banned the use of the Ukrainian language in schools throughout South Russia, instead enforcing the use of the Russian language. In reaction to the linguistic restrictions enforced by the various preceding governments, after the Makhnovist victory over the White movement at the Battle of Peregonovka, the Makhnovshchina's "Cultural Enlightenment Section" declared that people were to be educated in whichever language was used by the local population, to be decided on voluntarily by the people themselves. In the majority of villages and towns in the Makhnovist territory, this meant a return to the use of the Ukrainian language and an end to the privileged status of the Russian language. Nevertheless, the Russian language had a notable prevalence in left-bank Ukraine. Since the 1905 Revolution, the Ukrainian anarchist movement's publications had largely been in the Russian language, and the predominance of the Russian language in anarchist literature continued following the emigration of Russian anarchists to the territory of the Makhnovshchina. But driven by a small number of Ukrainian intellectuals, led by Halyna Kuzmenko, the Makhnovshchina increasingly started to use the Ukrainian language in both its propaganda and educational activities, leading to a notable Ukrainization of the Makhnovist movement. In late 1919, the Makhnovists began to publish a Ukrainian language edition of The Road to Freedom () in Katerynoslav, and set up a new publication called Anarchist Rebel () in Poltava. But this would prove to be the extent of the Makhnovist movement's Ukrainian language publications, as they still lacked editors and proofreaders that were competent in the written Ukrainian language, and sometimes had no access to printing presses that carried the Ukrainian alphabet. Education and culture During the 1917 Revolution, members of the Huliaipole Anarchist Group first proposed the creation of a new system of education, inspired by the work of the Catalan pedagogue Francesc Ferrer. One group member, Abram Budanov, took the initiative to establish a Cultural-Educational section for the nascent Makhnovist movement. This section would publish pamphlets and hold meetings, but would also organise the establishment of educational institutions, theatre productions and live music shows. With the outbreak of the war, the Cultural-Educational Section was brought under the oversight of the Military Revolutionary Council. At the beginning of 1919, a number of Russian anarchist intellectuals emigrated to southern Ukraine, where they began work for the Cultural-Educational section. Peter Arshinov, who had educated Nestor Makhno during their time in prison, became