Convicted of "anti-Soviet activity", Kondratyuk was sentenced to three years in a GULag, but because of his evident talents was sent to a sharashka (research facility prison) rather than a labour camp. There, he was first put to work evaluating foreign coal mining machinery for the use in Kuzbass, and quickly impressed the camp supervisor with his ingenuity. At the supervisor's request, in November 1931 a review board changed Kondratyuk's status from "prisoner" to "exiled", and sent him to work on Siberian grain projects.