Maria the Implacable

The Bolshevik military command turned a blind eye to the “pranks” of the female otaman and her unit. The Soviet commander- in-chief, Ukrainian-born Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, even appointed Maria commander of the Red Cavalry in the Kherson region and the Crimea and gave her 250,000 rubles for military needs. These were alarming times for the Bolsheviks and their fair-weather anarchist allies, as the Austrian and German armies were approaching Ukraine from the west. Under pressure from the advancing enemy, Nykyforova’s detachment retreated eastwards, engaging in heavy battles with the interventionists and UNR units for Berdiansk, Melitopil, and other cities. Nykyforova had a burning desire to liberate Huliai-Pole from foreign and national counterrevolutionaries, but after making a sober assessment of the situation, Makhno and Maria dropped this plan. In late April 1918 she and her fighters reached Tahanrih, where they hoped to have a brief rest from their long and exhausting battles.

ON TRIAL

Their hopes for a rest were futile. On orders from the local Bolshevik authorities, Nykyforova’s unit was surrounded and disarmed, and she was arrested on charges that her fighters had carried out brutal pogroms in Yelysavethrad. In my opinion, the real reason why she was arrested was in no way the Bolsheviks’ desire to restore justice. While the anarchists were needed as allies in the fight against foreign and internal counterrevolutionaries, on Soviet territory they were regarded as dangerous rivals, who had to be neutralized one way or another.

Soon after, in the last days of April 1918, Nykyforova was tried in Tahanrih. The judges had ample grounds for meting out severe punishment to the female anarchist, because Tahanrih was flooded with refugees from Yelysavethrad who had witnessed Marusia’s atrocities.

But Maria the Implacable managed to get off scot-free, as she had influential protectors. Nykyforova immediately received support from many Bolshevik and anarchist units that had retreated to Tahanrih. During this trying time, Maria also found a protector in the person of Antonov- Ovseenko, who expressed his high regard for Nykyforova and her fighters in a telegram to the judges. Those who tried the rebellious female anarchist knew only too well that pointing at the court building were the guns of an armored train whose commander, the anarchist Garin, had said bluntly that he would not leave the defendant in the lurch. Nykyforova was finally acquitted and told that she was free to choose between continuing to fight on the side of the revolution or becoming a purely private person, with no connection to military and political matters.

Naturally, as a military person, Nykyforova opted for the former. Her unit was soon relocated to the White Army front line near Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd). But Maria’s relations with the Bolshevik leaders went from bad to worse again. Nykyforova quickly made it clear that she would not tolerate any, including Soviet, authority. Armed clashes broke out between her fighters and the Reds, and Maria was rearrested by the Bolsheviks, who jailed her for three months in Butyrka Prison. She faced a bleak future, but even this time she was lucky: she was released on bail provided by Antonov-Ovseenko and Karelin, a well-known anarchist and member of Soviet Russia’s Central Executive Committee. The ‘woman with the revolver’ then decided to leave inhospitable Bolshevik Russia for Ukraine.

In January 1919 Nykyforova’s 200-strong detachment was merged with Red Army units commanded by Pavlo Dybenko, which were moving from northern to southern Ukraine, waging fierce battles with Petliura’s forces. One must give Nykyforova’s anarchist fighters their due: during this campaign they showed themselves in a very positive light. The anarchists fought gallantly to seize Kharkiv and later, at the end of January, they were the first to storm into Katerynoslav. Things may have gone smoothly in Maria’s life had it not been for her stubborn penchant for conducting unsanctioned requisitions and summary executions. As usual, punishment was administered swiftly: Nykyforova was stripped of the right to hold leading Soviet posts, including military ones, for one year.

“SISTER OF MERCY”

After some time the “unemployed” female otaman returned to Huliai-Pole. Maria had high hopes that Makhno, for old acquaintance’s sake, would gradually restore all her military rights, if not immediately. But he strictly forbade Marusia to visit his headquarters and soon appointed the battle- hardened commander to the non- military position of hospital chief in his native village.

This may create the impression that Makhno, who was a Red Army brigade commander at the time, had decided to follow the letter of the Bolshevik government injunction about Nykyforova. In reality, Makhno, who was rarely loyal to the communists, had his own reasons for treating the “sister of mercy” this way. His relations with the communists were complicated and uncertain in the spring of 1919, and since Maria had commanded a combat unit and was an impulsive and unpredictable woman, she could have done something that the Bolsheviks would later use as a pretext for liquidating “batko Makhno.” This is why the anarchist leader kept Nykyforova in this “safe” position, although as a commander she was the equal of his own fighters. Nevertheless, Makhno allowed her to speak without restrictions at all kinds of rallies (Maria was a superb orator), although he could be a strict censor. For example, on May 1, 1919, when Nykyforova publicly accused the Bolsheviks of repressing the anarchists, Makhno personally dragged her off the podium, to be on the safe side.

The master of Huliai-Pole did several things to sugar the pill for Maria in her unenviable situation. For example, she always stood next to the “father” whenever he received high-ranking Bolsheviks because Makhno thought this would instill a feeling of personal dignity in her. Once, when they had a visit from Lev Kamenev, member of the Russian Communist Party Central Committee, Maria asked him to help reduce her term of punishment to six months. Impressed by Nykyforova’s account of her fighters’ heroic struggle, Kamenev promised to help her.

TERRORIST AGAIN

It goes without saying that the military commander’s civilian status rankled her. Maria often recalled the bright pages of her military past and believed that in the grim year 1919 she could undertake new exploits. But the long chain of humdrum days dragged on without bringing any major changes to her life. At last, she resolved to turn her life around through her own efforts and put an end to the Huliai-Pole deep freeze. She chose to leave Makhnovism and return to individual terror, her youthful “profession,” which she was planning to direct against both White and Red leaders. Despite repeated Bolshevik reprisals against her and other anarchists, for a long time Nykyforova considered them allies in the struggle against the “bourgeois generals.” But the Bolshevik government’s strikes against the Makhno movement in June 1919 (the arrest and execution of Makhno’s staff by the Soviet secret police, the disarming of Makhno’s units, etc.) pushed Maria the Implacable away from the communists forever. One should also not discount the ideological influence on Marusia of her husband, Polish anarchist Witold Brzostek (they married in Kharkiv in early 1919), who opposed both “right-wing and left-wing reaction.”

The anarchist couple decided to go to Moscow to settle the score with the Bolshevik leaders Lenin, Trotsky, and others. But before doing so, Witold and Maria had to journey to the Crimea, where they planned to kill General Anton Denikin.

After Maria launched a rather successful propaganda campaign among Makhno’s soldiers, 60 of his fighters agreed to embark on the path of individual terror. They soon formed three groups: 20 militants led by Nykyforova and Brzostek would go to the Crimea, 25 to Kharkiv to organize terrorist acts against the Bolshevik leaders, and 15 to Siberia to liquidate Admiral Kolchak, the commander of the White Army. On one of the last days of June 1919 the three groups of terrorists left the area controlled by Makhno.

The further fate of Maria Nykyforova is not clear. According to one version, in July 1919 she and her husband arrived in the Crimea, where she was arrested by White Army troops, court-martialed, and executed. Another legend says that Denikin’s men arrested Nykyforova and Brzostek but later released them. Afterward, Maria allegedly came to Moscow and played a key role in organizing an anarchist attempt on the lives of the leaders of the Moscow Communist Party Committee, after which the famous anarchist disappeared without a trace.

I do not consider the second version plausible. It is highly unlikely that the White Army commanders would release their sworn enemies from custody just because of their good looks. Furthermore, since Maria Nykyforova does not figure in various studies on the anarchists’ terrorist act in September 1919, I believe it is more likely that Maria was executed by the Whites in the Crimea in July 1919. But my fellow historians and I have yet to determine whether this was actually the case.

Volodymyr Horak holds the degree of Candidate of Sciences (History).