 A general strike was called in Hamburg on 21 March 1921 and Bästlein went to the demonstration on the wharfs against Blohm + Voss.There were fights with the police and after the demonstration, Bästlein found himself wanted by the police on charges of "conspiracy to commit high treason.Bästlein fled to Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and worked as an editor, lecturer and teacher at the KPD school in Moscow, where his wife joined him.