After the Bolshevik revolution, Glebov-Avilov was appointed the first People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR. He was replaced on 19 December 1917, when the Bolsheviks formed a short-lived coalition with the Left Socialist revolutionaries. During the civil war, he commanded a flotilla on the Black Sea coast at Chornomorsk. He was assigned the task of scuttling the Black Sea fleet to prevent it falling into the hands of the German army. He then worked in the trade union, and was Ukraine People's Commissar for Labour. In 1924-1925, he was chairman of the Leningrad trade unions, and was sent as the soviet representative to the TUC annual congress in London, on the eve of the General Strike. He supported the Leningrad party leader Grigory Zinoviev against Josif Stalin. At the 14th Party Congress of December 1925, he complained angrily that there were supporters of the left opposition who dared not declare their allegiance because they did not want to be sent to "Murmansk or Turkestan". In 1926, he was dismissed from his post, and was later assigned to work in the Soviet embassy in Rome. In 1928-36, he was Director of the Rostov Agricultural Machine Factory.