Career
In 1927, he became chairman of the All-Union Association of Chess Problem and Study Lovers. He was arrested in 1930 for his part in a supposed plot to infiltrate the Bolshevik government positions with pro-Mensheviks. Nikolai Krylenko personally prosecuted him during the 1931 Menshevik Trial.
His sentence was 8 years in prison.
Zalkind was released in 1938 but new accusations were brought against him. Zalkind was sentenced to additional 5 years of imprisonment at an even more severe labor camp.
He himself died of a heart attack on 25 June 1945 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Krai, located in the Russian Far East.