 In 1918, he organized and was chair of the Samara Proletkult and in 1919 edited the Samara Proletkult magazine "Zarevo zavodov" (Glow of the factories).Later that year he moved to Moscow, where he was named head of the literary department of the Moscow Proletkult and joined the staff of the literary department of the Anatoly Lunacharsky's People's Commissariat of Enlightenment (LITO Narkomprosa).In February 1920, he formed a group of worker writers discontented with the Proletcult, feeling it inhibited their creative growth due to lack of attention to formal training and the special demands of the talented.