He turned away from the Proletkult in the late 1920s, and became in the early 1930s the chief drama theoretician of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers.

He continued writing until his death in a German air raid in 1941.

[2] His play Crank (Чудак) satirises bureaucracy, protectionism, and antisemitism.

[citation needed] It was produced by the Second Moscow Art Theatre in 1929, in a production that featured Azarii Azarin as Volgin, Serafima Birman as Troshchina, and Sophia Giatsintova as Sima.

[3] His later plays Fear (Страх, 1931) and A Far Place (Далекое, 1935) were very popular with audiences; "he is distinguished among Soviet playwrights for his interest in personal psychological problems.