The Free Territory (Ukrainian: Вільна територія vilna teritoriia; Russian: свободная территория svobodnaya territoriya) or Makhnovia (Махновщина Makhnovshchina) was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society during the Ukrainian Revolution. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time "free soviets" and libertarian communes operated under the protection of Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army. The population of the area was around seven million.
The territory was occupied by Russian forces under Anton Denikin and a temporary government of Southern Russia formed, but, by 1920, Denikin's forces had been driven out of the area by the Red Army in cooperation with Makhno's forces, whose units were conducting guerrilla warfare behind Denikin's lines.
As the Free Territory was organised along anarchist lines, references to "control" and "government" are highly contentious. For example, the Makhnovists, often cited as a form of government (with Nestor Makhno being their leader), played a purely military role, with Makhno himself being little more than a well-respected military strategist and advisor.
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or territory:
“Our Luke shall leave us, Isabel; the land
Shall not go from us, and it shall be free;
He shall possess it, free as is the wind
That passes over it.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)