Combat Anarchist: in memory of Dmitry Petrov (Ilya Leshiy)

On April 19, 2023, have fallen Dmitry Petrov — an anarchist, revolutionary, antifascist, our comrade & friend. It happened during the combat mission near Bakhmut. We want to tell a little about him because he is worth remembering and emulating!

Statement about the death of Dmitry by his closest comrades from BOAK.
His last word.

Dmitry is PhD of historical sciences at Moscow State University. Author, translator and editor of several books about Rojava and the Kurdish revolutionary struggle. He was an anarchist-communist, anti-fascist street fighter, trade-union activist, eco-saboteur, pagan and partisan. He stood at the dawn of insurgent anarchism in the late 00ʼs in Russia and was an ardent opponent of Putin's regime and any imperialism. Especially Russian.

In 2011, Dmitry took an active part in the protests on Bolotnaya Square.

In 2014, he came to Kyiv to explore the experience of the Maydan revolutionaries.

After that, Dmitry visited the Autonomous Administration of Northern Syria, where he spent six months until 2017. During that period, the Kurdish self-defense forces, organized by the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) fought heroically against ISIS and actively built a truly popular social model — a democratic confederation: Rojava. He deeply studied the revolutionary experience of the Kurds and while though he was critical he respected it and sincerely tried to convey its most valuable lessons.

Dmitry has always been a loyal friend of the Kurdish people in their fight against the Turkish authoritarian and imperialist regime — a struggle that is so similar to Ukrainian people struggle.

In 2018, Dmitry was forced to leave his homeland due to persecution by the Putin's regime. But he always dreamed of returning. He consciously moved to Ukraine, because he understood that

In 2020, he illegally crossed the border of Belarus to take part in the counteraction to Lukashenko's dictatorship. In its overthrow he saw the way to the liberation not only of Belarus, but also of his native land. Therefore, he tried to stir up the fire of revolution: he marched, helped organize an anarchist bloc at demos, and at night destroyed video surveillance cameras on the streets of Minsk.

Dmitry took an active part in the development of the Ukrainian anarchist movement with the pseudonym Ilya Leshiy. He was an extremely empathetic, communicative and pleasant person, deeply conscious, reliable and steadfast companion. There are no more like him. Maybe there won't be any more.

Dmitry was one of the founders and active participants of BОАК — in our opinion, the most consistent anarchist organization of BUR (Belarus-Ukraine-Russia). According to his comrades, he was also one of the founders of "Black Blog" and an active participant in all its actions. The undermining of the Police-post on 22 km of the Moscow Ring Road was also part of his work. He wasn’t only an active practitioner, but also a theoretician of anarchism — a significant part of his inspiring texts became the programmatic basis of the BOAK.

Dmitry had been actively preparing for the full-scale russian invasion: he contacted anarchists from other countries, organized support structures, gave interviews and explained to the Western leftists why it’s necessary to be with the struggle of the Ukrainian people. He was one of the founders of the “Resistance Committee". When the invasion began, he took up arms to confront the aggressor. Later, he took part in the battles near Svatov and Kreminna.

Dmytro was a consistent internationalist, sought the destruction of all tyrannies and dictatorships, wished people prosperity and dreamed of their harmonious and peaceful coexistence. He stubbornly fought for his ideas until the end.

Words cannot describe our loss.

Dmitry is a role model for us. He was a man of action. His example will serve as an ideal to follow for future generations of anarchists. This is our certain duty and task. The anarchist movement needs more people like him.

He called:

Şehîd namirin

The Struggle is continuing!

We will meet in Utopia!

@BOAK @HEVALE @THEBLACKHEADQUARTER @UANTIFA @MEMORIAL

Dmitry's comrades & friends are gathering memories about him HERE
More information about Dmitry Petrov and other fallen comrades can be found in Memorial Ⓐ

With Dmitry also have fallen 2 other volunteers-internationalists: heval Finbar 'Chia' Cafferkey & Cooper 'Harris' Andrews.

We invite you to an online memorial of anarchists and anti-fascists who have fallen during the Russo-Ukrainian war (from 2014 and until its end). The project was created with the support of the UANTIFA media project for the international anarchist community, to spread information about our comrades, to preserve the memory of the incredible people who fought shoulder to shoulder with us.