In 1929 Fr. Paul was arrested. His spiritual daughter, 28-year old Agripina Agrippina Nikoalevna Kutomkina, was sent by Archimandrite Symeon (Holmogorov) to help Fr. Paul during the deportation to Kazakhstan. They lived there for 4 years and then returned to Russia and lived in different cities and villages in a semi-legal status. At this time, the gift of prophecy of Fr. Paul became evident as he predicted the raids of authorities and instructed Agripina Agrippina exactly where to settle next.

In 1939 Fr. Paul was arrested again. Though he predicted it, he said that otherwise they will arrest Agripina Agrippina instead of him so he decided not to hide this time. Fr. Paul was sent to a labor camp where he stayed until 1944. The official biography that was found in the KGB archives ends at this point. It is suggested that later he was released either due to a severe illness or his sister Elena paid money to the prisoners.