 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 . 
