Legendary tachanka of the Nestor Makhno.

Nestor Makhno (1889-1934) was the youngest son of a poor peasant family in Hulai-Pole. Following his father's death, he worked in a factory. In 1905, he joined a group called the "Peasant Group of Anarcho-Communists", which committed a number of robberies. He was arrested three times for his revolutionary and criminal activities. The last arrest in 1910 led to his imprisonment. He only escaped the death penalty because of his age. In prison, Makhno met the anarchist Petr A. Arshinov (1887-1938) and devoted himself to reading leftist writings.

Makhno returned to Huliai-Pole, where he organized local peasants, workers, and artisans and headed the local soviet of workers' and peasants' deputies. He also organized peasant bands for the expropriation and redistribution of the manors of the local nobility.

In July 1918 he began to mobilize resistance to the Central Powers and Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. Makhno led a popular insurrection against the occupying German forces while conducting raids on local estates. As military leader he combined clever and unorthodox tactics with a resolute and well-disciplined army (based for the most part on voluntary enlistment).

Instrumental to Makhno's military successes were the light mobile cavalry units he formed, which featured innovative horse-driven carriages (known as tachanky) upon which machine guns had been mounted.