He enrolled in business school in 1918, but then volunteered for the Red Army in 1919 and served in the light artillery squadron of the 3rd Rifle Division.
After the division had retreated to Voronezh, Ginzburg enrolled in the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy and graduated in 1920.
He continued his studies at the Dzerzhinsky Military Technology Academy in 1926 and graduated in 1929 after specializing in tank designs.
In 1930 he was a member of the Soviet purchasing committee in Great Britain that prepared buying a license for the Vickers 6-Ton tank.
Ginzburg then headed the OKMO experimental group in Leningrad preparing the production of the T-26, based on the acquired Vickers 6-Ton design.