Much has been written on the 1917-1920 revolution in Ukraine on the national movement the
Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks. Yet there were others with a mass following whose role has
faded from history books. One such party was the Borotbisty the heirs of the mass Ukrainian
Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries an independent party seeking to achieve national liberation
and social emancipation. Though widely known in revolutionary Europe in their day the
Borotbisty were decimated during the Stalinist holocaust in Ukraine. Out of print for over half
a century this lost text by Ivan Maistrenko the last survivor of the Borotbisty provides a
unique account on this party and its historical role. Part memoir and part history this is a
thought-provoking book which challenges previous approaches to the revolution and shows how
events in Ukraine decided the fate not only of the Russian Revolution but the upheavals in
Europe at the time.
