Peter Arshinov

Peter Arshinov (1887–1937) was a Russian anarchist and historian. 

Life
Peter Arshinov was born in 1887. He was from a working class Russian family. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Arshinov joined the Bolsheviks and published their newspaper. He then moved to Ukraine and became an anarchist. He carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations. He was arrested and imprisoned in Moscow. In prison, he met the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno and became his teacher.

After the 1917 Revolution, Arshinov and Makhno were released from prison. Makhno returned to Ukraine, while Arshinov stayed in Moscow. When Makhno's Insurgent Army beat the Central Powers, Arshinov went to Ukraine and joined Makhno. Arshinov established the Nabat, a Ukrainian anarchist organisation. Arshinov also edited the Makhnovshchina's newspaper The Road to Freedom.

Arshinov witnessed the Insurgent Army's conflict with both the Red and White armies. In 1921, he went into exile in Berlin. There he wrote his History of the Makhnovist Movement. In 1925, he moved to Paris and established the magazine Delo Truda. He co-wrote the Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists, which called for anarchists to be more organised. The Platform was controversial and Arshinov was accused of authoritarianism. In the 1930s, Arshinov left the anarchist movement and became a communist. He moved to the Soviet Union, where he was killed in the Great Purge.

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Category:1887 births
Category:1937 deaths
Category:Anarchist communists
Category:Russian anarchists
Category:Russian communists
Category:Russian historians
Category:Russian politicians