In 1877 Apotheker became involved in the nihilist movement, and was arrested in Kiev in 1879 for revolutionary activities.[3] He fled to Czernowitz, then the capital of Bukovina, where he opened a book store,[4] wrote for Hebrew and Yiddish papers, and published his first book, Ha-Nevel ('The Harp'), containing Hebrew and Yiddish poems (1881).[5]