Short version: The Anarchists were untrustworthy allies and constantly stole supply shipments heading to the front lines against the whites.
Longer version:
The Makhnovists were one of several guerrilla bands that had allied with the Bolsheviks and became units of the Ukrainian Soviet Army in 1919. “Makhno’s forces were assigned a strategically vital section of the Red Army’s Southern Front facing the counter-revolutionary White Army of the former Tsarist general Denikin.” [18] But even during his time as a commander of the Ukrainian Soviet Army, Makhno deliberately stole from and undermined his Bolshevik allies. The historian Arthur Adams writes that “Makhno supplied himself, sometimes by commandeering entire Bolshevik supply trains meant for the Southern Front... Soviet food collectors and political institutions found it impossible to function in the region under his domination.” [19]
The Makhnovists demanded that the Bolshevik government supply them with munitions to use in the fight against the Whites. But the Makhnovists also refused to allow Soviet grain collectors into region under their control. The Makhnovists had therefore sought economic assistance from the Bolsheviks but refused to return the favour; often resulting in violent clashes between the Makhnovist guerrillas and Soviet grain collectors.
Trotsky (Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs) wrote that “[S]ince the Makhnovists are sitting on the railway branch-line from Mariupol, they are refusing to allow the coal and grain to leave except in exchange for other supplies... [T]he Makhnovites are trying to establish domination by gangs and bands: whoever has grabbed something is its rightful owner, and can then exchange it for whatever he hasn’t got. This is not products-exchange but commodity-stealing.” [20]
I mean the alleged thefts of supplies happened in 1919 and the Bolsheviks had already classified the Black Army as "Deserters and Bandits" way back in 1917.
The Bolshevik policy towards "Bandits and Deserters" at the time was that they should be shot on sight. They declassified them for a year while they were making common cause against the Whites but then when they decided to turn on the Mahknovists again in 1919 not only did they reclassify them, they upgraded their policy on Deserters and Bandits to, in Lenin's own words
After the expiration of the seven-day deadline for deserters to turn themselves in, punishment must be increased for these incorrigible traitors to the cause of the people. Families and anyone found to be assisting them in any way whatsoever are to be considered as hostages and treated accordingly.
In case you were wondering what "treated accordingly" meant here's a Cheka report
Yaroslavl Province, 23 June 1919. The uprising of deserters in the Petropavlovskaya volost has been put down. The families of the deserters have been taken as hostages. When we started to shoot one person from each family, the Greens began to come out of the woods and surrender. Thirty-four deserters were shot as an example.
The Russian Bolsheviks and the subsequent USSR were a powerful force for good in the world but they should not have done what they did to the Mahknovists.
Short version: The Anarchists were untrustworthy allies and constantly stole supply shipments heading to the front lines against the whites.
Longer version:
Real Long Version: Here
I mean the alleged thefts of supplies happened in 1919 and the Bolsheviks had already classified the Black Army as "Deserters and Bandits" way back in 1917.
The Bolshevik policy towards "Bandits and Deserters" at the time was that they should be shot on sight. They declassified them for a year while they were making common cause against the Whites but then when they decided to turn on the Mahknovists again in 1919 not only did they reclassify them, they upgraded their policy on Deserters and Bandits to, in Lenin's own words
In case you were wondering what "treated accordingly" meant here's a Cheka report
The Russian Bolsheviks and the subsequent USSR were a powerful force for good in the world but they should not have done what they did to the Mahknovists.
For some reason this is incredibly black pilling. Even the good events in history are mostly awful, apparently