 Eventually the new organisation agreed not to attempt to rival or eclipse the Proletkult; instead they devoted themselves principally to professional issues, such as payment scales.Gerasimov helped plan the First Congress of Proletarian Writers, and was elected (along with Il'ia Sadof'ev) assistant chair of the congress and of the resulting All-Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (VAPP).In 1921, in response to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which he viewed as signaling the end of the revolution, Gerasimov quit the Bolshevik party.