Arbore's beliefs led him to join the Jura federation, an anarchist cell within the First International, and to become initiated into Freemasonry (1872). He became strongly opposed to Bakunin's marginalization during the First International's Hague Congress, and signed his name ("Z. Ralli") to a letter of protest, alongside Nikolay Ogarev. Also in 1872, Arbore also helped draft the German-language pamphlet which documented Bakunin's condemnation of Nechayev: "Ist Netshaejeff ein politischer Verbrecher oder nicht?" ("Is Nechayev a Political Felon, or Is He Not?"). With Bakunin and Errico Malatesta, he was personally involved in the anarchist agitation sweeping Restoration Spain during the 1870s: he personally helped translate Bakunin's letter to the Iberian anarchists, but their hopes of inciting a new revolution were unsuccessful; progressively after that moment, Arbore and Bakunin grew estranged from one another. According to Woodcock, the reason behind this "personal" rather than ideological conflict was Bakunin's "tactless" support for Arbore's adversary Mikhail Sanzhin, leading Arbore and his partners, the "young Bakuninists", to establish the Revolutionary Community organization. The reasons and objectives of this group, whose other members were Vladimir Holstein, Alexander Oelsnitz and Nikolai Ivanovich Zhukovsky, were outlined in a letter to Jura anarchist James Guillaume.