Following the ousting of the occupation forces in November 1918, he participated in the establishment of a Ukrainian Anarchist Confederation known as the Nabat and became one of its leading members in the secretariat in Kharkiv.
Following the repression of the Nabat by the Bolsheviks in August 1919, Gotman and Volin fled Kharkiv and joined the Makhnovshchina, immediately involving themselves in the movement's propaganda activities.
[7] They both became close friends of Nestor Makhno himself, which led them to join the Military Revolutionary Council, the Makhnovist movement's executive organ.
[7] In September 1920, at a clandestine conference of the Nabat held in Kharkiv, Yosif opposed an anti-Makhnovist resolution issued by Aron Baron.
[10] But on 26 November, the Bolsheviks initiated a campaign of political repression against the Ukrainian anarchists, arresting and imprisoning the Nabat's leading members.