After the February Revolution, in 1917, he was an active in the Socialist Revolutionary party in Chernihiv, and was one of the leaders called the Left Bank (Levoberezhtsev).

After his release from prison, he worked underground in Odessa, Mykolaiv, and Poltava, where he was one of the leaders of the resistance to German rule.

After a failed attempt to establish soviet rule in Poltava, he was imprisoned by Ukrainian nationalists loyal to Symon Petliura, but was freed by the arrival of the Red Army.

He moved to Kyiv, where he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the Ukraine soviets, and appointed editor of the newspaper Borotba.

[2] After his death, a literary group called the Free Academy of Proletarian Literature, was formed by his friend Mykola Khvylovy.