we must live, grusha! live!

Today (June 20, 2026) was the centennial of the (in)famous Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, also known as the Organization Platform of the General Union of Anarchists, or The Platform for short. The Platform was published by Dielo Truda (Workers Cause), a group of Russian and Ukrainian anarchists in exile following deterioration of the Russian Revolution and the collapse of the Makhnovist movement at the hands of Bolshevik dictatorship. The group included famous anarchists like Nestor Makhno, Peter Arshinov and Ida Mett (Arshinov was the primary author). The document attempted to analyze the lessons of the Revolution and explain anarchism's failure - while Bolshevik repression certainly played a role, it couldn't explain everything. Their answer was the movement's "chronic general disorganisation," and their solution was a tightly organized "general union of anarchists." The document was immediately controversial and still is today. In fact, it was almost universally rejected. It was critiqued by, among others, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Voline, Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, and GP Maximov. The Platform, intended to unite anarchists on an international scale, was a total failure in that regard. With a few exceptions, it remained a footnote to anarchist history until the late 20th and early 21st century. Since every anarchist should be interested in whether and how anarchists are to organize ourselves, I've gathered the document itself and a few of the responses below. The Platform A reply by several Russian anarchists to the Platform A reply to the reply Correspondence between Malatesta and Makhno about the Platform