He was orphaned as a child and became a foundry worker, joining the Tomsk Social-Democrats before the 1905 revolution.
[1] In 1919 Vilensky was appointed by the Russian Communist Party as the plenipotentiary for Far Eastern Affairs.
He went to Vladivostok, where he established what evolved into the Far Eastern Bureau of the Comintern, originally the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party.
[2] He was active in the Society of Former Political Convicts and Exiles (OPK), for a period, editing the journal Katorga i ssylka (Hard Labour and Exile).
[3] He was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1927, accused of anti-party fractional work.