In the run-up to the First World War, Toman served as secretary of the Goldsmiths' Trade Union.
He took part in the fifth congress of the Communist International in 1924 as a non-voting delegate, representing of the inner-party minority in Austria.
At the Profintern congress of 1930, held in Moscow, Toman was elected to the central council of the international body.
Toman relocation to the Soviet Union was seen as a way of resolving the fractional frictions inside the Austrian Communist Party.
After Anschluss (German annexation of Austria in 1938) Toman was threatened with imprisonment at the Dachau concentration camp.
[1] In January 1940 he joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and SA.