AHC: Free Ukraine

With a POD of 1917 make Nestor Makhno succeed in creating an anarchist, at least in name, independent Ukraine.
 
My dim opinion of Makhno aside, he was not after a Ukrainian state. He didn't believe in states. The folk who believed in a Ukrainian state were Petlyura's lot, and they could certainly have run the thing a lot better than a glorified bandit-chieftain.
 
My dim opinion of Makhno aside, he was not after a Ukrainian state. He didn't believe in states. The folk who believed in a Ukrainian state were Petlyura's lot, and they could certainly have run the thing a lot better than a glorified bandit-chieftain.

And an anarchist for that matter.

Not that Makhno was in a hopeful situation with the might of the Red Army arrayed against him historically, but really the ending between a highly-centralized state capable of coordinating enormous resources against its foes up against some anarchic mess designed by an idealist, not a statesman, there's really only one outcome.

I would also refer to the "success" of Anarchist Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War for such a question.
 

MSZ

Banned
Machno could have been more successful if he managed to get more from his alliance with the bolsheviks and Trotsky. If he managed to secure it earlier, for example by claiming official alliegence to the bolshevik cause in 1918 without surrendering any control to Moscow but by using force to have the various ukrainian councils report to him, he could become one of the rulers of Ukraine, along with the leaders of the Ukrainian SSR. Of course a clash with the Bolsheviks would be unavoidable, but if Machno managed to take control of the area between Dnepr and Don during the Russian Civil War, he could change sides and attempt to ally with the Poles - though they most likely would ignore him, or try to force him to cooperate with Petlura which is impossible.
 
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