The discipline among the Socialists in the Solovky excels even that of the shpana. They will face a hunger strike, a rebellion, even death itself almost without hesitation, to attain the object they have set before them.
In the winter of 1923 the politicals at the Solovetsky Monastery, then over a thousand strong, made a skating rink near one of the caves. The camp administration observed parties of skaters on the rink singing revolutionary songs. They were ordered to stop singing, but did not obey. Then Nogteff brought a platoon of Red soldiers down to the rink and opened fire on the skaters without warning. Nine of them (six men and three women) were killed and many wounded.
The politicals declared a hunger strike and demanded that a commission of inquiry should be sent from Moscow. The whole body of them took part in the strike, on Popoff Island as well as on Solovetsky Island. Some of them could not stand upright from exhaustion, and were taken to hospital. One of these was the well-known "S.R." Bogdanoff, who until he was transferred to the Narym region in April, 1925, was generally recognised as the leader of the "politicals and party men" in the Solovky.
Nogteff went to the hospital to persuade them to stop the hunger strike. He was received with cries of "Executioner!" Bogdanoff, anxious that Nogteff should not worry the other sick men by his presence in the room, told the attendants to carry him out into the yard on a stretcher. Then he asked Nogteff:
"What can I do for you?"
Nogteff began again to try to persuade him to stop the hunger strike.
"Is that all you have to say?" Bogdanoff replied. "Take me back into hospital. I don't want to talk to a murderer."
The end of it was that the politicals had their way. In September of the same year a commission, consisting of Smirnoff (public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.), Katanian (public prosecutor of the Gpu), and Soltz, was appointed. But the Socialists did not get from the commission what they expected. Nogteff was not punished in any way for shooting the nine persons. The commission found that he had acted in self-defence!
In the summer of 1924 the politicals again declared a hunger strike. This time they demanded that the food should be improved. The hunger strike lasted thirteen days. Several persons died, and about a hundred were taken to hospital. Moscow was appealed to, and this time granted the politicals' demand. From that time onward they began to receive daily 2 lbs. of bread (white and black), 1 lb. of meat, good butter, milk, eggs, etc., and these rations are still being issued to them at the time of writing.
At the end of 1924 and the beginning of 1925 students expelled from the universities began to arrive in the Solovky from Petrograd, Moscow and other towns. The Soviet Government had begun to expel and arrest students of bourgeois origin in order to make room for Communists.[[30]]