of the President" as a mere formality and for only a few weeks. Either the American visas came too late or the Päts family remained under house arrest, but on 30 July 1940, together with his son Viktor and Viktor's wife Helgi-Alice and sons Matti and Henn, Konstantin Päts was deported to Ufa, Russia, where they arrived on 9 August. There they lived under surveillance in a large apartment for a year. In Ufa, Päts wrote his memoirs of his time in office and pleaded that his grandsons, their mother, and nanny would be sent to either Switzerland or Italy, since his grandson Henn was already in a bad health. After receiving no answer, he pleaded for them to be sent back to Estonia. In his naivety, he pleaded to be exchanged with Ernst Thälmann, former leader of the Communist Party of Germany, who was imprisoned in Germany. After that, Päts remained quiet, while his son Viktor was certain that Nazi Germany would invade the Soviet Union and that he would soon be living abroad. The family "randomly" met an Estonian couple, both NKVD agents, in an Ufa market on 29 May 1941. They received an invitation to the family's home the next day. After the visit, it was claimed that both Konstantin and Viktor demonstrated particular viciousness against Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov, sympathized with Germany, and announced that they were impatiently waiting for a German assault on the Soviet Union. On 26 June 1941, they were arrested and imprisoned in Ufa, the children were sent to an orphanage. Päts was interrogated for hours, but did not take the blame. Even in March 1942, he believed that the Western powers would pressure the Soviet Union to send him abroad. Eventually, Päts and his son were sent to Butyrka prison in Moscow and Helgi-Alice to Gulag prison camps in Siberia. In Butyrka prison, Johan Laidoner was prisoner No. 11, Konstantin Päts No. 12 and Viktor No. 13.XX sajandi kroonika, II osa. Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus. Tallinn, 2004. P. 62. On 24 March 1943, Päts was sent to forced treatment in psychoneurotic hospitals first in Kazan, then in Chistopol in Tatar ASSR. His forced psychiatric hospitalization was justified by his "persistent claiming of being the President of Estonia". On 29 April 1952, Päts was found guilty according to § 58-14 and § 58-10 of the Penal Code, which meant counter-revolutionary sabotage and anti-Soviet