Rybin, Peter Antonovich

Born in 1885 of the Russian Empire in the Oryol province in the city of Yelets , his parents were workers. In the city of Yelets he graduated from a parish and then a vocational school. He also continued his studies in the USA . Before the revolution, he worked as a metalworker. He took part in the first Russian revolution of 1905-1906. In 1906 he was arrested.

In the USA

In 1907 he emigrated to the United States, the first city to which he arrived was Nome, became an activist in the anarcho-syndicalist Union of Russian Workers in the USA and Canada. Leader of the Union Department in Pittsburgh , Member of the East Dawn Newspaper. Until 1912 he lived in Seattle in the same city he studied. In the USA he lived under the name of Zonov.

In Ukraine

In March 1917 he came to Ukraine and got a job as a worker at the Shoduar plant in the city of Yekaterinoslav. An active participant in the anarcho-syndicalist and trade union movement in Yekaterinoslav. He chose Yekaterinoslav because of its proximity to the Donbass, where at the beginning of the revolution many anarcho-syndicalists settled. During interrogations of the Cheka in 1921, he called himself a patriot of the Donbass, motivating his active participation in the resistance to Denikin’s occupation. The leader of the Anarchist working group at Shoduar. Since July 1917, a member of the board of the Union of Workers of Metalworkers Yekaterinoslav. In December 1917 he participated in the All-Ukrainian conference of factory committees and trade unions, according to the report of Rybin, a plan was adopted to unite industry across Ukraine and a project to restore transport links. At the suggestion of the Bolsheviks, he stayed to work in Kharkov - he was a member of the Regional Bureau of the Union of Metalworkers and worked as a comrade (deputy) chairman of the Council of National Economy of Soviet Ukraine.

In early 1918, Rybin joined the Bureau of Anarchists of the Donetsk Basin, elected February 1, 1918 at the conference of the anarchists of Donbass in Yekaterinoslav. As part of the Bureau, Rybin contacted many future participants in the Makhnovist movement - M. Chernyak I. Kabasem (Tarasyuk). At the same time, I met P. Arshinov, who edited the newspaper “The Voice of the Anarchist” newspaper, the press organ of the anarchist association of Donbass.

During the offensive of units of the UPR Army and the Austro-German troops in the spring of 1918, together with the Regional Bureau of Metalworkers, he was evacuated to Taganrog. In July 1918 he returned to Ukraine in Kharkov with the Regional Bureau of Metalworkers.

In the summer of 1919, when the Volunteer Army of Rybin attacked Ukraine in Kharkov, he organized 20 thousand workers with whom he went to the front as part of the 3rd Army of the Red Army. But he was not able to participate in the battles two days after being wounded, Rybin returned to Kharkov where he met the Volunteer Army. During the occupation of Kharkov, he organized several strikes of metalworkers by volunteers, was a member of the Regional Bureau of the Union of Workers of Metalworkers of the South of Russia.

In 1919-1920 he was in charge of economic work in Kharkov, in the Union of Metalworkers and in other central industrial organizations. During 1920, he managed to visit: an instructor of the Regional Union of Workers' Consumer Societies of the Donetsk Basin, an instructor of the Southern Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Workers and Employees of the Chemical Industry, a responsible employee of the production organization department of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Metal Workers, an instructor of the Southern Bureau of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, he is all more acutely aware of the meaninglessness of everything he does. In a letter to his beloved Pavlina Danilina of September 22, 1920, he wrote:

  "I want to live, work for people, I tried to do good to people, and now - now what am I doing? ..- Around the dirt, the abomination and all this treads good and wonderful in life. We need to work! We need to save the situation of the Russian working people and I - I sit and do nothing ... " 

In the summer of 1920, having convinced himself of the anti-labor character of the Soviet regime, he ceased cooperation with the Bolsheviks and again became an anarchist. About this Arshinov wrote:

  "In the summer of 1920, he comes to the conclusion that working with the Bolsheviks is absolutely impossible, since Bolshevism turned its entire front against the workers and peasants ... He came to the conclusion that it is impossible to honestly serve the working class in a communist dictatorship." 

In September 1920, Victor Belash called Peter and offered a job at RPAU, Rybin said in a letter:

  “I want to live, I want to do good and useful things for society, but I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the energy, I want to strike a balance and get down to the work that is being offered. But there is no strength, there is no hope that I will carry out the work that is given and trusted to me " 

On October 8, Rybin left Kharkov, on October 11, arrived in Raisin where he joined the RPAU. October 15, together with RPAU Rybin went to the front about this, he wrote:

  "Today our army has moved to the front. All this resembles a great movement of peoples. Cavalry rushes, carts with machine guns and soldiers rushing harnessed by triples-four frames. Around the cheerful noise and sounds of harmonica." 

  "Ignorance reigns among the Makhnovists, darkness comes to atrocities. I decided to devote myself to cultural work and started publishing a newspaper." 

  “The third day I’m in the Makhno’s detachment - Life of the Makhnovists is seething and resembles the“ Russian Volnitsa and Zaporizhzhya Sich. ”Many interesting and attractive things in life (...) Many, many interesting things in the Makhno detachments, and most importantly, there are interesting types of Makhnovists and their brave courage. " 

October 20, 1920 Rybin arrived in Gulyai-Pole . Entered the Gulyai-Polish Union of Anarchists. Elected member of the Council of Revolutionary Rebels (SRP) of the Revolutionary Rebel Army of Ukraine ( RPAU ). He organized propaganda courses, which involved about 170 RPAU commanders and soldiers. 10/28/1920 as a member of the PSA approved the Council Directives for commissioners for the organization of new Makhnovist detachments and units. On November 11, he was elected secretary of the RPAU PSA. At the meeting of the PSA on November 15, he insisted - in the interests of anarchist construction - on the need to prepare for the armed defense of the Gulyai-Polsky District from a possible attack from the Red Army. From November 27, 1920 he participated in raids of the Makhnovists and in the armed struggle against the Reds.

January 24, 1921 in the city of Korocha, Kursk province, with the consent of the SRPU, he went to Kharkov for clandestine work. Arriving in Kharkov, Rybin went to his beloved Danilina, who announced the arrival of Peter in the Cheka.

On February 24, 1921, a death sentence was pronounced. The verdict was passed by the “troika” of the Special Department of the Kharkov Military District, consisting of Danishevsky, Grundman and Dobroditsky, according to the report of the latter. The extract from the minutes of the meeting of the troika also indicates that the verdict was executed.

• Rybin Peter
• Secretary Makhnovsky for the sake of Petro Ribin. Portrait of anarchist