The Arshinov Files: Part One
For some time now researchers from the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (KRAS), the Russian affiliate of the International Workers Association (IWA) have been trawling through the thousands of documents now found in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History. The documents found thus far provide far greater detail about the collusion of Arshinov with senior Bolsheviks in an effort to 'decompose' anarchism. There is some evidence to suggest that Arshinov may have written 'The Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists' at the suggestion of Andrei Zhdanov, who was First Secretary of the Nizhny Novogorod provincial party committee from 1924 to 1934. This article is a first in a series that will examine original texts including discussions among senior Bolsheviks about Arshinov's efforts against anarchism.
Piotr Arshinov was born in 1887 in Nizhny Lomov in what is now Penza Oblast in Russia. From 1904, Arshinov was part of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party that became known later as the Communist Party. In 1906, he became involved with anarchists in Ekaterinoslav. He was sentenced to death in a Russian court in 1907 after shooting the boss of the railway workshops and subsequently escaped to exile in France. In 1909, he returned to Russia and was again arrested but managed to escape yet again. He went to Austria in 1911 to buy arms but was arrested and then turned over to Czarist authorities where he was sentence to 20 years in Butyrki prison. It was here that Arshinov first met Nestor Makhno.
Released from prison in March 1917, Arshinov became involved with anarchism in Moscow and later took part in the Makhnovist uprising in Ukraine in 1918. In 1921, Arshinov fled first to Berlin and then later Paris. It was in Paris that he authored 'the Platform' in 1926 for which he is most famous and is widely regarded as the inspiration for and the precursor to 'Especifism'. 'The Platform' was widely criticised by contemporary anarchists such as Berkman, Goldman, Voline and Malatesta as an attempt to 'Bolshevise' anarchism. Less than five years later, Arshinov denounced anarchism in his 'Anarchism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat' published in 1931. Arshinov returned to Russia in 1935 only to be shot the the Great Purge of 1937.
The question remains; why did Arshinov abandon anarchism in favour of Bolshevism? How could someone who became so convinced of anarchism they left the Communist Party then turn around later and denounce it? These records of correspondence between Arshinov and Bolshevik leaders and among Bolshevik leaders about Arshinov's activities, never before published in English translation. may provide some answers.
Part One of this series is a translation of a letter written by Nikolai Bukharin to Mikhailovich Molotov dated 27 June 1935.
"To Comrade Molotov
Dear Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. I am sending you 2 versions of Comrade Arshinov's letter, which I discussed with you at the PB meeting. Personally, I think it would be better to give the full version. In the forwarding letter addressed to me, Comrade Arshinov informs me that he is ready for any changes that we deem necessary to make.
I kindly ask you to look through these documents and through Arbuzov ask Mogilny to forward them to the editorial office, having made the necessary corrections or additions.
Big hello!
Your Bukharin"
The document is printed on the letterhead of the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "Izvestia VTsIK SSSR". On the right at the bottom of the page, in blue pencil, is Molotov's resolution: "To Comrade Bukharin. It would be better to print a more complete version. Look at the text yourself. Molotov."
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History. F. 329. Op. 2. D. 6. L. 33. Original. Manuscript. Autograph of N.I. Bukharin.
