11 Facts About Grigorii Maksimov

Grigorii Petrovich Maksimov was a Russian anarcho-syndicalist.

In 1893, Grigorii Petrovich Maksimov was born into a peasant family in Smolensk.

Grigorii Maksimov studied at a seminary of the Orthodox Church in Vladimir, but ultimately decided not to become a priest and instead moved to Saint Petersburg, where he studied to become an agriculturist.

Grigorii Maksimov quickly became a prolific speaker in factories and at workers' rallies.

Grigorii Maksimov criticised the anarcho-communists for their advocacy of the immediate expropriation of factories by workers, instead believing in the need for a transitional stage for workers to be trained for the tasks of self-management.

Grigorii Maksimov objected, crediting the factory committees for the overthrow of capitalism and the Tsarist autocracy, and cited Karl Marx's appeals for a permanent revolution against the state, even declaring himself a better Marxist than the Marxists themselves.

In Golos Truda, Grigorii Maksimov denounced the centralisation of industry by the Bolshevik party and declared that Russian anarchists should oppose the Soviets, as they were by this time under the control of the state.

In March 1920, Grigorii Maksimov spoke at the Second All-Russian Congress of Food-Industry Workers, which adopted his resolution that denounced the Bolshevik's "dictatorship over the proletariat" and called for the establishment of free soviets.

In November 1920, during a wave of political repression against the anarchist movement, Grigorii Maksimov was arrested by the Cheka and held in custody for weeks.

Grigorii Maksimov called for the IWA to form agricultural cooperatives and factory committees in order to transform the economy, as part of a transition towards communism.

Grigorii Maksimov is interred in Waldheim Cemetery, near other Chicago anarchists.