[1] With the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution, he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party and edited its underground newspaper Molot (English: The Hammer).

[2] When Arshinov caught the attention of the police for his revolutionary activity, he moved to the Ukrainian city of Katerynoslav,[1] where he split with the Bolsheviks over ideological disagreements and became a member of the anarchist movement.

[3] In December 1906, following the repression of revolutionary elements, Arshinov led the formation of an anarchist terrorist cell in Katerynoslav and organised a series of attacks, including the bombing of a police station and the assassination of a government official.

[4] He broke out of prison on Easter Sunday,[5] and fled first to France then to Austria-Hungary, where he engaged in arms trafficking and the smuggling of anarchist propaganda into the Russian Empire.

[5] In prison, Arshinov was acquainted with the young Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno,[7] who he took under his wing as a pupil,[8] teaching him Russian language and literature, mathematics, geography, history, economics and politics.

[15] One of these peasant insurgent bands was led by Nestor Makhno, who defeated the occupation forces at the battle of Dibrivka and captured much of his home region,[16] becoming the leader of a mass movement of the Ukrainian peasantry which declared him their Bat'ko (English: Father).

[26] By May 1919, relations between the Bolsheviks and anarchists had become strained by political divisions and by the collapse of the Donbas front, which Arshinov blamed on Red Army commanders, who he claimed had deliberately deprived the insurgents of weaponry.

[33] Arshinov then observed what he considered to be a failure to establish either political or military control over left-bank Ukraine,[34] which he blamed on the outbreak of epidemic typhus within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina.

[47] Meanwhile, he earned a living by making handmade shoes, as part of a scheme for Russian refugees, which lasted until competition from a French industrial manufacturer made it no longer profitable.

[52] By this time, Arshinov's wife grown weary of life in exile and wanted their family to return to Russia, which the Bolshevik politician Sergo Ordzhonikidze offered to sponsor.