In 1921-22 he was arrested three times by the Odessa Government Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) and then moved to Moscow where he found a job as a proof-reader at several Komsomol-run publishers.

In 1923, after another arrest Varshavsky deserted the Socialist Revolutionary Party and moved to Yekaterinburg, where he worked as an editor at the Ural region publishing house Uralkniga.

From 1932 until 1937 Varshavsky was in charge of literature and drama broadcasting at the Leningrad radio committee whilst serving as head of Critics and Bibliography at the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda.

Rest worked as war correspondents and took part in the defence of Leningrad, Sevastopol and of the Arctic while publishing articles and books about heroic naval aviation pilots.

[9] In the following years S.Varshavsky and B.Rest wrote and published three documentary novels: Ordeal of the Hermitage - their most significant writing,[10][11][12][13][14][15] Near the Winter Palace[16] and A Ticket for the Entire Eternity.

He created impressive collections of English and French lithography from the first half of the 19th century (including Paul Gavarni, Hippolyte Bellangé, Richard Parkes Bonington, James Duffield Harding, Nicolas Toussaint Charlet), of the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints from the Edo period (Harunobu, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Toyokuni, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi and many others), as well as art and craft items, in particular Japanese (netsuke, tsuba, etc.)

[22] The main objects from the collection were at different times either sold or given as gifts by Sergei Varshavsky or his descendants to the Hermitage and Pushkin Museum and were exhibited many times[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Selected netsuke and Japanese woodblock prints from Sergei Varshavsky Collection are a part of the permanent exhibition of the Oriental Art Department at the State Hermitage.