Because of their social criticism and calls for various reforms, the New Current was viewed as a seditious movement and was the subject of a Tsarist crackdown. In 1897 Rainis was arrested and deported first to Pskov, and later to Vyatka guberniya (now Kirov Oblast). It was during this period of internal exile that Rainis translated "Faust" and other works from classical literature. Here he also produced his first collection of poems, "Tālas noskaņas zilā vakarā" (Far-Off Moods on a Blue Evening, 1903).