Leon Trotsky commented on this action shortly and exhaustively: “We expelled these people because there was no reason to shoot them, yet it was impossible to put up with them.” They were afraid of shooting the group of dissidents, the harsh critics of the Soviet regime, which included the famous philosophers Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Osorgin, Ivan Ilyin and many other Bolsheviks. And then a way out was found – a deportation. Deep thinkers with world names were loaded on the steamboat named Oberbürgermeister Haken and sent to Stettin. They were allowed to take valuables with them in the amount not exceeding 50 rubles in gold.

The artist Yuri Annenkov recalled: “There were 10 people seeing them off, no more... We were not allowed on the steamboat. We had to stay on the embankment. When the steamboat departed, those leaving were already sitting in their cabins, fully invisible. It was not possible to say goodbye.” On November 16, the “philosopher’s steamboat” Preussen was sent with the next batch of philosophers and professors. There were also “philosopher’s trains.” Today, these trains and steamboats are cited as an example when explaining the term “brain drain.”