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Concept
Black Guards
Summary
Black Guards (Чёрная гвардия) were armed groups of workers formed after the February Revolution and before the final Bolshevik suppression of other left-wing groups. They were the main strike force of the anarchists. They were created in the Summer of 1917 in Ukraine by Maria Nikiforova, and expanded in January 1918 to Moscow, under the control of anarchists at industrial enterprises by Factory and Plant Committees and by Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups cells.
Russian anarchists opposed the creation of a regular Red Army with the call "To arms!" and the widespread organization of rebel committees with the aim of total arming of the populace. The anarchist press of Petrograd, Moscow and other large centers carried out massive agitation with the aim of creating free fighting squads of the "Black Guard". As the newspaper Burevestnik, the organ of the Petrograd Federation, wrote:
“Those gentlemen are cruelly mistaken, thinking that the real revolution is already over, that now all that remains is to consolidate those disgusting gains that went to the working people. No! The real revolution, the social revolution, the liberator of the working people of all countries, is just beginning.”
Maria Nikiforova organized the Black Guards' first unit. Nikiforova, often known by her nickname Marusya, was a Ukrainian anarchist organiser who put together the first Black Guards cell in the city of Alexandrovsk in Ukraine. Nikiforova started the first Black Guards cell in an attempt to force land reform and wealth redistribution to fruition. Nikiforova, a self-proclaimed terrorist, directed her unit of Black Guards to terrorize the Alexandrovsk local government in order to achieve the political change she desired. Later similar cells were established by Nestor Makhno throughout other portions of Ukraine. Makhno, during the revolution, seized land and distributed wealth among the peasants.
The strength of the Black Guard quickly grew, which was noted, in particular, by the Deputy Chairman of the Cheka Jēkabs Peterss.
Official source
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