[2] Fleshin was soon in conflict with the Bolshevik government; Berger eventually left him and went to Odessa to join a group of naletchiki (armed bandits) carrying out 'bank expropriations'.
On 9 July 1923, police raided their apartment and they were again placed under arrest, charged with propagating anarchist ideas, in violation of Art.
Fleshin was active in the Joint Committee for the Defense of Revolutionaries (1923–26), and the Relief Fund of the International Working Men's Association for Anarchists (1926–32).
[6] After seven weeks of imprisonment, Steimer, aided by French anarchist friends, including May Picqueray, editor of Le Réfractaire,[7] managed to escape Camp Gurs during its chaotic turnover to Vichy control.
[7] Picqueray helped smuggle Fleshin and Steimer out of the country to Mexico, where they settled, running a photography studio.