In contrast to Zhitlovsky and Syrkin, whose ideologies had been largely shaped by the drama of 1881–2, Ber Borochov underwent the decisive political experience of his life in the crisis of 1903–7. They had been born in the late 1860s; he was born in 1881 and belonged to a new generation. In fact, Borochov's early political development was to a large extent typical of the young leadership group that emerged on the Russian–Jewish Left during the 1905 revolution. As a leader of the ESDRP-PZ–The Jewish Social Democratic Labor Party (Poale Zion), a Palestine-oriented party founded in February 1906–he was recognizably of the same vintage as his counterparts in the SSRP (Moyshe Litvakov, Yaakov and Yoysef Leshchinsky, Shmuel Niger) and in the SERP (Moyshe Zilberfarb, Nokhem Shtif, Yehude Novakovsky).

These men owed to the revolution their sudden rise to power (albeit a power confined within a narrow party circumference). They had the energy to travel constantly from one town to the next carrying their party message, the enthusiasm to inspire faith in their cause, the oratorical ability to sway intelligentsiia gatherings or worker crowds (or both), the acumen to prepare an impressive referat replete with statistical data; the strength to speak for hours on end, the ability to concentrate through party conferences that lasted for days or even weeks, and the debating skill to outmanoeuver hecklers, overwhelm opponents, and win over the undecided.