Chernoe Znamia

"The Black Banner" redirects here. Not to be confused withBlack Banner (disambiguation)orBlack Banners.

Chernoe Znamia (The Black Banner)
A meeting of theChernoznamentsyinMinskin 1906.
Dates of operation	1903–1908
Motives	Overthrow of governments; establishment of an anarchist society.
Active regions	Western and southern regions of theRussian Empire.
Ideology	Anarchism (Anarcho-communism)
Major actions	Various acts ofrobberyandassassination.

Chernoe Znamia(orChornoe Znamia) (Russian:Чёрное знамя,English:The Black Banner), known as theChernoznamentsy,was a Russiananarchist communistorganisation. It emerged in 1903 as a federation of cadres.It took its name, "The Black Banner", from theanarchist black flag.

Composition

The largest collection of anarchist terrorists inImperial Russia,Chernoe Znamiaattracted its strongest following in the western and southern provinces at the frontier of the Empire, including nearly all anarchists inBiałystok.Their ranks included mostly students, factory workers and artisans, though there were also peasants, unemployed labourers, drifters, and self-professedNietzschean supermen.Ethnically,Jewspredominated, and many members were of Ukrainian, Polish andGreat Russiannationality.The typical age of theChernoznamentsywas nineteen or twenty, and some of the most active adherents were as young as fifteen years old.

Tactics and ideology

We recognise isolated expropriations only to acquire money for our revolutionary deeds. If we get the money, we do not kill the person we are expropriating. But this does not mean that he, the property owner, has bought us off. No! We will find him in the various cafés, restaurants, theatres, balls, concerts, and the like. Death to the bourgeois! Always, wherever he may be, he will be overtaken by an anarchist's bomb or bullet.

The declaration of aChernoznamenetsinOdessato the judges officiating at his trial.

Further information:Anarchism and violence

With a history marked, in the words of historianPaul Avrich,by "reckless fanaticism and uninterrupted violence", theChernoznamenstywere the first anarchist group with a deliberate policy ofterroragainst the established order.They saw merit in every act ofpropaganda by the deed,no matter how intemperate and senseless it appeared to the public, as evoking the lust of the underclass for vengeance against their tormentors.Along with the equally fanaticalBeznachalie( "Without Authority" ),Chernoe Znamiawas the most conspicuous anarchist communist organisation in Russia.

See also

• Narodnaya Volya,a similar organisation of an earlier generation

References

Bibliography

• Geifman, Anna (1993).Thou Shalt Kill.Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-02549-5.
• Avrich, Paul(2006).The Russian Anarchists.Stirling:AK Press.ISBN1-904859-48-8.

External links

• Chernoe Znamiaat the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia