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with the turn toward a more radical political ori-
entation in the late 1920s, Makarenko's work
received acclaim from the government, which
identified his approach to education as a key to
the development of a new Soviet man. Maka-
renko became the director of a new commune
for homeless orphans in Kharkov and an educa-
tional celebrity of sorts, traveling widely and lec-
turing on educational problems. During the
Stalinist period up to the late 1980s, Makarenko
was treated as a major figure in the history of
education. In later years, a more sober evalua-
tion followed, praising his achievements in edu-
cating wayward children but acknowledging the
limits of his approach.
a large portion of the southeastern Ukraine from
his base around Hulyai-Pole, where he tried to
establish an anarchist peasant polity. Given the
strategic significance of the Ukraine and the
BOL
-
SHEVIKS
' increasing determination to control it,
this proved unworkable. Makhno was temporar-
ily allied with the Red Army in 1919 and 1920,
and his movement operated legally in Soviet ter-
ritory, but discord soon developed between his
band and the Red Army. His alliance with the
Bolsheviks was only tactical, a case of choosing
the lesser of two evils, papering over profound
ideological differences. With Ukraine in their
hands, the Bolsheviks turned on Makhno in late
1920 and destroyed his army and regime. He fled
Soviet Russia in August 1921, eventually settling
in Paris after stays in Romanian and Polish deten-
tion camps. In exile, he dabbled in émigré anar-
chist politics, worked as a shoemaker, wrote
three volumes of memoirs covering the first year
of the revolution, and died in poverty and isola-
tion. Idealized by some like the poet
ESENIN
as a
true revolutionary leader in the tradition of other
peasant rebels, Makhno was vilified by the Bol-
sheviks as a bandit. In the post-Soviet era,
Ukrainian historians have begun to reevaluate
Makhno's legacy in the light of Ukrainian resis-
tance to Soviet rule.
Makhno, Nestor Ivanovich
(1889-1935)
anarchist revolutionary
Born Nestor Mikhnenko to a peasant family near
Hulyai-Pole in the southeastern Ukraine, Makhno
was attracted to anarchism from an early age.
Imprisoned at the age of 19 for the murder of a
policeman, in 1910 he was sentenced to death.
Because of his youth, the sentence was com-
muted to 10 years imprisonment to be served in
Moscow's Butyrki prison. There he studied the
writings of anarchism, met and befriended Peter
Arshinov, with whom he worked closely for the
next decade. Here he also contracted the tubercu-
losis that would ultimately kill him. Released after
the
FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
of 1917, he returned to
the Ukraine, where he engaged in revolutionary
agitation. During the civil war, Makhno organized
the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, a
formidable peasant guerrilla force that fought
both Reds and Whites. Makhno's army fought
Austrians and Germans, Ukrainian nationalists
and Russian Whites and played a crucial role in
the successive defeats of Hetman Pavlo Skoropad-
sky, Semyon Petliura (1918),
DENIKIN
(1919), and
WRANGEL
(1920). His army used guerrilla tactics,
taking advantage of the mobility of his cavalry.
His raids involved great violence and, although he
condemned
ANTI
-
SEMITISM
,
POGROM
s and great
brutality. At the peak of his power, he controlled
Malenkov, Georgii Maksimilianovich
(1902-1988)
Soviet official
Presumed to be
STALIN
's likely successor on the
eve of the dictator's death in 1953, Malenkov
was outmaneuvered by Nikita
KHRUSHCHEV
within a few years. Born in Orenburg to a mid-
dle-class family, during World War II he served
as a Communist political officer on the eastern
and Turkestan fronts. The patronage of Lazar
KAGANOVICH
, a member of Stalin's inner circle
who recognized his organizational skills, helped
Malenkov advance in the party apparatus. As
director of the Communist Party's Central Com-
mittee's department for party personnel in the
mid-1930s, he took an active part in implement-
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