In 1891 he went to Switzerland, where he became acquainted with Pavel Axelrod, Vera Zasulich, Georgi Plekhanov, and Rosa Luxemburg.
[1] In 1892, he joined the Social Democratic movement while a student in Zurich, and in 1895 returned to Russia.
After the February Revolution of 1917, he was from March to May the editor in chief of the Working Gazette («Рабочая газета»), the official paper of the Menshevik organization.
In contrast to Julius Martov, he proposed that the Mensheviks enter the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in order to provide a counterweight to the Bolsheviks.
In April 1921 he left the RSDLP and joined the faculty of Moscow State University, where he concentrated exclusively on management and the scientific organization of labor.