine
Anarchist and communist, a conjunction of two terms unthinkable in the Soviet Union. However, it is what Nestor Makhno demanded in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. On a breathless rhythm, Hélène Chatelain reconstitutes his life from his writings, Soviet propaganda films, reactions of workers today and the memory he left in the heart of his people in Huliai Polye. Between the Revolution of 1917 and 1921, Makhno is the initiator in Ukraine of the first communes. He shares some communist aspirations, nevertheless his local power and his refusal of violence and new directives can only throw shade on the emerging soviets. Lenin tries a mediation with Makhno to bring him back in the Bolshevik bosom, but he resists. The legend built by Soviet propaganda makes him a counter-revolutionary anarchist-bandit-antisemite; for those of Huliai Polye, he on the contrary defends freedom and the poor, and the Makhnovist newspapers show that he also defended the Jews. "Workers of the world, go to the depths of your soul for only there will you find the truth."
