Arrested in one of a series of purges targeting Soviet artists and cultural leaders in 1937 – 38 , Gusman was accused of having written ideologically unsound scripts in the past . While initial purges targeted those linked ( or accused of links ) to Trotskyism , Gusman 's arrest came alongside later , wider purges . Gusman 's wife was arrested as well . Gusman himself died on May 3 , 1944 in Vozhael , a punitive forced labor camp
a series of purges
Great Purge
Boris Gusman