In 1896, for his participation in the creation of the Moscow Workers' Union he was arrested and exiled to his home city. In 1898-1899 he was a member of the Moscow Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In the spring of 1899, during the student unrest, he was once again expelled from Moscow, and then left for Switzerland, where he continued his medical education. Vladimirsky joined Plekhanov's Emancipation of Labor group and collaborated in the foreign organization "Iskra". After the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903) he became a Bolshevik.