He joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906 and became chairman of several local committees.

[2] Muklevich was drafted into Baltic Fleet as a sailor in 1912, and completed a marine engineering course (Kronstadt) in 1915 and was promoted to petty officer.

From 1922 he was commissar of the military academy of the Red Army and in 1925 he was deputy commander of the Soviet Air Force.

[3] During the Great Purge, he was arrested on 28 May 1937, and accused of "organising a Polish fascist conspiracy in the Red Army", to which he confessed under torture.

Alexander Barmine wrote that "Fat and sturdy and round-faced, this Old Bolshevik had all the quiet confidence and also the appearance of a born leader ...