Pinhas Rutenberg was born in the town of Romny, north of Poltava, Russian Empire, now in Ukraine (also the hometown of Haim Arlosoroff and three of the founders of the first kibbutz, Degania). After graduating from a practical high school, he enrolled to the Technology Institute in Saint Petersburg and joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (also known as the S.R. or Eser party). He worked as a workshop manager at the Putilov plant, the largest Petersburg industry. The plant was a center of the Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers, founded in 1903 by a popular working class leader, Father George Gapon. Gapon collaborated in secret with the Police Department (the Okhrana), which believed this to be the way to control the workers' movement. Rutenberg became Gapon's friend, which made him a noticeable figure in the S.R. party.