In the wake of the 1905 Revolution, Oleksandr Semenyuta joined the Union of Poor Peasants,[1] helping to maintain close relations between it and the anarchist-communist group in Katerynoslav.

He eventually returned to Huliaipole clandestinely in order to visit his family,[3] while sometimes also smuggling anarchist literature and small arms into the village.

[13] One night in the autumn of 1909, Kariachentsev attended a play at a local theatre, not knowing that Semenyuta had returned from Belgium and was sitting a few rows behind him.

When the train was delayed due to a blizzard, Semenyuta stepped into the station's waiting room, where he was recognized by a police informant and forced to flee the scene, aborting the planned prison break.

[21] Oleksandr's portrait was also hung alongside those of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, in the headquarters of the Huliaipole libertarian communist group.

[23] Semenyuta's old house was later used as a meeting place for the nucleus of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine,[24] which included his last surviving brother Andrei.