[1] Jewish-born Tsion was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party's majority wing called the Bolsheviks.

During his time in Helsinki Tsion had contacted several Finnish social democrats including journalist-playwright Elvira Willman.

He had left the Bolsheviks and joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and was the supporter of the Provisional Government's leader Aleksandr Kerensky.

After the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, Tsion fled to Sweden.

During his time in Sweden Tsion was in correspondence with the Nobel Laureate Russian writer Ivan Bunin, who was living in exile in Grasse, France.