Nadezhda Malaxiano became involved with a Narodnaya Volya group, being one of its activists in Taganrog's underground printshop in 1885–1886 on Glushko Street 60.

Sigida appealed for pardon following the request of Malaxiano family, and the death penalty was replaced by 8 years of katorga on Kara River in Transbaikalia.

The governor-general Andrei Korf sentenced Sigida to 100 birch-rods, but the order was not immediately carried out following a report from the prison surgeon that she could not withstand the punishment.

As a consequence, Kara katorga was closed, and the corporal punishment for imprisoned women and dvorianins (nobility) was abolished by the law of March 28, 1893.

[citation needed] In 1888, in the Moscow transit prison, 25-year-old Nadezhda met the young Ukrainian poet, Pavlo Hrabovsky, who was also convicted of revolutionary activity.