The Struggle Against the State & Other Essays

by Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno

Release Date: March, 1996

Edition: Paperback

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Half rhetoric, half history.

This book offers an interesting insight into the Second Russian Revolution. It is a collection of essays written by the military leader of the Ukranian anarchists who fought first along side of and then against the Bolsheviks. Mr. A. Skirda also deserves a mention for his excellent translation.

While this book is certainly not of any philosophical weight, it offers several interesting arguments against the state and capital. Makhno also includes in his essays contemporary events, and his commentary. This is almost a handbook for organisation along eglatarian lines.

I found this book well worth the short read time. It has given me invaluable insight into the methods of the Bolsheviks and their "counter-revolutionary" opponents. I say this is a "must-read" for anybody interested in the Second Russian Revolution and the Soviet State that followed.

Excellent Collection

This book presents some excellent essays by Nestor Makhno, military leader of the anarchists in the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War. Makhno's work is not well-known, but he explains anarchism quite lucidly and gives the reader good reasons to prefer it over capitalism and state socialism.