At the time of the Bolshevik October Revolution in 1917, he was a member of the Moscow Soviet and commanded a Red Guard detachment against the Kremlin-based Junkers.

At the end of 1917, he was sent as a war commissar to the Donbass, where he organized a miners’ Red Guard unit that fought at Kiev and Rostov.

During the Battle of Tsaritsyn, Zhloba's Steel Division attacked the rear of Pyotr Krasnov's Don Army, forcing it to retreat.

In February 1921, he led the 18th Cavalry Division which reinforced the 11th Soviet Red Army in the war against Georgia.

Two children were born in this marriage (in 1913 and 1914) — son Konstantin (died 1991) and daughter Lydia, which were arrested together with their mother, and released in 1956, lived a long life and had descendants.