 Gerasimov's first poems were published in 1913 in the Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie" (Enlightenment).Other poems appeared in print in 1914 in the party newspaper "Pravda", in Ilya Ehrenburg's émigré magazine "Vechera" (Evenings), and in other publications.When the First World War broke out in 1914, Gerasimov volunteered to fight against the Germans in the French Foreign Legion.