Entre os Vermelhos e os Brancos: o papel dos anarquistas na Revolução Russa

Abstract

This paper analyzes the participation of anarchists in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), highlighting their political, social, and military role amid the disputes that shaped the revolutionary process. The study seeks to understand the involvement of libertarians in workers' and peasants' organizations, their defense of self-management, free Soviets, and federalist organization, as well as the conflicts established with the Bolshevik project of centralized power. Special attention is given to the Makhnovist movement led by Nestor Makhno in Ukraine, considered the main expression of anarchism during the Civil War. The paper also discusses the debates between self-management and centralization, local autonomy and a strong state, as well as the subsequent marginalization of anarchist participation in Soviet historiography. It concludes that anarchists represented a significant revolutionary alternative to the Bolshevik model, contributing to a broader understanding of the political plurality present in the Russian Revolution and its competing projects of social transformation.