After the suppression of the 1924 anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia, Gamsakhurdia was excluded from the Tbilisi State University where he taught German literature. Soon was arrested and deported to the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea where he was to spend a few years. On his release, Gamsakhurdia was forced to keep silence. On the verge of suicide, the writer fought his depression by translating Dante. Early in the 1930s, he obtained Lavrentiy Beria's protection and was able to resume writing, with an attempt at "socialist" novel "Stealing the Moon" (მთვარის მოტაცება, 1935-6), a story of love and collectivization in Abkhazia. Next came the psychological novella "Khogais Mindia" (ხოგაის მინდია, 1937), yet another appeal in classical Georgian literature to this Khevsur myth. Beria was critical of these works, though. Soon Gamsakhurdia was arrested for an affair with Lida Gasviani, a young charming Trotskyite director of the State Publishing House, but interrogated and released by Beria who told him ironically that sexual relations with enemies of the people were permitted.