 As head of the State Water Transport Administration, in 1918-19, he organised the emergency of food supplies along the Volga, to Moscow, to enable the city to function during the first month’s civil war.In November 1919, he was posted to Tashkent as a member of the Turkestan Commission, in charge of imposing communist rule in Central Asia.In March 1920, he was elected to the Central Committee of the RCP (b).