Program Documents as a Source on the History of the Anarchist Movement in Ukraine in the Early 20th Century

Abstract

The article considers programs and program documents as a historical source on the history of the anarchist movement in Ukraine in the early 20th century. Without a doubt, the historical conditions prevailing in Ukraine and Russia in 1903–1914 influenced the formation and nature of sources. In particular, the absence of a central body and the denial of the movement as a whole affected the core of the source base, marked by a relatively small number of party-organizational documents with particular characteristics. The all-Russian character of anarchist activity also had an impact on the nature of sources. They were distributed in Ukraine, but their contents did not contain any references to specific activities in its territory.The article provides a classification of sources, which are divided into such groups: programs and statutes, congress resolutions, party press, activists’ memoirs and observations, private correspondence. The article describes the programs and program statements of anarchists. The specifics of the program-organizational sources of anarchists are also determined. They are characterized according to the views of anarchists on the organization itself and the party leadership. Not recognizing any organization, considering any leadership a sort of violence against an individual, anarchists advocated full autonomy and independence of groups, interaction on a federal basis.The article characterizes the programs and program statements of anarchists as a historical source. The historical value of documents is determined; their specificity is defined. The research of documents establishes ideological principles, tactics of struggle, ideas about the role of some social groups in the revolution. The studied documents allow establishing the territory of anarchist activity in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century.