In the fundamental textbook Geography of Europe, the scientist Azbukin spoke of Belarus as a self-sufficient, independent country, which could not but alert the Soviet regime. On June 21, 1930, N.V. Azbukin, together with a close friend, Arkady Smolich, was arrested in the case of the Union for the Liberation of Belarus. According to the decree of the Board of the OGPU of the BSSR of April 10, 1931, Nikolai Vasilyevich Azbukin was exiled for five years to the Vyatka province in Nolinsk (now it is the Kirov region of the Russian Federation).