A rather terrifying thoughtConquered as soon as Moscow gets its ducks in a row.
Until then, we get more of the European Pol Pot.
Why? That's what Poland was for.But perhaps it end's up as a buffer state. Backed by the allies for it's opposition to the soviets.
Fair point, alright let's say ASB's intervene and make it impossible for the nation to be immediately conquered, what happens now and how does the government function.Why? That's what Poland was for.
And any buffer state they support will be a Ukrainian nationalist one, certainly not a regime ruled by a jumped-up bandit who forces people out of cities and shrieks about Revolution to the point where Trotsky sounds like a goddamned piccolo.
Makhno keeps forcing people out of cities and into the countryside to work on farms. Peasants continue to be terrorized to a point that would make Stalin blush (Ukrainians STILL hate Makhno more than Stalin, and that's OTL). Famine, disease, and economic disintegration loom titanically on the horizon.Fair point, alright let's say ASB's intervene and make it impossible for the nation to be immediately conquered, what happens now and how does the government function.
Too bad IBC isn't here anymore, he would be able to provide us with a lot of insight.
Anyway, Makhno's Ukraine would not survive in the long run - it was hardly an organized state,more like a raider gang with a lot of territory under its "protection". Some partywould eventually kick him out, whether the bolsheviks, whites, Peltura or Pilsudski. Assuming we have some ASB preventing any of the above mentioned powers to march in his territory (say, a different regime takes power in Poland. succeeds overall in taking west-bank Ukraine, but isn't comfortable with east bank being made into a Ukraine nation-state or an SRR, thus forcing the bolsheviks to accept Makhon's rule there) then you will either face a Makhno-dictatorship (as it would be necessary to keep the place going) or a Somalia-grade failed state, where food forthe population might be adequate, but everything else would be lacking.
IBC often makes good points but this dosnt really much more ''insight'' than Wolfpaw already gave us.
The fact is Ukraine ITTL would look like the Congo does today, revolutionary leaders like Makhno or Che tend to get a free-pass for the shit they pull. Either because they lost & died or were less cold-bloodedly practical than men like Lenin. Stalin (or even Mao to a degree).
So yeah, Ukraine would be a bloody nightmare until Moscow or Warsaw gets it's act together and puts Makhno down, much to everyone's relief.