after the october revolution he joined the red army and became one of vladimir lenin's bodyguards. along with fellow odessite writers such as ilya ilf and yevgeni petrov he published his poems in the "gudok" newspaper, a mouthpiece for the soviet ministry of transport. he helped initiate the agitprop movement of "blue shirts" which took its name from his 1923 collection of poetry, "the blue blouse" (russian: синяя блуза).