When in October, 1919, Machno captured Alexandrovsk, he called a congress of the peasants and the rest of the population of the whole gouvernement of Alexandrovsk. The organizer of this was Wollin. As an anarchist, Wollin was against all party politics. On that account it was impossible for him, for reasons mentioned above, to be active under bolshevik rule. He, consequently, called this congress for the benefit of the followers of Machno. Machno needed for his army the support of the peasants. They sent messengers to the villages in order to invite the peasants to elect delegates to this congress and send them to the city of Alexandrovsk. The representatives of different parties came to Wollin and pleaded with him not to do anything foolish and for God's and the revolution's sake to put up party lists, in order to enable the peasants to send delegates to the congress according to party lines. They held that the rich peasants, the Kulaks, were in the majority and would dominate the congress. The whole thing would be a great disappointment, they prophesied. Wollin answered that the people had had enough of parties and that they now, once and for all, must cut out all party nonsense. The congress met, without any party delegates. The peasants themselves did not want to have any parties. When the congress opened they asked if any parties were represented. Yes, from the city of Alexandrovsk there were seven mensheviks present who had been sent by the unions. The peasants did not want to have anything to do with the politicians. They did not want to start their deliberations before the politicians had left the hall. The mensheviks had to leave, and only then did they start with business. According to the reports of some of those present, they had never before taken part in such a fine, harmonious congress. All party political squabbling and all party hatreds were eliminated. The peasants discussed only the practical questions. It was a question of helping Machno to continue the war against Denekin. It was decided that everybody must help. Those who had four horses would have to give up two ; those who had three would have to give one. Those who had only two horses would not have to give any horses, but only hay, feed and other things. Thus the congress progressed without any party politics, to the satisfaction of all the participants and without any domination of the kulaks.
This example does not only show the emptiness of the phrase that party-less Soviets or councils of workers and peasants had to be counter-revolutionary. It also shows positively that it is the party-less Soviets which are best able to order the economic and political affairs of the revolutionary population.
A further difference in tactics between the bolsheviks and the others, which can be traced back to the theoretical differences, showed itself in Jekaterinoslav. When the city was captured by Machno, he insisted that all socialist movements should have absolute freedom to carry on their propaganda. As is well known, the bolsheviks reject this freedom as "bourgeois superstition." Particularly does Trotzky go on the warpath against it in his anti- Kautski book 'Terrorism and Communism." As you know, in the places where the bolsheviks rule, they allow no opposing party to issue a daily paper or more than one paper. Under Machno' s regime it was possible for all socialist movements to issue their papers and to hold their meetings, in short, to propagate their ideas. In Jekaterinoslav 7 daily papers were issued, two anarchist, two communist, right and left social revolutionary* and menshevik papers. All socialist tendencies were represented. Only the bourgeois had no publicity organ. They were, naturally, so terrified because it was the Machnovtzi who ruled, that they did not dare to.