In the spring of 1918 he returned to Novorssiisk to reorganise schools after the revolution in October 1917, though was forced into hiding when the Whites (pro-monarchist forces) captured the village in August of that year. In 1920, by which time the Whites had been driven out, Gladkov was appointed as the head of education in the town. He would also serve in the Red Army, before being made editor of the newspaper "Krasnoye chernomorye". In 1921 he moved to Moscow where he was appointed as the head of a factory school, then secretary of the journal "Novy mir" ("New World"). Gladkov was a member of "The Smithy" writers group, who were engaged in polemics with the Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP). While a proponent of portraying the revolution in literature, he was anxious about the tone in which groups such as RAPP and MAPP (Moscow Association of Proletarian Writers) conducted their discussions, and the "working over" that non-RAPP writers were given in particular journals.