As the Russian Civil War progress, Askarov grew increasingly sympathetic towards the Bolsheviks and became a leading figure of Soviet anarchism, founding the organisation of Universalists in 1920.
[3] But he also cautioned the syndicates from repeating the mistakes of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) and upholding a form of authoritarian centralism, which he felt would open their ranks to politicians and union officials, diluting their anarchist character.
He encouraged anarcho-syndicalists to ostracise Marxist politicians and instead draw their membership entirely from the working class, proposing the formation of underground unions that would "declare an unrelenting war against authority, always and everywhere.
"[4] By 1909, Anarkhist was forced to cease publication due to a lack of funds, although Askarov continued to collaborated on other emigrant anarchist periodicals and co-edited an anti-militarist newspaper together with Errico Malatesta and Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis.
Although open to syndicalists and individualists, the Federation's membership consisted primarily of anarchist communists,[5] with Askarov himself being brought on as editor of the organisation's newspaper Anarkhiia.
[6] After the October Revolution and the ratification of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russian anarchists quickly became dissilusioned with the government of Vladimir Lenin and the Moscow Federation began establishing armed units known as the Black Guards.
[9] In early 1919, Askarov and fellow anarchist communists Iosif Bleikhman and Vladimir Barmash attempted to heal the rift between them and the syndicalists,[10] coming together with them to form the "Moscow Union of Anarcho-Syndicalists-Communists".
[11] From its magazine Trud i Volia, the nascent Moscow Union launched a polemic against the Bolshevik government and appealed for direct action against the authoritarian and bureuacratic state system.
[10] As the Russian Civil War progressed, many anarchist communists came to fear the prospect of a victory by the White Army and a debate broke out over whether to support the Bolshevik government.
As editor of the organisation's periodical Universal, he advocated for supporting the Red Army and ending any hostilities with the government,[16] maintaining that a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat was a necessary step in the transition towards a stateless society.