Yuri Krinitsky was an 18 year old student when he came from Tashkent to study at the Russian Institute of the History of Art. Back home he had been involved in the setting up of several circles of anarcho-syndicalist youth. He was arrested there in autumn 1922 on the charge of publishing an underground magazine Turkestan Alarm and given a written denunciation. Undeterred by this he began anarchist work at the Institute, forming a group around him. During the Christmas holidays of 1923/24 he visited Moscow and received a membership card of Russian Federation of Anarchists, and several blank cards for distribution in Tashkent and Leningrad.

In spring of 1924 he was elected chairman of the Political Education Departments of the Institute. During the summer holidays in 1924 he was arrested again in Tashkent, but soon released. He carried on activity at the Institute. In autumn of that year six Communist Youth arrived at the Institute and prepared a list for elections to the student bodies. At a mass meeting Krinitsky urged the students to vote against the list. The GPU (successor of the Cheka) had the Institute under surveillance. The Communist slate lost the election and on the night of 3-4th November the GPU arrested Krinitsky, Benjamin Rakov, Alexandra Kvachevskya, Panteleimon Skrinikov, Maria Krivtsova and Yevgeniya Olshevskaya. Krinitsky, Rakov and Kvachevskya were found guilty as socially dangerous elements that were corrupting the student body and exiled from Leningrad for 3 years. Charges were dropped against the others for lack of evidence. Krinitsky was deported for 3 years to Zyriansky, and Rakov and Kvachevskaya for two years to Kazakhstan.