Arrested in 1918 for printing and distributing leaflets denouncing the U.S. military action in Russia opposing the Bolshevik revolution, she was convicted under the Sedition Act and sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was deported to her native Russia in 1921, where she met anarchist Senya Fleshin who would become her lifelong partner. After protesting Bolshevik persecutions of anarchists in Russia, the two were deported to Germany in 1923. When Hitler came to power in Germany they fled to France and eventually made their way to Mexico where they spent the rest of their lives together.