The most effective way of protecting the revolution is gathering the masses which can happen without the state, indeed, it has happened multiple time throughout history.
Could you point to examples?
Anarchists in civil war in spain (until some of them decided to fuck off), I would say the makhnovshchina defended itself pretty well with the scarce resources they had, greek anarchists with their decades old squats, bolivian grassroots movements who helped Evo Morales get in power in Bolivia, etc.
