Dmitry Petrov A Life in Combat

An A6 pocket book tribute to a dedicated Russian anarchist who died earlier this year fighting in Ukraine. Co-published by Active Distribution and Crimethinc. On April 19, 2023, three anarchists were killed in battle near Bakhmut: an American named Cooper Andrews, an Irishman named Finbar Cafferkey, and a Russian named Dmitry Petrov, known to us until then as Ilya Leshy. People in our (Crimethinc) networks have shared undertakings with all three of these comrades over the years. You can read about Cooper’s motivations in his own words here (https://nl.crimethinc.com/2023/05/03/in-memory-of-dmitry-petrov-an-incomplete-biography-and-translation-of-his-work) and consult a eulogy from his comrades als overthere. In the following eulogy, we explore the life of Dmitry Petrov, who also went by the noms de guerre Ilya Leshy and Fil Kuznetsov. For background, you should start by reading the statements from his comrades in the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization, the Resistance Committee, and Solidarity Collectives, as well as Dmitry’s statement from beyond the grave, all of which are available here (https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2023/04/27/rest-in-power-leshy-memoria/). A few weeks before the war began, Dmitry participated in an interview that we included in our coverage of the unfolding situation. On the first day of the Russian invasion, under what must have been challenging conditions, Dmitry took time to speak with us about how anarchists were responding. Throughout our exchanges over the following year, we were impressed by his humility, the earnestness with which he approached his efforts, and his sincere desire for critique. When Dmitry was killed, his comrades revealed that he had been involved in some of the most significant anarchist initiatives in 21st-century Russia, including co-founding the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization. Here, we will provide an overview of his efforts as a snapshot of the past two decades of struggle in the post-Soviet world, concluding with translations of two of his texts, “To Be a Revolutionary” and “The Mission of Anarchism in the Modern World,” and another text about him from the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization.