Having joined the anarchist movement during the Russian Revolution of 1905, during which he developed his individualist theory of "associational anarchism", Chernyi was arrested and exiled to Siberia for his revolutionary activities.

After several escape attempts, one of which resulted in mutinous exiles capturing Turukhansk, he managed to flee to Paris, where he stayed until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

[3] Under the pseudonym Lev Chernyi, he wrote a manifesto of his newfound anarchist beliefs, Associational Anarchism, which he finished in February 1906.

On 8 December 1908, the group ambushed a convoy at Osinovo [ru] and headed north along the Yenisey, despite Chernyi's objections to the choice of route.

Despite his lack of direct involvement in the Turukhansk uprising, the Ministry of Internal Affairs held him responsible for organising the mutiny.

[2] Following the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, Chernyi helped organise the Black Guards, the armed wing of the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups.

[10] On 5 March 1918, the second issue of Anarkhiia after the October Revolution, Chernyi published an article in which he denounced the new Russian Soviet Republic and declared it to be as much of a threat as the old regime.

[13] On 25 September 1919, the Underground Anarchists carried out a bombing of a Russian Communist Party meeting, killing 12 functionaries and wounding 55 others, including Nikolai Bukharin, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky and Yuri Steklov.

They were both inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's call for the overthrow of bourgeois values, as well as Max Stirner and Benjamin Tucker's opposition to society.