Ballad of Liberty

‘Freedom of Choices,’ the first book in the series ‘Ballad of Liberty,’ follows a turbulent period in Russian and Ukrainian history between 1900 and 1918. Nestor Makhno, the fifth son in a poor family of former Ukrainian serfs, grows up in the unjust society. The oppressive reality of Tsarist Russia pushes young people from different social and ethnic backgrounds into the growing revolutionary movement, culminating in the First Russian Revolution of 1905, to which the State responded with summary executions and pogroms. Young anarchist Makhno escapes the gallows, but spends 9 years in prison, until the Revolution of 1917 sets him free. Liberty and justice is on everyone’s mind, but the successive governments fail to deal with the burning questions of land redistribution and workers rights. Makhno breaks away from anarchist ideology and chooses practical approach. He organizes Guliay-Polye anarchists and joins the democratic political process. Councils of Toilers’ Deputies, called the Soviets, oppose the Interim Government, gradually gain strength, and eventually assume power. Civil strife looms, worsened by the growing ethnic conflicts, and even those who try to stay away from the inevitable fratricide are forced to make their choices.