 Skryabin took the pseudonym "Molotov," derived from the Russian word молот molot (hammer) for his political work owing to the name's vaguely "industrial" ring. He was arrested in 1909 and spent two years in exile in Vologda. In 1911 he enrolled at St Petersburg Polytechnic. Molotov joined the editorial staff of a new underground Bolshevik newspaper called Pravda, meeting Joseph Stalin for the first time in association with the project. This first association between the two future Soviet leaders proved to be brief, however, and did not result in an immediate close political association.
