In the summer of 1930, the 16th Communist Congress met, and Losev's case was discussed. The book was denounced by politician Lazar Kaganovich and playwright Vladimir Kirshon who said "for such nuances put him up against a wall" to be executed. All 500 copies of the book were seized and destroyed. After 4 months in Lubyanka, Losev was transferred to Butyrskaia Prison where he was held for 13 more months. The Losevs were sentenced for his "militant idealism": Valentina to five years and Aleksei to ten years of hard labor in Northern Russia. Losev was sent to Gulag labor camps to work on the construction of the White Sea – Baltic Canal. Initially, he was put to work hauling timber, but his health failed and he was assigned night watchman at a timber storage facility. There he began to gradually lose his vision due to malnutrition, though he was reunited with his wife in 1932 at Belbaltlag labor camp. In December 1931, Maxim Gorky wrote acidly in "Pravda" and in "Izvestia" that he regretted Losev was still alive to foul the Soviet air.