In 1917, he became a member of the Kronstadt Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), Chairman of the Council of Soldiers' and Sailors' Deputies, delegate to the 7th (April) All–Russian Conference and 6th and 7th Congresses of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee at the Main Telegraph and Commissar of the Kexholm Reserve Regiment. After the October Revolution, he was the editor of the newspaper "Izvestia" of the Kronstadt Soviet, then a member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs and Deputy People's Commissar. In January – May 1918, he was Chairman of the Kronstadt Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks). In 1918–1919 he was the Chairman of the All–Russian Union of Communications Workers. In 1919–1920 he was the Deputy People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Head of the Communications Department of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In 1920–1921, he was acting People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.