Did the Makhnovists support the Whites?
No, they did not. However, black propaganda by the Bolsheviks stated they did. Victor Serge wrote about the “strenuous calumnies put out by the Communist Party” against him “which went so far as to accuse him of signing pacts with the Whites at the very moment when he was engaged in a life-and-death struggle against them.” [Memoirs of a Revolutionary, p. 122] According to Arshinov, “Soviet newspapers spread the false news of an alliance between Makhno and Wrangel” and in the summer of 1920, a representative of the Kharkov government “declared at the Plenary Session of the Ekaterinoslav Soviet, that Soviet authorities had written proof of the alliance between Makhno and Wrangel. This was obviously an intentional lie.” Wrangel, perhaps believing these lies had some basis, sent a messenger to Makhno in July, 1920. “Wrangel’s messenger was immediately executed” and the “entire incident was reported in the Makhnovist press. All this was perfectly clear to the Bolsheviks. They nevertheless c
