Перший рейд Селянської армії Н. Махно на Старобільщину у вересні 1920 р. та його наслідки

Abstract

The article considers the course and results of N. Makhno`s Peasant Insurgent Army raid to Starobilsk region in 1920. The author states, that the military activities of N. Makhno, in the then Starobilsk district of Kharkiv province in 1920, are the least covered in the works of Ukrainian and foreign historians among the aspects of the research the Makhnovist movement in 1917–1921. The importance of studying is that exactly in this region N. Makhno had made a number of significant strategic decisions that influenced the future fate of the peasant guerrilla movement. Additionally, in Starobilsk, on October 2 1920, N. Makhno signed an agreement with the Bolsheviks on a joint campaign in the Crimea, where were units of the White Army at the same time that led by General P. Wrangel. Prehistory review of these events is the object of studying in this article. The research presented in the article founded largely on the analysis of published documentary materials and historical works of Ukrainian representatives and foreign historiography. As a result of the research, the author concludes, that N. Makhno`s acceptance of Starobilsk in September 1920 was not related to the solution of core strategic problems. That was apparently due to necessity of the rest and reformed the army after the battles in the Izium region. The seizure of the locality was also owing to the desire to clear the rear of the Insurgent Army from the Bolshevik forces before the decisive attack on Luhansk, where the ataman hoped to replenish ammunition. Concomitantly, there were spontaneous requisitions of Soviet institutions property, warehouses and enterprises located here carried out in the city. The important factor similarly was considered the seizure of Starobilsk contributed to the consolidation of previously disparate local pro-Makhnovist detachments.