In 1917, the purely scientific interest in the study of radium was replaced by the practical need to use it for military purposes - the military department and defense organizations received information that radium was used for the production of light compounds. The necessity of radium extraction from domestic raw materials became urgent. A large batch of radium-containing ore from the Tyuya-Muyun deposit was stored in the warehouse of a private commercial firm "Fergana Society for Rare Metals Mining". This organization, due to the lack of specialists-radiochemists in Russia, was preparing the raw material for shipment to Germany for technological extraction of the final product from it, but the war and then the February Revolution of 1917 prevented this.
The Congress for the Technical Defense of the State in October 1917 decided to organize a special radium plant under the direct control of the Academy of Sciences, but the October Socialist Revolution again removed this issue from the queue. In January 1918 V. G. Khlopin published an article "A Few Words on the Application of Radioactive Elements in Military Technology and on the Possible Future of the Radium Industry in Russia", in which he characterized the importance and prospective use of radium for military-strategic purposes. In the spring of the same year, the Presidium of the All-Russian Council of National Economy (RCNE) decided to sequester radioactive raw materials belonging to the "Fergana Society"; in April, the Chemical Department of the RCNE, headed by Prof. L. Ya. Karpov, entrusted the Academy of Sciences with the mission of organizing a plant for radium extraction from domestic uranium-vanadium ores and ensuring scientific control over production; at a meeting of specialists convened on 12 April by the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (NPFR), headed by N. S. Kovalev. С. Kurnakov, V. G. Khlopin and L. I. Bogoyavlensky it was reported on the results of the work undertaken to obtain radium from the available raw materials; in July 1918 a special Commission, the Technical Council or later the Board for the organization of a radium plant at the Academy of Sciences was elected, which decided to organize a research laboratory, a special Radium Department (under the Commission) headed by V. I. Vernadsky was established under the chairmanship of A. E. Fersman, senior mineralogist of the Academy of Sciences, professor of the Higher Women's Courses. The secretary of the department, a specialist of the Radium Laboratory of the Academy, an assistant of the Department of General Chemistry of the Petrograd University, 28-year-old V. G. Khlopin, was appointed its commissioner for the organization of the radium plant. His thorough theoretical training and mastery of the methods of fine chemical analysis, his ability to solve practical problems effectively, and his experience in expeditions fully justified his involvement in such a responsible business. L. N. Bogoyavlensky, a specialist on this subject, was invited as the head of the plant.
 "October 28, 1918.<br>Uralsovnarkhoz (Perm), Usolsk executive committee, Management of Berezniki soda plant.<br> «I order the Berezniki plant to immediately begin work on the organization of a radium plant according to the resolution of the Vysovnarkhoz. The necessary funds have been allocated by the Council of Peoples Commissars. The work should be carried out under the direction and responsibility of chemical engineer Bogoyavlensky, to whom I propose to render full assistance.<br> Chairman of the Council of People s Commissars Lenin»".
 Lenin V. I. Complete Collected Works, vol. 50, p. 375.
In 1918, all radioactive residues that were in Petrograd were evacuated inland - first to the Berezniki soda plant in Perm province, and in May 1920, already by the new plant manager I. Ya. Bashilov, - to the Bondyuzhsky chemical plant of Khimosnov (now Khimzavod named after L. Y. Karpov in Mendeleevsk), where only in the fall of 1920 it became possible to put into operation a temporary pilot plant for radium extraction.