Hi, I’m Oleksandr Kolchenko, an anarchist, anti-fascist and former political prisoner, originally from Crimea.

As a political activist, I was largely shaped by the anti-fascist movement and hardcore punk scene. My life included regular street fights with Nazis, guarding hardcore gigs, and solidarity events for Russian anarchists and anti-fascists. My comrades and I were involved in environmental struggles as well, the largest of which was the international protest camp against the coal terminal in Sevastopol in 2009. We also participated in a campaign against paid university services, after which a syndicalist student union called Student Action was founded in 2010.

However, in 2014, we found ourselves in a new situation where our old doctrines no longer applied.

For example, once we had organized a rally in memory of the people killed by the police on Maidan. We laid flowers in front of the Council of Ministers building and lit candles in the central square of Simferopol. A lot of provocateurs came to the event. One of them, an aggressive man, started following us after the event ended. He provoked us and passers-by by shouting that we were Banderites.

It was unclear whether the guy was sober or drunk. He followed us to a supermarket, where, as a result of his shouting, we were surrounded by a group of suspicious elderly people. We explained to them that we were anti-fascists.

By chance, there were also young football hooligans, aged 15-18, in the supermarket. When they heard that we were anti-fascists, they started putting mouth guards in their mouths and pulling masks over their faces, despite the fact that they were under surveillance cameras the whole time.

We, for our part, casually started pulling rubber hammers from our pockets, showing that despite their numerical superiority, we would not be beaten. At the same time, we tried to avoid a fight inside the store by talking. My companion called an apolitical hooligan friend, explained the situation, and urged that educational measures be taken against these young people.

Once the situation was resolved, we went to a bar located one bus stop away from the supermarket in question. We spent some time there. One of the female comrades in the group had already left, but soon called us to tell us that the entire group of young football hooligans was coming our way. There were only two of us left. My comrade went to make a phone call and check the situation outside. He came back and said that we were going to fight. I asked, two of us. No, three of us, he replied.

I wondered who would be the third. Who would volunteer to be beaten up by a group of young people? The comrade gave us the code name of an old, familiar far-right opponent. He had repeatedly attacked us from behind – and we had attacked him. Now he was going to fight on our side, ready to take the brunt of the superior force.

We went outside, where this guy then spoke to a representative of the hooligans of the Simferopol football club Tavria[1], accusing them of not doing their youth work properly and that their youth were travelling by bus-loads to the Anti-Maidan to earn money.[2] The far-right man who came to our side added that his group had managed to stop one of the buses on the way back, take away the dirty money and tell the youth that next time they would be kicked out of the hooligan circles. The guy from Tavria listened with his head bowed and had nothing to say about the accusations.

Over the next few days, we met at a bar, watched streams from Maidan, discussed what we could do in Simferopol and Crimea in general. We pointed out to the far-right how they had previously acted in fights with complete dishonor, even on the scale of street fighting. They also complained to us about the past.

Later, when there was a protest march in Simferopol in memory of all those who died on Maidan on February 23, we came there with our anti-fascist mob to participate in the event and take care of security. When we went up to the group of subcultural far-rightists, we greeted the most worthy of them. We ignored the rest in protest. You should have seen their expressions!

They looked at us and their comrades in disbelief, unable to understand what was going on. Around the same time, in early 2014, in Simferopol, we started to communicate with another bonehead, whom we had fought against many times in the first decade of the 2000s.

Since then, he had revised his views and switched to an anti-fascist position. We are still on good terms with him. So in 2014, everything went to a new level. You had to make a choice: either you are on the side of the Ukrainian people or on the side of the police and the state.

In February-March 2014, unmarked Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean peninsula. Later, on March 16, a so-called referendum was held to legalize the occupation. The observers for the referendum came from Russia and from European pro-Russian far-right parties. All in all, a lot of people had been brought from Russia. The political situation in Russia was already very clear to me at that time. We had organized events in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova[3] and in support of the detainees in the Bolotnaya case[4]. I had no doubt that Russia in 2014 was a police state that had to be fought against by all possible means.

At first, we participated in anti-war demonstrations with friends and comrades. Then, provocateurs commissioned and paid by the government began to arrive at their gathering places in greater numbers than the demonstrators themselves, and their main task was to use violence against the participants. At that time, workers from a local trolleybus company also demonstrated, demanding the payment of salary arrears. They were immediately approached by a group of unmarked camouflaged men, who pointed their weapons at the protesters and politely asked them to disperse. Then, reports of the first missing and kidnapped activists began to come.

In light of all of the above, I understood that the legal means of resistance had been exhausted, and I agreed to the proposal to participate in the burning of the former office of the Party of Regions. The office was used as a torture and interrogation facility for anyone suspected of any anti-Russian activity. On May 16, I was arrested by the FSB, after which I was taken to Moscow. Comrades in Ukraine, but also in Russia and other countries, organized a campaign in support of me and Oleh Sentsov[5]. The campaign also involved official Ukrainian bodies, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and activists from all over the world. Among them were anarchists and anti-fascists, as well as other people who were pro-Ukrainian. The support was tangible. I received many letters and cards from different countries, both from the former Soviet Union – Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – and from Western countries, including Finland, Sweden, Canada, the United States and Australia.

I spent five years and four months in a Russian prison. Thanks to my comrades and generally well-meaning people, my time in prison was relatively comfortable, that is, for a prison. Thanks to the support, I was able to circumvent the restrictions on reading to some extent, to order some relatively new books and newspapers that were relatively acceptable in the context of a Russian prison, and to buy something good to eat from time to time. It is also worth noting that receiving letters and cards is not only nice in itself and refreshing in the midst of prison routine, but also shows the prison administration that the prisoner has the support of society on his side. This may reduce the enthusiasm of the administration and guards to increase the prisoner’s everyday discomfort.

On September 7, 2019, we were released in a major prisoner exchange and brought to Kiev. This would not have been possible without a support and information campaign. At that time, Russia was still somehow reacting to external pressure and maintaining at least some semblance of democracy and legality. Now all such masks have been taken off. My feelings in a Russian prison and the current conditions there are also like being from different worlds. If you look at the photos of prisoners of war from recent years before and after the Russian prison, you will understand how the conditions have changed. The released prisoners of war resemble concentration camp prisoners in the photos.

Before my imprisonment, I had lived practically my entire life in Crimea. When it was annexed, I lost my home. Shortly after my release from prison, the anarcho-communist group (BOAK)[6] published a text called Anarchist Solution to Crimea[7]. I was furious because it referred to a referendum, even though it had been a false cover story for the occupation. It seemed that the opinions of those who openly or silently accepted the annexation of Crimea had been heard. The opinions of the oppressed and the refugees had been left aside. The text was anonymous, so I did not know its author. After the fall of Dmitry Petrov[8] in 2023, it turned out that most of the texts in that group were written by him. So in 2019, he had a certain view, but the subsequent course of events and the reality of 2022 led him to conclude that one can choose the lesser of two evils. As an honest person, he made his choice, joined the defence of Ukraine on the very first day of the war, and did a lot to create an anarchist unit or anti-authoritarian company within the army. I may not agree with him on everything, but Dmitry Petrov is a comrade I would be happy to talk to if he hadn’t died.

At the end of 2023, I gave an interview to the anarchist publication Contradictions/Kontradikce. The same collection, published in early 2024, also included interviews with a small anarchist sect called KRAS[9]. That sect has no influence in Russia, but it is very popular in some Southern European countries. The sect writes about uncompromising class warfare, social revolution, and calls Ukrainian anarchists anarcho-patriots and anarcho-nationalists. Out of interest, I watched a stream of a representative of that sect, in which he talks about the current situation in Russia, about how difficult it is to organize any protests there, let alone significant trade union activity. He complains that people live there under oppression and the constant threat of repression. The stream stands in such contrast to the general rhetoric of the group that it sounds funny and pathetic.

On the second day of the full-scale Russian invasion, I decided to join the Ukrainian armed forces. I went to the nearest draft office, but there was a kilometre-long line. I didn’t wait, but called a person I had met a few days earlier at the premiere of Oleh Sentsov’s film Rhinoceros[10]. He was from nationalist circles, but had revised his views and was therefore a decent guy. I asked if I could join his group. I and a few of my old comrades from Crimea went to his base, where we stayed for a couple of days, because there was an absolute curfew. During that time, we didn’t get any information about whether we would be officially recruited, when we would receive our weapons, and so on. Finally, we joined the Protasiv Yar company, formed by environmental activists. We went to different addresses looking for potential saboteurs and spies who could provide coordinates for the rockets. Only about half of the group had weapons, some officially, some unofficially acquired. I was sick at the time, and I stayed at the base as a guard.

Next, we organized ourselves into two groups, which were to alternately fight in the Kiev Oblast[11] and maintain a base and train in the city. However, the plan did not materialize and the entire group remained in the city to guard checkpoints and practice urban warfare tactics under the leadership of our new acquaintance.

Although we hardly knew each other, I have never regretted this acquaintance or the fact that I joined this unit under his command. He is a good example of an anarchist leader who, instead of commanding, organizes things and inspires others to take initiative. Almost every day, a meeting was held at the beginning or end – sometimes general, most often between the selected seniors from each room – where current events, plans for the near future, training schedules, problems, and so on were discussed.

After the liberation of the Kiev Oblast, we moved to a local village for a training camp, where we trained in tactics and medical skills. At the end of 2022, we were transferred to the artillery unit of the newly formed brigade, where I still serve.

I want to say a few words about why I didn’t join an anarchist unit. I was worried that the whole operation would get bogged down in endless discussions about how to approach this or that issue from an ideological point of view. I have been lucky in that I have encountered many different commanders, people in my units have come from diverse political backgrounds, and no one has tried to impose their views, but everyone has been somewhat understanding of each other. It is a kind of political pluralism.

Now we are in a situation where we have to face people with different political views, for example racists. One soldier in our unit repeatedly brought up his everyday racist views. I said that in the 2020s that is extremely stupid. “In the Ukrainian troops, there are people from many ethnic backgrounds fighting, and on the other hand, in the Russian troops, your white brothers.” After some discussion, he admitted that I was right. It is still worth noting that it is difficult for adults with an established world-view and value system to change.

In conclusion, I would like to say that since 2014 we have repeatedly encountered situations that we could not have imagined before. In 2014 we began to cooperate with people we had been fighting against for years, and in 2022 we unhesitatingly joined the army we had always had a negative attitude towards. In these times, those we have considered our comrades may suddenly remain silent or refuse to take sides in this war. Yesterday’s opponents may reach out. The war and the occupation have shown that we anti-fascists and anarchists must abandon our isolated puritanism and come out of our old ruts. Only in this way can we truly fight oppression.

I would like to thank everyone who has had no difficulty choosing a side. A big thank you to all the collectives, organizations, initiatives and people of goodwill who have supported us over the years.

original article in Takku

References:
1. SC Tavriya Simferopol
2. The then ruling party, the pro-Russian Party of Regions, paid for participation in the counter-demonstrations to the Maidan protests, i.e. the regime-mobilized Anti-Maidan.
3. A pro-Kremlin neo-Nazi organization murdered lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in Moscow in 2009.
4. The Bolotnaya Square case refers to a lawsuit filed over an alleged riot on Bolotnaya Square during a large protest in Moscow in 2012, in which nearly 40 people were charged. Several anarchists and anti-fascists were sentenced to long prison sentences in the case.
5. Oleh Sentsov is a Ukrainian film-maker, writer and activist who, like Kolchenko, was arrested in Crimea in 2014, convicted in Russia and released in a prisoner exchange in 2019.
6. Боец Анархист, Боевая организация анархо-коммунистов, BOAK, Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists
7. Анархистское решение для Крыма https://avtonom.org/freenews/anarhistskoe-reshenie-dlya-kryma
8. Dmitry Petrov was a Russian militant anarchist whose activities ranged from academic research and book writing to militant direct action and armed struggle. He was killed fighting in Ukrainian forces against Russia in April 2023.
9. Confederation of Revolutionary Anarho-Syndicalists (KRAS-MAT)
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhino_(film)
11. Kyiv Oblast, or Kyiv Region, which does not include Kyiv itself, but the region surrounding the capital.