Fighting friends, wives and mistresses of the legendary chieftain Nestor Makhno

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Biographers of the outstanding anarchist, hero of the Civil War Nestor Ivanovich Makhno to this day they are lost in the calculations: how many wives and mistresses the famous chieftain actually had. When Nikolai Kaptan began filming a film about Makhno in his historical homeland, the direct descendants of the legendary chieftain literally flocked to him. And each declared that his great-grandmother was Makhno's mistress. And no matter how paradoxical it sounded, it is even possible that Nestor really could have many more heirs than recorded in his biography. After all, daddy Makhno was reputed to be very, very loving.

this is how this desperate chieftain imagined the bright future of his native land. Indeed, the personal life of Nestor Makhno was no less legendary, mysterious, and full of many interweaving and twists and turns, than the political one.

About the dashing ataman-anarchist during the Civil War, who was the banner of the anarchists and a symbol of the people's love for freedom, read: What really was Nestor Makhno - one of the odious heroes of the Civil War.

Fighting friends, wives and mistresses of Nestor Makhno

There is information, although not documented, that for the first time he was practically forced to marry his mother and brothers. They also found a suitable bride, sincerely hoping that the "little one" would settle down and abandon his hobby for politics. And at that time he was already a member of an underground terrorist group created by the workers of Gulyaypole. They married, but Nestor did not refuse from his underground activities, and was soon arrested for illegal possession of weapons. So by the age of 20, his marriage bonds were broken against the harsh realities of life, and the name of his first wife had sunk into oblivion.

Nastya Vasetskaya

Therefore, historians are still inclined to call Nastya Vasetskaya from the Yekaterinoslav region, where they met, and from where Nestor thundered to hard labor for the murder of an official of the military administration, as his first wife. He wrote to her from the Moscow "Butyrka" heartfelt letters, and she wrote to them, no less tender answers and passed on through her mother. The thought of his beloved girl helped the prisoner withstand the shackles of convict, and illness, and the loss of a lung. Returning from prison, Nestor married Nastya.

The young wife tried in every possible way to support her husband's undermined health, taking care of him like a child. She cooked him borscht with cock meat, as the doctor advised. Hanging a photograph of Nestor under the icons, I prayed for his health. She helped Nestor to realize his acting ambitions on the rural stage. The audience perceived amateur performances with the participation of the ataman with considerable delight.

The chieftain's heart melted with her warmth, care and love. And when Nastya gave birth to a son, Nestor completely changed: where did his severity, harshness go, even his heavy look became softer, which aroused many anarchist companions. It began to seem to them that the dad was drowning in the pool of the family.

However, the ataman did not enjoy his family life for long. The stormy year 1917 carried him into a whirlwind of revolutionary events. And the brothers-in-arms, who almost lost their leader, meanwhile, informed Nastya about the death of her husband, who allegedly died in battle, and secretly took her and her son out of the village in an unknown direction. They could not allow their dad to have a vulnerable spot - a family.

It was rumored that Nastya, in a foreign land, mourning her husband, remarried. The blue scarf is the only gift from her beloved; she kept it until the end of her days.

And Nestor, returning for some time to his native land from a military campaign and not finding his wife and child there, at first almost shot his brothers-in-arms. However, evil tongues "reported" to the dad, allegedly, about his wife's betrayal with one stranger - and it seemed to sober him up. In addition, those who "saved" Nestor from family shackles clearly knew which callus to press on. They recalled that he was a leader, their leader and leader, and at such moments for him, everything personal went to a secondary plan.

Fatal dormouse

In Nestor's personal life, it was not so easy for historians to restore the chronological order. So, from some sources you can find out that before Nastya, Nestor had another wife named Sonya. However, most likely, it was already after. But, be that as it may, they met Sonya in Yekaterinoslavl (now Dnieper), where a beautiful, sweet girl was passing, and Nestor spotted her on the street. It so happened that Sonya had nowhere to spend the night and, of course, the "compassionate" dad decided to shelter the poor fellow, and at night he tried to rape him. Having received a tough rebuff, the chieftain by the morning decided to make the girl his legal wife. Sonya was immediately baptized, giving her the name Nina, since she turned out to be of a different faith, and they took her down the aisle. Sonya was from a prosperous Jewish family. Eyewitnesses recalled how the spouses Makhno went to Gulyai-Pole, who lived on a grand scale at that time: a cart in carpets, an expensive harness on horses, and they themselves were dressed richly …

Her brothers-in-arms called the ataman - the fatal Sonya. They say she knew how to calm Nestor down both with a gentle loving look and a light touch of her hand. An explosive and unpredictable ataman in his anger, with her he became docile and soft. But no one has ever heard or seen her openly show her power over him. Sometimes she approached the chieftain quietly, affectionately took his hand, looked tenderly into his harsh eyes, and with this she could stop, say, the reprisals of the Makhnovists against white officers. Nestor, hiding a revolver in a holster, ordered them to be released on all four sides.

However, Sonya soon disappeared from the life of the legendary Makhno. Of course, the difference in social status and worldview affected. Not a small role was once again played by the sidelong glances of his associate, and their dissatisfaction. The civil war gained new momentum and became fiercer, and Nestor became more and more obsessed with the idea of anarchism, so the pampered beauty next to him had nothing to do.

Marusya - "eternal beloved"

It was quite another matter - the "eternal beloved" of Nestor, Marusya Nikiforov, the wife of the Polish anarchist Brzhostek, whose love for whom the ataman's brothers-in-arms perceived as dependence. She has a solid reputation for a skirt and a "blue beard". Nestor considered her a comrade-in-arms in wrestling, and sincerely admired her dedication to the idea of anarchy. It was from Marusya that he heard the words that spilled balm on his soul:. How could Nestor not fall in love with such a woman.

It should be noted that Marusya became Makhno's mistress when he was still married to Nastya. She did not miss the opportunity to publicly call her legal wife "a cat-bellied", while hitting even with a whip. And to Nestor in an order, she shouted:. At such moments, Makhno was determined to break with the "redhead" forever. He was catching up with her, trying to calm her down and tell her about his firm decision, and she with tears began to scream in his face: And she took a revolver out of her holster … He always returned to her, knowing full well that this woman was brazenly manipulating him. However, he could not help himself.

Companions of Nestor perceived his love for Marusa as a serious illness. However, they never got married. Apparently the similarity of their destinies and characters affected. Nestor felt a rival in Marus and was a little jealous of fame. This woman led her own gang of thugs, was known as a convinced anarchist, received 20 years in hard labor for the murder of a sergeant and robbery, after escaping from prison, she ended up in Paris. There she got along with the radical anarchists. And after the revolution, a dashing chieftain in Ukraine began her bloody path.

By the way, Marusya committed her first murder at the age of 15. The guy just told her that it was offensive, and immediately fell to the ground with his throat cut. Nobody dared to contradict her! She sent many with her own hand to the next world …

There were terrible legends about her, they were afraid of her, trying not to catch her eye. It was rumored that every night captive youths were brought to her, for whom the night of love was the last in their life. The testimonies of contemporaries eloquently indicate that the dashing atamansha was a hermaphrodite by gender.

The wedge of discord between Nestor and Marusya was driven, oddly enough, by politics. Having reconciled with the Bolsheviks for a while, the ataman began to be called "the commander-in-chief of the Insurrectionary Army, Father Makhno." This deeply touched Marusya: - she declared and predicted:. He never saw her again alive. By order of Trotsky, she and her husband were hanged in Taganrog. And the prophecy of Marusya really came true soon. Makhnovtsev, together with the Reds, who defeated Wrangel, began to exterminate immediately by decree of Trotsky and Frunze.

Telephone operator Tina

It is difficult to say how many more fleeting hobbies and beloved women Nestor Makhno had on the roads of the civil war. But after the death of Marusya's comrade-in-arms, historians call a telephone operator by the name of Tina as their beloved woman. According to some sources, the ataman even registered his relationship with her. However, this family happiness of Nestor Makhno did not last long.

Galina - the last love of daddy Makhno

In the person of Galina Kuzmenko, Nestor found not only a faithful common-law wife, but also a devoted comrade-in-arms, who, risking her life, carried out the orders of the father for the good of the common cause. Subsequently, for a woman, marriage to an anarchist turned into years of prisons and camps. It was this unenviable lot that fate gave to Galina Andreevna, the unmarried wife and combat companion of Nestor Makhno.

V next review A fascinating story awaits you about an amazing woman who walked through the fate of the legendary commander, anarchist Nestor Makhno and about the last years of their life in exile.