Freedom reports of the death of our comrade who we had interviewed last April. He died alongside other anarchists, including Finbar Cafferkey, they were both veterans of Rojava:
I am a member of the Militant Organisation of Anarcho-Communists (BOAC), and will remain so after my death. BOAC is our brainchild, born out of a belief in organised struggle. We managed to lead it across national borders.
I tried my best to contribute to defeating the dictatorship and to the social revolution. And I am proud of my comrades, who led and are leading the struggle in Russia and abroad.
As an anarchist, a revolutionary and a Russian I found it necessary to take part in the armed repulse of the Ukrainian people to Putin’s occupiers. I did it for justice, to defend Ukrainian society and to free my country, Russia, from oppression. For all the people who have been deprived of their dignity and the opportunity to breathe freely by the nefarious totalitarian system created in Russia and Belarus.
Another important meaning of the participation in this war is to establish internationalism by our example. In the days when deadly imperialism awakens in response a wave of nationalism and contempt for the Russians, I assert in word and deed: there are no bad nations. All nations have one misfortune – greedy and power-hungry rulers.
This was not a purely individual decision and move. It was a continuation of our collective strategy to build sustainable structures and guerrilla warfare against the tyrannical regimes of our region.
My dear friends, comrades and family, I apologise to everyone who has been hurt by my departure. I deeply appreciate your warmth. However, I sacredly believe that the fight for justice, against oppression and injustice is one of the most worthy meanings that a man can fill his life with. And this struggle requires sacrifice, up to and including total self-sacrifice.
The best memory for me is if you continue to work actively, overcoming personal ambition and unnecessary harmful discord. If you continue the active struggle to achieve a free society based on equality and solidarity. For yourself and for me, and for all our comrades. Risk, hardship and sacrifice are our constant companions along the way. But rest assured they are not in vain.
I hug you all.
Your Ilya Leshy, ‘Seva’, ‘Lion’, Phil Kuznetsov,
Dmitry Petrov
A black day for the entire anarchist movement and our organisation in particular.
On 19 April 2023, near Bakhmut in Ukraine, in the struggle for freedom, our comrade, one of the founders of BOAC and an active member of it, Dmitriy Petrov, died.
Dima was a long-standing and consistent anarchist. For a long time he was known in the movement as the Environmentalist, but his activities were not limited to defending nature.
He has also taken part in rallies to defend Bittsovsky Forest, and in Food Not Bombs, fought against infill development and the construction of waste incinerators, for workers’ rights in the ranks of the IPST, and against police brutality.
He took an active part in the antifascist movement, fighting back against neo-Nazis on the streets of Moscow and elsewhere.
Participated in the 2011 Bolotnaya Square protests, in Maidan in 2014 and in Belarus in 2020.
Participated in publishing and translating activist literature.
Participated in ethnographic expeditions and has a PhD in history.
That would be enough for 10 activists – but Dima did not limit himself to that.
Dima was at the root of the anarchist partisan movement in the late twenties. And has continued to be a partisan every day since. Narodnoe Vengeance, the “ZaNurgaliev!” group, the Anti-Nashist Action – all these groups were not without his participation.
And yes, of course Dima was also one of the founders of the famous Black Blog and an active participant in all its actions. Including blowing up a traffic police post on 22nd km of Moscow Ring Road.
At the same time, Dima was not just a revolutionary practitioner. He also developed anarchist theory – a significant part of the programmatic and theoretical texts of both the Black Blog and BOAC was written by him or with his participation.
Like a true revolutionary, Dima was an internationalist. He actively participated in the creation and activities of the International Revolutionary Solidarity Network. He fought the evils of oppression wherever he met and was not stopped by borders. In addition to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, he trained in Rustavi and took part in the liberation struggle of the Kurdish people.
In response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – he joined the Komitet Soviets in order to stand up to the aggressor with arms in his hands. Later he took part in the battles of Svatovo and Kremenna.
In everything that he undertook – he acted with complete dedication. He did not live, but burned.
His feat is immortal. His deed is eternal.
We still can’t fully grasp this loss. Find the right words so that you can understand – what kind of Man he was. What kind of Man everyone should strive to be. But we will try to find those words.
In the meantime, we publish a message from Dima, which he left when he left for the front.
Text and images: https://t.me/boakom/111, https://t.me/boakom/110
