HODDER AND STOUGHTON

THE

SOVIET

SAI NTS

Richard Wurmbrand

THE SOVIET SAINTS

By the same author

TORTURED FOR CHRIST

IN GOD'S UNDERGROUND

THE SOVIET SAINTS

by

RICHARD WURMBRAND

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

Copyright © 1968 by Richard Wurmbrand

First printed 1968

SBN 340 04385 7

Translations of articles in the Soviet Press, made by the

Library of Congress, are quoted here by permission of

the Congress of the United States.

To my children Mikai and Judith and to all those who

are working in the service of the Soviet Saints.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall

not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired

out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior

consent in any form of binding or cover other than that

in which this is published and without a similar condition

including this condition being imposed on the subsequent

purchaser.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, record-

ing, or any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton Limited,

St. Paul's House, Warwick Lane, London, E.C.4

by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press), Ltd.,

Bungay, Suffolk

Contents

PROLOGUE

Page

Wearing the Dunce's Cap &

Observations 10

1961

1 Whose Fate is the Director's Concern? 44

1962

2. A Sect of Fanatics Was Exposed 50

3. The Shyness of Power 51

4. Under the Domination of Obscurity 55

5. The 'Quakers' Tremble with Fear from Responsibility 58

6. Behind Closed Shutters 60

7. End to the Obscurantists 66

8. To Fight with Reason Rather than with 'Records' 70

9. God's Fools in Christ 73

10. The Obscurantist 75

11. According to their Merits 76

12. Fanatics on Trial 76

13. During the Trial Intermission 77

14. The Sentence Was Met with Approval 81

15. Under the Mask of a 'Saint' 85

1963

16. The Chairman in the Role of a Hypocrite 88

17. Six Who Made the Choice 89

18. The Trial Should Be Continued 91

19. Such Things Are Not Forgiven 95

20. Scales Fell from the Eyes 98

VI CONTENTS

1964

21. Sectarians on Trial 102

22. According to their Merits 103

23. Fanaticism of the Believers and Indifference of the

Atheists 104

24. A Proud Badge 110

25. With the Cross on their Chests and with Switches in

their Hands 114

26. Crimes Against Persons and Citizens' Rights Committed

by Religious Groups 120

27. Black and Red 128

28. Wild Fanatics 133

1965

29

30

Those Who Spread Darkness

Reason Against Dope

138

140

1966

31

32

33

34

The Road Without God Is Wider

They Received What They Deserved

Is Stepanov a Lost Man?

Prophets and Victims

144

155

157

160

1967

35

Extract from 'The Brutal Hypocrites'

170

1968

36

Once Upon a Time There Was a Little Girl...

174

EPILOGUE

180

PROLOGUE

Wearing the Dunce's Cap

Jesus of Nazareth was never under any illusions about what

would befall Him. He told His disciples repeatedly that the Son of

Man would be given into the hands of men to be mocked and

reviled, scourged and crucified. But the beauty of the Son was

never more clearly seen than when those very things came to

pass.

Epictetus wrote : 'It is a kingly thing to do well and to be evil

spoken of.' This was the lot of Jesus. But the crown of thorns

honoured Him much more than the ointment used by St. Mary

Magdalene when she anointed Him. The blood which flowed

from His whipped body clothed Him in greater splendour than

any robe which His mother, or admiring women, might have

woven for Him in earlier days.

Hanging on the cross, He revealed the glory of God much

better than when He freely walked through die fields and streets

of Palestine.

If we knew nothing about Jesus except what was spoken of

Him by His opponents, He would still appear as the most lovable

of beings ever to walk of this earth.The Pharisees say to Him.

'Master, we know that Thou art true and teachest the way of God

in truth' (Matt. 22:16). Pilate declares to the angry crowds : 'I

am innocent of the blood of this just person' (Matt. 27: 24). The

man who passed the sentence of death upon Jesus knew Him to be

a 'just person'.

Judas cried: 'I have betrayed the innocent blood' (Matt.

27:4). Jesus was innocent even in the mind of the man who

betrayed Him.

The crowds who stood at the foot of the cross mocked Him

shouting: 'He saved others; Himself He cannot save' (Matt.

27:42). Even in their mockery they had to acknowledge that He

had in fact 'saved others' ! In their reviling they uttered one of

the greatest truths of the story of salvation. He who had saved

others did not save Himself. He who had come down from heaven

did not come down from the cross. Because He reduced Himself

to weakness, Jesus could redeem sinners.

8

WEARING THE DUNCE'S CAP 9

So it has been throughout the history of mankind. Those re-

jected by men often prove in the end to be the greatest of men.

Edison was driven out of school at the age of thirteen, written

off as an idiot. At the age of fourteen he had already made his

first invention. Anatole France's teacher wrote: 'This stupid

child will never learn to write a good French.' But Anatole

France became one of the greatest writers of his country, and a

member of the French Academy.

Kant was once rejected for a professorship in philosophy.

Millet's first paintings were rejected. He was so poor that he

could not afford to buy new canvases. His first successful picture

'Oedipus Unbound' was painted over a rejected canvas. The re-

jection has remained a judgement on his critics.

This familiar story of the rejection of worthy men has been

particularly true in the history of the Christian Church. The In-

quisition, happily rejected now by our Catholic friends, marched

heretics towards the auto-da-fés with dunces' caps on their heads,

wearing clothes on which devils in hell-fire were painted. But the

faces of the heretics mirrored the beauty of the God for whom

they gave their lives. The same applies to those who died for

Christ as they have known Him in the Catholic Church.

Those who have discovered that life does not consist in having

much, but in being the right thing—a child of God—have ap-

peared most beautiful when they have been most despised.

The story has repeated itself in every generation and it is re-

peating itself now in Soviet Russia. We present in this book some

forty articles collected from the Soviet Press. All these articles

speak about Christians of the Underground Church. Orthodox,

Baptists, Adventists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Old Believers.

The Soviet Press mocks them. Once again we see the Christian

wearing the dunce's cap of ridicule.

But it is the Communists we pity ! They don't know what they

do!

When Pilate showed a bleeding, scourged, thorn-crowned Jesus

to the Jewish mob and said 'Behold the man'—he didn't reveal

anything about Jesus. The man he showed was himself! He

showed an unrighteous and cruel judge. So it is with the Com-

munists today. In these and many other thousands of articles they

revile the Christians, showing them in the most gloomy of colours.

But the clearest picture that they give us is not of the Christians,

but of themselves. They show their own spiritual darkness. They

show how blind they are to the truth and to spiritual beauty.

10 THE SOVIET SAINTS

After reading these articles you will not laugh at the Christians

—you will pity their oppressors.

In these articles we see the Christians wearing the dunces' caps

—but how beautiful they look in them! Even in the pictures

drawn by the Communists, the Bride of Christ appears in her

splendour. We see the beauty of those who have turned their

backs on material possessions and a life of rest to face trouble and

heavy suffering in order that their fellow-men might know eternal

life.

While so many Western Christians seem to be engaged in

having more comfort, the Christians, whom these articles describe,

are engaged in being something higher. A letter received from the

Underground Church in the Communist camp says : 'We don't

wish to be better Christians. It is wrong to have this desire. We

wish to be the only kind of Christians that Christ meant us to be :

Christ-like Christians.' Certainly, as you read about Christians in

the Soviet Union, even as they are described by their worst

enemies, by their torturers and by murderers, you have the im-

pression that you are meeting with Christ Himself. Here is

Christ's mystical body, the real Church, which is ready to suffer

as her Master for the glory of God and the good of mankind.

Observations

Before we proceed to read the articles themselves, there are a

number of things that I want to explain. The Western reader may

well pass by phrases in these press reports that are full of sig-

nificance.

In this section, therefore, I propose to pick out several issues

from the articles and comment on them in the light of my own

experiences as one of the leaders of the Underground Church in

Rumania.

Fishers of men

'Baptists ... attempt to catch in their nets as many victims as

possible' (Article 4, p. 55).

How true is this in the Communist camp? For several years I

led the secret missionary work in the Soviet Army. I have never

OBSERVATIONS 11

met a single lukewarm Russian Christian. In the West, Christians

swim in Bibles and other forms of religious literature, yet they are

often slothful in giving them to others. With us, Christian lit-

erature is printed on secret printing presses and is very scarce.

Very often it has to be written by hand—even in the case of

Bibles and New Testaments ! But, oh, how zealous the Christians

are to give out this literature ! The Soviet newspapers say that

even children in school put hand-written Christian leaflets in the

pockets of their teachers' overcoats.

These Christians I speak of really believe that any man they

encounter is an eternal soul. They feel that they cannot be in-

different towards the people they meet, for their eternal destiny

depends on knowing spiritual truth. So they try to open men's

eyes.

I remember in Rumania that I only had to sit quietly in my

home, and things would happen. One after another, members of

my Underground Church would appear with some new soul they

had 'caught in their net', perhaps as the result of a chance meet-

ing in the queue for bread or potatoes. Perhaps a man would

bring someone from his factory whose interest had been

awakened. Often Christians would enter 'pubs' to find souls.

I have never known an inactive Christian. There is no such

person, for a Christian is either active for God or he is active for

the devil. With us they were active for God.

Even when Christians were put in prison their zeal to win souls

for Christ continued. In solitary confinement they learned to tap

the Gospel in morse, code against their cell walls. They witnessed

to their jailors who had whips in their hands.

Sometimes we 'caught in our nets' very big fish ! Gheorghiu-

Dej, the former Prime Minister of Rumania, was won for Christ

by a servant-maid in his house just as, centuries ago, the servant-

maid St. Sophia had won over Empress Helena, mother of Con-

stantine the Great. The Empress, in turn, had convinced her son

to give liberty to the Christians in the Roman Empire and this

changed the history of the Christian Church and the history of the

world. The Underground Church has penetrated behind the walls

of the Kremlin itself. The daughter of the greatest mass-mur-

derer of Christians was won for God. Brought up under the

strictest Communist discipline, Svetlana Stalin is a trophy of

grace.

I have seen Christians in Communist prisons who were dying

and yet witnessing until their last breath.

12 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Submission to Christ

'Baptists ... undermine their will-power' (Article 4, p. 55).

This is the Communists' way of saying that Christians teach men

to submit their wills to the will of God. What a great achieve-

ment this is !

I remember when I was first harassed under the Communists in

1948. Along with others I was put in terrible conditions. We were

in solitary confinement and our cells were guarded by big dogs.

When we went to the toilet or to the bath we were escorted by

guards with revolvers in their hands.

I was scared. I cannot pretend to pose as a hero. I was a simple

man and sometimes, in my misery, I felt I could not say our

Lord's Prayer. When I came to the words 'Thy will be done' I

would stop. I found myself saying : 'Father, Thy will be done in

all matters but in one matter I must ask my will and not Thine.

Take me out of these terrible circumstances. I cannot bear them

any longer!'

I remember the happiness that came to me when, after an

agonizing spiritual struggle, I could say to God: 'Thy will be

done in this matter also. If you wish me here, I will do my best

for Thy Glory even in a dungeon.' And God rewarded me richly.

I was able to witness to Christ before my interrogator and he was

deeply impressed.

We can only congratulate the Russian Christians for 'under-

mining the will-power of their fellow-men' in this sense.

Avoiding Communist Propaganda

'The Leaders of the sect teach their flock; do not attend movies

or theatres ... do not sing, except pious songs' (Article 4, p.

55).

Every Russian film is a vehicle of propaganda, spreading an

ideology of hatred and Godlessness. The Christian leaders are

right to warn their flocks of such influences.

When the Communists came to power in Rumania they put

their propaganda posters everywhere—even in street-cars and

buses. Their posters showed the crimes of earlier régimes and

demanded that the former rulers of our country should be hanged.

The posters contained terrible pictures of actual hangings. My

son was only five years old at the time and I can remember him

travelling in a street-car with his hands over his eyes. 'I don't

OBSERVATIONS 13

wish even to see these ugly things,' he said. He had the right

Christian instinct.

I cannot help comparing this teaching of Russian Underground

Church leaders about godless movies and pious songs with what I

see in the West, even in Christian families. There are even

families of Christian pastors who will spend evening after evening

in front of their television sets. And all the dirt of some of those

television shows is gloated upon without discrimination. The

warnings about dirty sex films are rarely heard.

When the Communists reproach the Russian Christian leaders

for teaching discrimination in these matters, they say something

that reflects nothing but credit.

Caring for the Weak

'The Leaders of the Baptist sect pay special attention to people

who find themselves in a difficult situation or plight, and to in-

experienced boys and girls' (Article 4, p. 56).

I have been an 'inexperienced boy' in a capitalistic country,

and I have passed through many 'difficult situations'. It was not

until I was twenty-seven that I met a Christian who would stop

me on the street and speak about the way of salvation. And this

was not a pastor but a carpenter. What should a priest or pastor

be doing?

When I was fourteen a friend took me to a brothel for the first

time. In Bucharest there was a quarter of the town filled with

pubs, gambhng-houses and other houses of perdition. I became a

regular customer of those places.

Not once did I meet a pastor near the doors of such a place

warning young people to keep clear!

Now Communism has taught Christians to become earnest and

to value souls. Jesus left heaven and descended into hell for souls,

and he would have done it if there had been only one soul to save.

The Russian Christians seek out those inexperienced boys and

girls in difficult situations and show them the truth. So says the

Russian Press. Another compliment to the Christians from their

worst enemies !

The pastors of the Underground Church don't teach doctrine

to their young people. Being untrained they know little enough

themselves. But then—what is doctrine? It is the storehouse of

past experiences. These persecuted Christians have the actual

experience of the cross and of its victory in their daily lives.

Not often the pastors try to win the youth with logical argu-

14 THE SOVIET SAINTS

ments which seldom convince. Rather they exhale the love of

Christ. It is by this love that young people are being won.

It is indeed true that 'the leaders of the Baptist sect pay special

attention to people who find themselves in a difficult situation or

plight'.

In the Communist countries, many people are in great need.

The Communists may propagate a doctrine of equality, but while

their leaders live in luxury, the simple worker or farmer who is a

party worker is very little cared for. In Russia the real community

of goods is practised by the Christians rather than the Com-

munists. In the Underground Church you will find the same sort

of situation that is described in the Bible—'they had all things

common ... distribution was made unto every man according as

he had need' (Acts 4:32, 35).

Not surprisingly, the Lord adds to their number 'daily' (Acts

2:47).

Violence in the Church

The Soviet Union is a member of the so-called United Nations

Organization and has signed the declaration of the rights of man.

Among other things, this declaration assures to everyone full

religious liberty.

Now, however, we see them saying in their newspaper that

'Some people looking around like thieves, are sneaking along

Kirov Street towards house No. 44' (Article 4, p. 56). Why must

these people have to sneak like thieves? Have they bad things in

mind? No—the Communist newspaper tells us the reason. They

are going to a secret prayer meeting. And why does a prayer

meeting have to be secret?

Because prayer meetings are forbidden. They have to be held

underground ! So much for 'religious liberty' !

Now—so the Communist paper tells us—at one of these prayer

meetings something unusual has happened. The Christians have

beaten-up one of their number with the name of Valerii (Article

4, p. 56). Why should Christians do such a thing?

Not that the Communists have any scruples over beating and

torturing their fellow-men; they have been doing it for fifty

years ! They make no secret of this. Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Kosygin

and Mao Tse-Tung have terror as one of the essential points in

their teaching. Beating is justifiable when it is done by them-

selves, but unjustifiable when it is done by Christians.

How is it that such a thing could be reported as having hap-

OBSERVATIONS 15

pened among Christians? It is because the secret police infiltrate

the Underground Church. By blackmail, bribery and threats they

transform some of the believers into 'squealers' and informers

prepared to denounce their brethren. Now the disciples of Jesus

know how to be meek, but they remember that a whip was also a

tool in the hands of their Master. They know that the highest

Christian virtue is not love in the sentimental sense but in a

balanced sense. The truly loving attitude knows when to be

humble and when to be self-asserting; when to be submissive and

when to be harsh.

Violence is one of the many rights of Christians. Christians in

the Underground Church cannot allow informers to wreak havoc

and expose the brethren to the possibilities of arrest and torture.

So informers in Russia are beaten—and sometimes Christians

may go further than this. When one of the articles accuses

Christians of attempting to kill someone—it may not have been

entirely an invention (Article 4, p. 56). The traitors must know

that their own lives are in jeopardy if they betray. Christians in

the Communist camp are in a war, and the officers of Christ's

army have to care for the safety of their soldiers.

No pity should be shown to the sworn enemies of Christianity

while they do harm to the churches. Let us be wise in the

kind of compassion we show. King Saul was a Stalin of his

time and David spared his life twice. Was David right in this

unlimited kindness? I don't agree with sparing the life of a man

like Saul who put a whole city to the sword, 'men and women,

children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep' (I Sam.

22:19). I admire rather Cromwell, who finished with a tyrant.

It is said of St. Francis of Assisi that he once came across a

wolf when he was walking through a wood in the company of

other friars. At once his brother friars wanted to shoot the beast.

'Don't shoot brother wolf,' said the famous .Saint. 'He also is a

creature of God.' This, of course, was all very well for St. Francis

who, reputedly, could tame the wildest animal. Generally speak-

ing, however, I would feel it only right to spare a wolf if this

guaranteed that he would not eat his 'sister' sheep. Should this

danger persist, then I, as a shepherd, am obliged, by my love for

the sheep, to kill the wolf !

Only a rigid attitude towards informers can make it possible

for us to continue with underground meetings, secret printing

presses and secret literature distribution.

If the Communists want to put us in the dunce's cap for this,

16 THE SOVIET SAINTS

and call us beaters and killers—then we shall wear it un-

ashamedly.

Under Observation

Are the Communists watching? The answer is 'yes' and 'no' !

The Communists are men and therefore they are as much God's

creatures as Christians. Tertullian refers to the soul as naturally

Christian, and thus he refers to oppressors and torturers, too.

Nobody is a whole-hearted Communist. The Communists are

divided souls. Colonel Penkovski, one of the heads of the

Russian Secret Police, shot by his comrades for the services he

rendered to the cause of freedom, wrote in his memoirs that

he was praying before ever he came into contact with Christians

in the West.

Many of the Communists—even officers of the Secret Police—

detest the Godless attitude of their party and their rulers. They

'turn a blind eye' to the secret activities of Christians.

Again and again in Communist newspapers we find the com-

plaint that whereas the Christians are zealous, the atheists are

inactive. It is because truth burns like a fire—it is always united

with zeal. The Communists are, in fact, very doubtful about

themselves and about their doctrines. Their unsureness makes

them slothful, and sometimes complacent towards Christians.

High-ranking Communists with divided souls made my coming

to the West possible. Such men helped Svetlana Stalin to defect.

In High Places

'The father of the Communist, Peter Grechikhin, the Secretary

of the Komgomol of the Centre of Technical Inspection of the

Ush Tobe station is the head of the Baptist community. Peter's

wife is also a sectarian' (Article 4, p. 57).

As I read these words I know that there is more to it than that !

Often secretaries of the Communist Youth Association are them-

selves hidden Christians as well as their relatives. Peter's father is

one of the hundreds of thousands of hidden Christians in Russia.

In Jesus' time we read of Joseph of Arimathea; the disciple who

hid his discipleship. There was a time in the history of Israel

when Elijah die prophet thought himself to be the only one on the

side of God. But God knew that there were 7,000 others. These

others had hidden their faith but they had not lost it.

God understands human weakness. God forgives this bargain-

ing with conscience. For us it is important to know that in Russia

OBSERVATIONS 17

there exist vast numbers of people who believe in Christ, but who

retain positions in Communist organizations. When the right time

comes they will be on our side in the fight against the powers of

Godlessness.

Stars Fall

The Communist papers report several cases where pastors and

priests have recanted. They are no surprise to us. Christ Himself

said : 'He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he

that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he

not root in himself, but dureth for a while : for when tribulation

or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is

offended' (Matt. 13: 20-21). I have seen terrible treachery from

those of whom you would least expect it.

Jesus told us that one of the signs of the end of time would be

the falling of the stars. As there are movie-stars, so we have stars

in the religious world. Some of these stars enjoy shining for their

own sake, and when they cannot shine any more by preaching

Christianity they choose to shine by teaching Communism. In

Rumania there were three great Christian poets. Now their poetry

is in honour of the Bolshevik rulers.

When the priests of the chosen people stood mocking at the

foot of the cross, God ordained on the spot a priest from a robber

who witnessed to the truth and called his fellow-criminal to re-

pent. Today in the Communist camp God is continuing this

ordination of the most unlikely of people. While some preachers

and priests leave their faith, Communists are converted. The

Soviet papers say it !

Some young Communists tear off their red scarves and publicly

attest to their faith in baptism. Others remain within the ranks of

me Communist party. They appear to be Godless, but in fact

they work for the protection of die Underground Church.

The programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

states : 'Religious beliefs came into being in the past on the basis

of the domination of the elementary forces of nature over the

people, and social oppression.' Today the Soviet papers bear

witness to the fact that religious beliefs also came into being

under the domination of the Communists—even within the ranks

of the party itself!

Transparent Lies

To lie is a difficult art. There exists no perfect liar just as there

exists no perfect criminal. Liars as well as criminals have con-

18 THE SOVIET SAINTS

sciences that play them tricks. Just at the crucial moment crimi-

nals always make mistakes. They leave the vital clue behind

which helps the police to track them down. At the moment

of committing the crime there is something in their hearts con-

demning the very deed they commit.

It is the same with liars. We have been created by God for die

truth. This makes the Communist lies appear so stupid that

nobody can believe them any more.

For example, Kazakhstanskaia Pravda carried a report of a

criminal trial against the leaders of an illegal Baptist community.

The charge was that they had obliged their children to pray by

threatening to put them in chains or even to death (Article 12, p.

77).

Now we all know Baptists. Such things do not happen in a

Baptist house!

Once again the dunce's cap has been put on the head of Chris-

tians. What is in fact true, is that Christians have a very great

concern for the salvation of their children. They pray much for

them and they teach them to pray.

Some thirty years ago I stayed in the home of a Rumanian

General and his wife. The wife was a very earnest Christian, but

her son lived a careless and licentious life. She asked me to pray

for him, and I did thereafter. So did many other Christians.

Years later in prison I met the son myself. He had become a

Colonel in the army and then the Communists had sentenced him

to life imprisonment. At first I didn't know who he was. I wit-

nessed to him for die Lord and he was converted. It was then that

I learned that he was the one for whom his mother, I and many

others had been praying.

It is prayer that wins the children of Christians not chains!

The lie of the Communists is too gross to be believed.

Mentally Retarded

In Uchitelskaia Gazeta (Teacher's Gazette) the Communists

say that usually the children of Christians are poor students and

mentally retarded (Article 21, p. 102).

We must be patient with men ! It is useless to ask for a fig in

the winter—you have to wait for the following autumn. So it is

with the Communists. They are the ones who are backward, and

we cannot expect much clear thinking from them. How incredible

that the Communists can connect Christian faith with mental

poverty!

OBSERVATIONS 19

When Michael Faraday, the world-famous English physicist,

lay on his death-bed a colleague asked him : 'Faraday, what are

your speculations now?'

'Speculations ! ' replied the dying scientist, 'I have none. Thank

God I am not resting my dying head on speculations. I know

whom I have believed and am sure that He is able to keep that

which I have committed unto Him against that day.' Was he

mentally underdeveloped?

Lord Kelvin has been another of the world's greatest physi-

cists. He said : 'If you think strongly enough, you will be forced

by science to believe in God.' For him, belief was the product of

strong thought not of mental backwardness. Why this unkind

connection of mental underdevelopment with Christian belief?

Was Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and statesman,

mentally poor? He said: 'A little philosophy inclineth man's

mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds

about to religion.' Religion makes our children think more deeply.

Usually Christian children are above the average of pupils.

We could give innumerable quotations from the greatest men of

science who expressed their faith in God. Sir James Jeans said:

'Our universe seems to be more like a great thought than a great

machine. I would say as a speculation, not as a scientific fact, that

the universe is a creation of some great universal mind underlying

and co-ordinating all our minds ... scientific thought seems to be

moving in that direction.'

It has never been harmful to any child to be taught about

religion. Religion broadens the mind and gives depth to thought.

It must, however, be noted that these claims of Uchitelskaia

Gazeta are in fact contradicted by statements in other Soviet

papers. Kazakhstanskaia Pravda describes Christian students as

'exemplary', and Komsomolskaia Pravda writes: 'We usually

imagine our ideological foes ... as mentally retarded ... But

Shevchenko is an engineer by education, strong, smart and di-

abolically shrewd' (Article 13, p. 79).

Christians as Thieves

What an ugly dunce's cap is put on the head of the Christian

Ian Pinka (Article 20, p. 98). He has spent, we are told, five years

in prison for robbery. I can well believe it for I know what is

qualified as 'robbery' in a Communist country.

The Red Government has collectivized the agriculture. They

have taken away from the individual farmers their right to possess

20 THE SOVIET SAINTS

their fields, vineyards and cattle. To take a sheaf of wheat or a

few grapes from what were formerly your own fields or vineyards

is qualified as theft. If a barber takes a razor out of his former

barber's shop—he is a thief!

The offerings taken in the official churches cannot be ad-

ministered independently by the pastor or priest. No expense can

be made without the approval of the Communist Ministry of

Cults which does not allow any charitable work or repairs to

buildings and obliges the pastors to receive minimal salaries so

that they live near starvation level. Many pastors and priests do

not comply with such regulations. But if they are caught using

church money for church purposes without the approval of the

atheist Ministry of Cults, they go to prison for theft!

The Christians thus in prison for theft are forced to wear a

very ugly dunce's cap—but, then, it is better to be falsely accused

of being a thief than to be falsely honoured for a good deed!

It must have been heart-rending for our brother Pinka to hear

his father disowning him before die Court. But the father had to

do it or else he would probably have lost his job and even gone to

prison also. Had the father also been imprisoned, who would

have looked after Pinka's children? Perhaps also it was in the

mind of Pinka's father to continue the underground work left by

Pinka on his imprisonment. These are the dramas and dilemmas

of the Soviet saints. I have seen a Christian dying of a heart attack

in Rumania while he told his fellow-prisoners how his own

daughter had witnessed against him in Court because otherwise

her little children would have become motherless.

Breaking the Law

The Russian Christians are again and again accused of break-

ing the Soviet Laws and of not being obedient to the State. These

charges are true.

Is it right to break laws? Even Western Christians tell us

sometimes that the Underground Church does wrong by not

obeying the laws of the country, and they remind us to render to

Caesar what is Caesar's and 'Let every soul be subject unto the

higher powers' (Rom. 13:1).

What is the Russian Christians' answer to this?

First of all, there are times when even the ten commandments

of God lose their rights. 'When he was an hungred,' saith Jesus

(Matt. 12:3), David did what was forbidden by law. Hunger

cares little about laws. When your country is invaded or op-

OBSERVATIONS 21

pressed by tyrants, you have to defend it, and the commandment

'Do not kill' does not apply. Still less have we necessarily to obey

every merely man-made law.

Render to Caesar what is Caesar's? Now, let us be reasonable

and establish first what was Caesar's in Palestine at that time?

Just nothing. The Romans were able to seize Palestine because

they were strong and the Jews were a small nation. Nothing was

theirs in Palestine. The houses had been constructed by the Jews.

The trees had been planted by Jews. Even the crosses on which

Jews were nailed were made by Jewish carpenters. The Romans

had as many rights in Palestine as the Russians have in Hungary

or Rumania. And as to Caesar, nothing was his even in Rome.

Julius Caesar had been a general of the Roman Republic which

was over 400 years old. He overthrew the Republic and became

dictator. He was followed by a dynasty, of which most were

madmen and sadists, such as Nero, Claudius or Caligula.

If you were to say to a Hungarian today, 'Give to the Russians

what belongs to the Russians' he could only interpret this as 'Give

them a good kick in the back and drive them out of the country'.

This is surely what any Jew understood when Jesus said 'Render

therefore unto Caesar the tilings which are Caesar's' (Matt.

22:21). It is a revolutionary word and not one which teaches us

to be boot-lickers of transitory tyrants. And then supposing that it

meant that we have to be submissive to any king under any

circumstances, or to any legitimate ruler; this word would im-

plicitly forbid us to be submissive to those who overthrow the

legitimate government. The Caesar of Russia was a member of

the Romanov dynasty. All citizens of Russia pledged allegiance

when they entered the army. What allegiance did they owe to the

Bolsheviks who shot in cold blood not only the Czar but also his

family, including a small sick boy, his heir? What allegiance did

the Rumanians owe to the Communist Government which, with-

out asking the people, drove out of the country our 'Caesar', King

Michael die First?

Supposing that Hitler had invaded Great Britain and made his

headquarters in Buckingham Palace; would British Christians

have had to be on his side or on the side of their own king?

Asking this question implies its answer. Thus, render to Caesar

what is Caesar's means to be against the Communist rulers.

The verses following 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher

powers' (Rom. 13) explain who these higher powers are. They are

those who reward good and punish evil. If rulers reward evil and

22 THE SOVIET SAINTS

punish good, they are not ordained by God. Their laws are worth

just nothing. Christians choose, in such a case, to obey God rather

than men.

Jefferson has said, 'Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.'

Children Separated from Parents

Ianis and Zenta Osma have been stripped of their parental

rights because they taught their children Christianity. Their

children have been handed over to the State for their upbringing.

In Court, the last words of the father were: 'I am exchanging

children for God' (Article 21, p. 102). '

For fourteen years I was in a Communist jail, separated from

my children. The grief was unspeakable. During winter days we

pressed our naked breasts towards the icy iron bars to quench the

fire of longing which burnt on in our hearts. During the night you

would hear the prisoners whispering the names of their children

as they dreamt.

Thousands of children have been taken away from their

parents in Communist countries for one 'crime'—their parents

taught them about Christ.

It is told that when Alexander the Great was a child, he once

visited a sculptor and found the man's studio full of statues. His

sight was drawn to one that had its head covered and bore wings

on its feet. When he asked for the name of the statue the sculptor

told him that it represented the 'Image of Opportunity'.

'But why cover the face?' asked the young Alexander.

'Because men rarely see the opportunity when it passes in front

of them!'

'But why does it have wings on its feet?' asked the young

king.

'Because once it flies by,' said the sculptor, 'opportunity is gone

for ever.'

The Communists have exceptional opportunities before them

in these Chritian children. Simeon in the Temple saw a child and

his spiritually awakened eyes recognized the boy Jesus as the

Saviour of the world. The Communists have before them

miracles of innocency, grace and self-sacrifice. They have care of

children who are witnessing to their faith at the greatest cost mat

can be asked of a child. We can only pray that, like Simeon of

old, their eyes may see more than just these small human beings.

At present they have no eyes to see the shining faces of these

children or the angels who encamp around them.

OBSERVATIONS 23

In Russia today there are children who die as heroes of their

faith. Others witness to Christ even in the atheistic boarding-

schools where they have been forcibly sent. Some, but very few,

yield under threatenings and beatings and deny their parents

before Court.

Under the emotional stress of arrest, small children have

signed blank sheets of paper on which the Communist authorities

later wrote : 'We wish to be taken away from our parents.' The

children were threatened with re-arrest if they would not stand by

their declarations. Tragedies like this lie behind the article 'Six

who made the choice' (Article 17, p. 89). The mother said before

the Court one phrase only : 'I am suffering for my faith.'

An old Egyptian legend tells how God created fish, animals

and birds from clay. Then he wished to create man. When he put

his hand in the mud for this purpose, a crab bit him. A few drops

of blood flowed out and mixed with the clay. God is supposed to

have said : 'This clay has been sanctified with my blood and is

too good for making man. We will use it to make mother-hearts.'

There is nothing more tender than mother-hearts, but the

Communists are treading upon them ruthlessly in these days.

Child Murder?

You will read, probably with horror, of the Christian Anna

(Article 7, p. 69). She preferred to throw both herself and her

child under a train, and to explain to the all-understanding Jesus

why she had done so. Anna was horrified at the thought of her

child being changed in an atheistic boarding-school into someone

who could become a ruthless persecutor of Christians. So she

decided to kill both the child and herself. Her circumstances were

maddening.

I have been in maddening circumstances and I know what can

be their outcome. I have never been a madman. A madman is one

who has abnormal reactions. I had the normal reactions of a man

put in abnormal situations. If a man were to shriek continually

this would be a sign of madness. But if a man were to endure

hours of physical tortures, then shrieking would be a normal re-

action. When one encounters great mental stress it is not always

easy to distinguish between normal reactions, to maddening cir-

cumstances and attitudes of craziness.

Mrs. Rykova had her son and daughter taken from her. Try

being separated from your children for just one week without any

news from them—then you will know how it is! Her crime was

24 THE SOVIET SAINTS

her explosive temperament. She tore off her son's red uniform

scarf and forbade her daughter, Lyuba, to wear the insignia of the

Soviet children (Article 34, p. 160).

Her temperament led her to much worse. When her brethren in

the faith, the Mitichkin family, ignored her advice and accepted a

loan of 300 roubles from the State bank to buy a cow, Mrs.

Rykova treated this as an act of co-operation with Antichrist.

Considering these parents to be traitors to the faith she killed

their son, Valéry, for whom she cared. To her Valéry was better

dead than to be growing up as a child of Judas and a son of

hell.

This is a terrible thing to record. But who are you to judge?

No blanket standards of morality can be employed here. Do you

know how a mother feels when two children are taken away from

her by Godless rulers? Do you know how you would react?

I chose just a few examples out of hundreds of documents. I

think of a woman who attempted to kill her daughter. The girl

had become an informer against the brethren. She had been

corrupted by the Secret Police. Men had been put in prison

because of her. I myself have met Christian mothers who have

told me the tragic stories of their girls brought to such debase-

ment. The grief of those mothers far surpassed the grief of

mothers who had children in prison for Christ's sake.

We walk on holy ground here. We read new pages of the Old

Testament. We have to keep silent.

Remember dûs: it is clear from the documents we present

that the Communists admit to forcibly taking children from

Christian parents if those parents can be shown to be sharing their

faith with their children. Those children are taken to atheistic

boarding-schools and brought up in a godless manner. The in-

tolerable circumstances are of the Communists' own making and

therefore all that follows, even the crimes, must be set against the

Communists not against those who feel driven into horrible

reaction.

Abraham lied about his wife Sarah when they dwelt in Egypt.

He claimed that she was only his sister (Gen. 12). Pharaoh, not

realizing that Sarah was Abraham's wife, took her into his house.

We read that God plagued Pharaoh for this, rather than Abraham

who was the liar. Why was this? It was because Pharaoh had

cruel laws whereby a foreigner who had a beautiful wife could be

killed and the wife taken to become the King's mistress. Identical

situations are described in Genesis, chapter 26, where the

OBSERVATIONS 25

King of Gerar is involved. The sin was not Abraham's but

the King's. Abraham lied for self-protection and for the sake of

his little sect of monotheists. It might even be called nota 'lie',

but a 'stratagem'.

Western Christians will find it difficult to understand what

Anna Bavalennaia and Maria Rykova did. We must try to see the

tempest in the hearts of these mothers. They thought that their

children would be eternally lost because of Communist indoctri-

nation. There are no liberals and modernists in Russian theology.

Christians there believe in a hell for all unbelievers.

These mothers knew the story of Joseph Stalin. He was the son

of a godly mother whose dying words to her son had been : 'How

sorry I am that you did not become a priest!' He had been

destined for the priesthood, but Marxism made the possible-priest

into a mass-murderer. Anna's child would have had to learn the

same poisonous Marxism.

When my wife and I were both arrested, my son was left on the

streets with no family and no prospects of any education other

than atheistic. You may think badly of me for saying this, but I

prayed that he would rather die than become Godless. I have

known many other imprisoned Christians to pray as I did. I

understand Anna and Rykova.

Suicide

Anna attempted suicide. When I was in prison I also pre-

pared to take my life in case I might prove unable to stand up to

my tortures. I said to myself : 'It is better to kill myself than to

get to die point where I betray the brethren. I will go to Jesus and

explain why I took my own life. He will surely understand.'

The problem of suicide under exceptional circumstances is not

a settled one in Christian ethics. Hamlet said that the Everlasting

had 'fixed His cannon 'gainst self-slaughter'—but, then, Hamlet

was no theologian !

Among the theologians, even St. Augustine vacillates in this

matter. In The City of God he writes on the one hand : 'It is not

without significance that in no passage of the holy canonical books

there can be found either divine percept or permission to take

away our own life ... for the sake of ... ridding ourselves of

anything whatever. Nay, the law, rightly interpreted, even pro-

hibits suicide, where it says "Thou shalt not kill". This is proved

specially by the omission of the words "thy neighbour", which are

inserted when false witness is forbidden : "Thou shalt bear no

26 THE SOVIET-SAINTS

false witness against thy neighbour." '

The problem is important for him because many Christian

girls had committed suicide, during the Roman persecution, to

avoid being put in brothels, a punishment used by the tyrants of

those days.

He admits therefore : 'They who have laid violent hands on

themselves are perhaps to be admired for their greatness of soul,

though they cannot be applauded for the soundness of their judge-

ment. However, if you look at the matter more closely, you will

scarcely call it greatness of soul which prompts a man to kill

himself rather than bear up again some hardships of fortune or

sins in which he is not implicated ... Saintly Job endured dread-

ful evils in his body rather than deliver himself from all torment

by self-inflicted death ... At all events, if it be true, as the truth

plainly declares, that suicide is a detestable and damnable

wickedness, who is such a fool as to say: Let us sin nowj that we

may obviate a possible future sin; let us now commit murder, lest

we perhaps afterwards should commit adultery? Is it not better to

commit a wickedness which penitence may heal, than a crime

which leaves no place for healing contrition?'

But on the other hand Augustine praises Samson for having

taken his own life. He considers him justified in so doing, because

'the Spirit ... had given him secret instructions to do this'. He

also writes: 'They say, in die time of persecution some holy

women escaped those who menaced them with outrage, by casting

themselves into rivers, which they knew would drown them; and,

having died in this manner, they are venerated in the Catholic

church as martyrs. Of such persons I do not presume to speak

rashly. I cannot tell whether there may not have been vouchsafed

to the church some divine authority, proved by trustworthy

evidences, for so honouring their memory. It may be that it is so.

It may be they were not deceived by human judgement, but

prompted by divine wisdom, to their act of self-destruction. We

know that this was the case with Samson. And when God enjoins

any act, and intimates by plain evidence that He has enjoined it,

who will call obedience criminal? Who will accuse so religious a

submission...? He who knows that it is unlawful to kill himself,

may nevertheless do so if he is ordered by Him whose commands

we may not neglect.'

Scripture says : 'For what man knoweth the things of a man,

save the spirit of man which is in him?' (I Cor. 2:11).

Anna, the suicide, may be a crowned saint in heaven now.

OBSERVATIONS 27

Many took their own lives in Rumanian prisons, too. Recently a

man who has helped most the Underground Church in Rumania,

committed suicide, after having been in prison twice.

You don't know Anna's grief for her child. Don't judge.

Perhaps what I have said about this matter is already too

much. The writer to the Hebrews was very wise when he wrote

'... time would fail me to tell of ... Samson'. About many things

it is better that nothing be said. Those who look for an op-

portunity to take offence are many. We must be careful not to say

more than an unbelieving age is able to bear.

Miraculous Healings

Some of the Christians referred to in the documents we present

are in prison for the crime of 'miraculous healings'. According to

the Communist authorities, such things are impossible!

However, I myself was sick in prison with lung, spinal and

intestinal tuberculosis and recurring jaundice. The 'medicines' I

received were beatings, neglect and lack of food. Doctors in Oslo

who later examined me and took X-rays could not believe at first

that I had survived the Rumanian prison conditions, with four

vertebrae infected with tuberculosis, lungs like sieves, and with-

out food and drugs. The healing virtue of Christ had proved to be

the same as in the times of the Gospel. Today He delivers many

of the fighters of the Underground Church from their infirmities

through the prayers of the faithful.

We read in the Journal of George Fox, the founder of the

Quakers, that when he was released from the prison in Newcastle

he could heal. So can many who have passed through Communist

jails.

The Communists may mock such healings as fakes—again they

put the dunce's caps on our heads! But I know that I was

mortally sick and I know that I am now very much alive ! Thou-

sands can tell the same story.

In September 1967 the London Church Times published an

open letter to the Soviet leaders of a Christian called Kraw-

chenko. In it one could read of a member of the Russian Under-

ground Church who had been so ill in prison because of cancer,

that the authorities released him knowing death was imminent.

God kept that man alive to tell, with courage, the truth about the

persecution.

28 THE SOVIET SAINTS

The Good Effects of Persecution

Jesus once said: 'Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,

which is hypocrisy' (Luke 12: 1). We must frankly admit that

hypocrisy appears in Christian fellowships far too often. It ap-

pears particularly where Christians are free and considered by

society to be 'respectable'. Here the prayers are often from the

lips but not from the hearts.

Communism has stamped out many things—including hypo-

crisy among Christians. Nobody earns anything other than

trouble and suffering by being religious, or a faithful Church

leader. The whole quality of religious life has been changed by

this. Diamonds are nothing but black coal put under very heavy

pressure. Under the pressure of Communism, the Christians have

become beautiful gems!

Ecstasy

Living under pressure has also changed their manner of pray-

ing. In another issue of Kazakhstanskaia Pravda we read mat the

Christians when they pray 'get into ecstasy' (Article 4). How

happy I would be if the same were true of Western Christians

also!

'Glory be to God on high' sang the angels on the first Christ-

mas Eve. You cannot truly give glory in the lower spheres. The

Greek word for 'holy' is hagtos which means etymologically—

'unearthly'. 'Hallowed be Thy name' means, literally translated:

'May Thy name be risen above the earthly spheres.' Prayer that

allows a man's mind to remain in the spheres below is blas-

phemous prayer. It tears God down from His exalted place. We

must ascend in prayer rather than make God descend.

'Ecstasies'—which means in the Greek 'to be out of yourself—

implies that you are somewhere other than in your usual state of

mind. To be truly ascended in the heavenly places should be the

normal state of the Christian's soul during prayer. The prayers of

the first Christians were ecstatic, so also the prayers of God's

saints through all times. This is now a current happening in the

Communist camp. Sufferings have purified the hearts of God's

people and their prayers are transformed. The Communists call

them 'obscurantists' and 'monsters' for this. They bring out the

dunce's caps again—but ûie heads are surrounded by haloes of

holiness.

OBSERVATIONS 29

Ecstasy is very little known in the West now. The Western

Christian has the television. The word 'television' means 'to see

far' but just because of his television he doesn't in fact see very

far at all! He sees only a golf tournament from somewhere

near by. In the Underground Church we have a television set

recommended by Jesus Himself : 'Blessed are the pure in heart :

for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8).

In secret meetings in basements and attics, or in solitary-

confinement cells, we knew the ecstasy.

We began with meditation, remembering how many 'houses'

have held our lives in the past; the tiny body of the baby, the

small frame of the child, the full flesh of the adolescent and

mature man. We reflected on how our lives had become contained

in broken vessels and decaying bodies. But all these bodies that

had clothed us were only 'houses'. Life is an entity in itself

beyond these 'houses'. And we discovered that entity.

We had known humiliations and victories. We had known clean

thoughts and unclean thoughts. We had known sins, and deeds of

righteousness. But outside and beyond all these things we saw the

Builder of the tabernacle of the body. We saw the Lord of the

soul. He is within ourselves—hidden deep—the Lord who 'said

that he would dwell in the thick darkness' (I Kings 8:12).

And when you discover Him, the eternal jewel within yourself,

even walls of prison cells shine like diamonds. Gone are the

deceits and delusions. You are delivered from bonds. The bride is

in the arms of the heavenly Bridegroom, and you forget! You

receive the kiss which is the subject of the Song of Songs. While

lips are kissed, one cannot speak any more! You have passed

from the sphere of words to the sphere of reality.

No notion about God is God. No doctrine, no thought about

God is God. The word of God is not God. Our love to God is not

God. In ecstasy you pass from the sphere of words. You pass

from the sphere of false thoughts but also from the sphere of true

thoughts. You pass from the sphere of false doctrines but also

from the sphere of true doctrines. You pass from the sphere of

sins but also from the sphere of righteous acts. You pass into the

realms of reality. God has cleansed you. He has illuminated you

and now you are united with Him. It is the marriage of the soul

with Christ.

The Communists mock this experience. They adorn the bride

and the bridegroom with a dunce's cap. But what does it matter

to a bride and to a bridegroom, when they are madly in

30 THE SOVIET SAINTS

love, what others think and say about them? They have forgotten

that the world even exists. She is His and He is hers : 'He feedeth

among the lilies' (Song of Solomon).

Sovetskaia Justitsia puts this matter better than Western theo-

logical professors : 'The role of the sectarian preachers ... is

carrying the process of praying to a heated state' (Article 26, p.

123).

The Communist newspapers report with scorn that some

Christians actually faint at their prayers. This is nothing new!

St. John the Evangelist fainted when he saw the glorified Lord. It

is too much for human nature. The Russian Christians have seen

the glorified Lord again. '

St. John was given the privilege of seeing his Lord because he

had endured suffering for the cause of Christ. In his case—

deportation to the island of Patmos. Today it is Christians in the

Communist camp who are enduring suffering, and they have been

accorded the honour of seeing the risen Christ who gives them

comfort and light.

Sovetskaia Rossiia comments with scorn upon Christian

women at prayer writhing in cramps on the floor, shouting and

crying. It is not only Soviet newspapers that would view this with

scorn. Respectable Western Christians would no doubt also con-

sider this sort of prayer to be disgraceful. But I ask this question :

did Jesus know how to pray? If the reply is that He didn't, then

why should we pray in His name at all? If we conclude that Jesus

did know how to pray, then we should note His manner. We read

in Scripture that 'in die days of His flesh ... He ... offered up

prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears' (Heb.

5:7).

Of course, Western Christians also cry. They cry at their ser-

vants and waiters, and sometimes their wives and children. Many

Western Christian ladies would shed a tear if a cup of a costly

china service were to break. But to weep over lost souls—that

would be considered distasteful !

Although the documents presented in this book speak about

oppression and suffering, we are not left with a gloomy im-

pression. The Christians in Soviet Russia are joyful, confirming

how right are those words of the poet Shelley :

'For when the power of imparting joy

Is equal to the willy the human soul

Requires no other end.1

OBSERVATIONS 31

The Christians jailed and tortured in Russia are spiritually in

heaven. They have found the key to happiness which is the de-

cision to serve Christ whatever the cost. Nor is their happiness a

mere fool's paradise. Just as the astronomer in his observatory is

overwhelmed with delight when he discovers a new galaxy, so

these Christians have good cause for their joy. They have dis-

covered a new reality. Their eyes have been opened and they are

not afraid to speak of what they have seen. Before laughing

Communist Courts they have daringly said : 'I have seen Christ ! '

Their testimony was the testimony of St. Paul and St. Joan

and other holy people throughout the history of the Church. With

them the words of Christ have found fulfilment : 'Blessed are die

pure in heart, for they shall see...' (Matt. 5:8).

And meanwhile—Section 227 of the Soviet Criminal Code

states that men are not allowed to be zealous in prayer or to have

visions! (Sovietskaia Justitia, May 1964). The Apostles could

have been sentenced according to this law because they had seen

the risen Lord and spoken with Him !

Human Soul Hunters

The God-ordained pastors of the Underground Church shine

with exceptional beauty as they wear the dunces' caps accorded

them by the Communists, I have shown how many of the phrases

of scorn used in the Soviet Press are in fact the highest of com-

mendations.

Take, for example, a phrase used in Kazakhstanskaia Pravda.

That paper called some Christian pastors 'human soul hunters'

(Article 7, p. 67). What a beautiful name ! Without knowing Our

Lord's words about 'fishers of man', the Communists echo this

very theme. The newspaper poured scorn on one pastor, Korolink

by name. It described that he 'like a spider, spread his web to

catch his next victim'. What a compliment! Pravda Vostoka

describes some preachers as 'ardent' as if this were a wretched

thing!

In the West I know of pastors who teach that 'God is dead';

while others say that Jesus was a playboy or a homosexual. Some

are destroyers of human souls, and some, like the priest and the

Lévite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, simply do not care

for souls. This is never true of a pastor in the Underground

Church—he knows his true purpose in the world.

There is an old legend about the Lord. It tells how Jesus was

once asked by one of His disciples about the meaning of the

32 THE SOVIET SAINTS

phrase in the book of Ecdesiastes 'Vanity of vanities; all is

vanity'. Jesus—so the story goes—refused to answer the question,

saying that the disciple was too young to understand. The young

disciple soon forgot the whole matter.

Three years passed. Then one day Jesus said to the young

disciple : 'Come, let us take a walk together.' The disciple was

delighted at the suggestion and the two walked together for many

miles.

It was a hot summer day in Palestine, and after a while Jesus

said to the disciple: 'I am tired. I will sit down here in the

shadow of this tree. You are younger—go to the village that you

can see near us, and bring me a jar of water.' The disciple ran

into the village, happy to be able to render his Master a service.

He knocked at the first door he came to, hoping to get the jar of

water, and it was opened by a girl who was unspeakably beautiful.

When she opened her mouth to ask him what he wished, her voice

was like the ringing of bells.

He could not tear himself away from the girl. They talked until

evening and he found a place in the village to spend the night so

that he could see her again the next morning. So it was for several

days. He had fallen in love with her and she with him.

They married. She was of a rich family; so he received a large

dowry. By hard work they made their estate even bigger. They

had fields, vineyards, cattle, sheep and well-filled barns. She bore

him three children.

Twelve years passed in fairy-tale happiness. Then disaster

struck! A catastrophic flood swept away his house and all his

belongings. His wife and three children drowned before his eyes.

Only he escaped, but destitute and stripped of everything he had

possessed. He wept over his lost happiness.

Suddenly he heard a voice from behind calling him. 'Beloved

disciple—did you bring me the jar of water as I asked?' The

young man started up to find that he had been dreaming. He was

deeply troubled.

'Master!' he said. 'How could I forget your commandment?'

The Master's voice quietened him. 'By your time twelve years

have passed. By mine, only a quarter of an hour. I wanted to

explain to you the meaning of the words "Vanity of vanities; all

is vanity!"'

Christians are spirits sent into the world to satisfy the Lord's

thirst after saved souls. Christ has ordained from before the

world's creation, who should be the Ministers in His Church and

OBSERVATIONS 33

most responsible for the salvation of souls. All is vanity compared

to this most honourable of tasks.

We, in the West, often forget about it. So many minister to

God only by the weekly sermon and perhaps a Bible Study. The

ministers of the Underground Church are hunting souls every

day—and the nights too ! How high they are with God, and how

mighty must they be in prayer !

In the Talmud it is said that a son of Rabban Yochanan

became very ill. Yochanan turned to one of his disciples. Rabbi

Chanina Ben Dosia, and said to him: 'Chanina, my son, pray

that my boy may live.' Rabbi Chanina prayed and the son re-

covered. Then the wife of Rabban Yochanan asked him:'Is

Chanina, your disciple, greater than you?'

Yochanan replied : 'No, but he is like a servant before the king

who has entry to him at any time, whereas I am like a minister

who appears before the king only at fixed times and occasions.'

Many ministers in the West do the work of God only on fixed

times and occasions. Those behind the Iron Curtain don't know

what rest is, and consequently their prayer life is continuous.

'Drunkards'

A frequent charge against pastors—such as the Hebrew Chris-

tian, Grunvald, from Alma Ata—is that of drunkenness (Article

15, p. 85). If there had been newspapers in the first century we

would read of the same charge set against the apostles. Many

Christians have been jailed in Rumania as drunkards, because

they walked through the streets singing. Of course the charge is,

in a sense, true! These men are drunk. Drunk with the Holy

Spirit. Drunk with the joy of having the privilege to suffer. Like

drunkards they sing in the street and in the trains.

Yes—and like drunkards they are always fighting! They take

no account of the fact that they are like little Davids fighting

mighty Goliaths.

The Communists think that they can ridicule the cause of

Christ by saying that some of the pastors have an ugly past life.

Sometimes these accusations may be true. They say of the

Protestant pastor Drobkov, for example, that he had been a

traitor to his fatherland in earlier times. Others are accused of

having been thieves. From my side everything would be all right

even if these accusations were true !

Jesus chooses His disciples from the 'base things of the world,

and things which are despised ... and things which are not, to

34 THE SOVIET SAINTS

bring to nought tilings that are' (I Cor. 1:28). The uglier the past

history of diese Christian pastors, the more beautiful their

heroism appears as they take up the cross, face the dangers of the

Underground Church, and go to prison for Christ who has

washed them of their sins.

'Pentecostals'

The Pentecostals are a forbidden denomination in Russia.

Because of this whenever the Soviet authorities arrest Christians

of any kind, they often call them Tentecostals'.

Since 1948 no new religious congregation was allowed to

register. No congregation is allowed to function unless it is

registered with the Communist authorities. Therefore a vast

number of churches are outlawed. These are what the Soviet

Press often calls 'Pentecostals', but the term is often misleading.

Further Charges

A study of the Communist Press reports shows us what charges

are being brought against the Christians. One pastor is arraigned

because he said: 'God should take first place in our thoughts,

feelings and deeds' (Article 7, p. 67). I cannot help comparing this

with the session of the National Council of Churches in America

held in Miami in 1966. There a poll of those who attended

revealed that more than thirty per cent expressed doubt about the

existence of a personal God. How much they could learn from the

simple Christians who stand in the dock in Soviet Courts because

of their dedication to the Creator!

Another charge is that these pastors have taught that the

earthly life is merely a temporary existence, to be followed by the

true life in heaven. Now the very aim of Communist philosophy

is to crush such thinking. They want to convince caterpillars that

they will never become multi-coloured butterflies able to flit from

flower to flower ! They want to convince buds that they will never

burst into flowers! They cannot therefore tolerate a Christianity

which teaches that the actual state of humanity is merely em-

brionic leading to the final development into a higher, angelic,

Christ-like being.

A frequent charge is that Christians opposed the forcible

collectivization of agricultural property. In Rumania, Com-

munists entered the villages and shot at random the first ten

farmers they met. Then they asked the others to join the collec-

tive by signing a declaration stating that they were doing so of

OBSERVATIONS 35

their own free will. With us it led to thousands of peasants being

put in prison for refusing.

We read then of someone called Maerov saying : 'I do not want

to work together with the Antichrists' (Article 24, p. 110). For

such words you have to suffer in the U.S.S.R.

Another courtroom charge against Christians is that their faith

has brought about the destruction of families (Article 5, p. 58).

This is not wholly untrue. Christ Himself said that He had not

come to bring peace but division and that because of Him,

daughters would be set against mothers, sons against fathers. This

happens in the Communist camp.

With us conversion is dramatic. Let us imagine a young

married couple who meet a Christian. The Christian witnesses for

Christ. If the husband were to accept Christ as his Saviour his

wife would know that he stood a strong chance of being sent to

prison. The Christian they had met would have been imprisoned

and tortured several times before they had known him. She would

face the prospect of weeping at the prison gate and raising her

children in poverty. She had hoped for a happy home. This hope

is gone if her husband becomes a Christian.

The wives and families of the Apostles must have faced this

disruption of their family life. What must they have felt when

they saw husbands, fathers and sons following a man who said

that He personally would go to the cross, and would send His

disciples into the world as sheep among wolves? So it is with us.

Often the conversion of one member of the family produces

violent reactions and even hatred from the other members. Some-

times the unconverted partner of a marriage will go to the Secret

Police to denounce the one who wishes to 'destroy' their happy

family life. Sometimes wives commit suicide when the husband

goes to baptism.

When I decided to be baptized, my wife was near, to suicide.

This was because we were Jews and among Jewish people there

exists a great prejudice against baptism. So I was prepared

somewhat for the Communist times in which such occurrences

and the division of families have happened more frequently.

In Western churches we will read from time to time these

words of Jesus : 'If any man come to me, and hate not his father,

and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea

and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26). In

the Communist camp such words are becoming an everyday

reality.

36 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Dissenting family members are very often prosecution wit-

nesses against their Christian relatives (Article 20, p. 99). What

a tragedy it is when sons and daughters in Communist Courts put

the dunces' caps on their parents—little knowing that they are

thereby fulfilling a prediction of Christ.

But there are also other witnesses who stand in those court-

rooms. Witnesses who, in the words of a Soviet newspaper

'raising their eyes toward the ceiling, invoke God, incompre-

hensively mumbling something about conscience, about brothers

and sisters in faith' (Article 7, p. 68).

The Christians who come to testify in the courtrooms of Russia

do not merely represent themselves. They stand on the side of

righteousness. The Communist newspapers may well dress them

in the dunces' caps, mocking them as incomprehensible mumblers,

but their beauty is not distorted by these unkind descriptions.

They evoke God, they have consciences and they dare to proclaim

themselves as brothers and sisters of those who go to prison for

the faith.

Christians Lying

In the documents that follow we will see the Communist press

accusing Christians on trial of prevaricating and trying to hide

the truth (Article 25, p. 118). The word 'Liar!' is written on the

dunce's cap.

When David fled from Saul (I Sam. 21) he said to Ahimelech

the priest at Nob, that he was about the king's business. In a

sense this was true. The King of Kings certainly had business

involving David. He was to be the founder of a dynasty where the

last heir would be Jesus, the eternal King. But Ahimelech would

not have understood his words in this sense. Humanly speaking,

then, David prevaricated.

We owe to the Communists, as to all men, the whole truth. But

we are not obliged to reveal to all men all die facts about which

they may inquire. Rather, we owe it to the Underground Church

not to disclose its secrets to their persecutors. Our Christians have

learned the truth in Christ's words concerning the need for

combining the wisdom of serpents with the harmlessness of doves.

They do not betray the activities of the Church before Com-

munist judges or before examining officers.

Imprisonment

What is the attitude of Christians in the Communist camp to

jail?

OBSERVATIONS 37

There is a story of Agesilaus, King of Sparta. When he was a

child he was once put, by the director of some public games, in a

place of very little importance. Others mocked him about this but

he replied : 'From my side it is all right. I will show mat it is not

the place that exalts the person, but it is the person that exalts

and honours the place.' The positions held by Stalin or Mao Tse-

tung as dictators over hundreds of millions of people, did not

exalt them. Everyone knows that one has been a mass-murderer

and the other still is !

The Christians exalt and honour their prison cells. Where

tyranny reigns, the prison cell becomes the most honourable of

dwelling-places. The prisons where Christians are detained be-

come the camps of angels who surround and comfort them. There

is nothing frightening in going to prison for Christ's sake.

Christian Divisions

The articles of the Soviet Press attack many types of Chris-

tians. They are as fierce against the Orthodox as they are against

Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals. Evangelicals, Seventh Day

Adventists and others for whom Christianity is nothing else than

sheer superstition and sometimes witchcraft.

Communism hates Christianity in all its forms and this has

made Christians of different variations feel as brethren to one

another and join hands in fellowship. Under Communist pressure

in prisons, Christians of widely different doctrines have become

friends.

There is an old story of a Prince who lived in a city where

elephants were unknown ! One day he called all the blind men in

the city together and put an elephant in their midst. Because

there were so many of die blind men, no one could feel the whole

animal. One could only feel the head, another the trunk, another

the leg and so on. The blind men were later asked to describe the

animal. The man who had touched the ear said that the elephant

was a large pot. Another who had only touched the tail, said that

the animal was like a snake and yet another who had touched the

tusk said that it felt like a sword. Everyone described the animal

according to the parts which he had touched.

With the tilings of God there is a similarity to the old tale. We

see only in part—no one on earth knows the whole truth. In

prison we discovered common ground: the faith in God, in

Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the scriptures and in eternal life.

So many deplore the divisions among Christians, but there

38 THE SOVIET SAINTS

exists no undivided religion because there exists no undivided

humanity. No religion can be suited in the same form to the

lowest grade of intelligence and also to the highest. We find

among those brought before Communist Courts some with lofty

spiritual experiences who remind us of Francis of Assisi and

Thérèse of Lisieux. We find also some who have the most

primitive notions about God and Christ. Christ is, with them,

little more than a magical formula for healing diseases and get-

ting out of trouble. Christianity has to be as diverse as humanity

itself. But just as all men have their 'humanity' in common, so

Christians embracing diverse forms of worship suited to different

types of culture and temperament, have something in common.

They share in the new humanity which is in Christ.

Doctrinal Purity

Sometimes I am asked if amidst this unity of Christians under-

ground there are means of ensuring doctrinal purity. When such a

question comes to me I can't help recalling the words of Shakes-

peare : 'Tempest does not give leave to ponder.'

Russia has practically no Bibles. In a country of 200 million

inhabitants, the last 20,000 copies were printed in 1955—and this

after a pause in printing of at least thirty years. Compare this

figure against the figure of 3,666 registered baptisms in the

Official Baptist Church for the one year of 1964. In addition,

nobody can count the numbers of converts in the Underground

Church or among the Orthodox and others. Records are not

available. I repeat, Russia has practically no Bibles. A repre-

sentative of the European Christian Mission asked a pastor if

every Christian possessed at least a New Testament. (The

Anglican Digest, organ of the Episcopal church of U.S.A., esti-

mates in its January 1968 issue that forty-five million Russians

practise their religion 'underground'. Where are the Bibles for all

these?) The answer he was given was that he should rather be

asking if every church owned a New Testament. And if there are

practically no Bibles, how much less can we expect there to be

textbooks on Christian doctrine, or theological magazines.

There are, apparently, two religious quarterlies published in

Moscow. One is Orthodox, the other is Baptist. I showed a copy

of the Baptist magazine to a Russian Baptist physician who hap-

pened at our time of meeting, to be outside Russia. He told me he

had never seen it before. There is a Rumanian newspaper full of

patriotic and religious articles called The Voice of the Father-

OBSERVATIONS 39

land, but I never saw it on sale in Rumania! These magazines

have it as their main purpose to dupe Westerners.

Who is right to demand doctrinal purity from Christians who

have never seen a book of doctrine? By chance of birth or cir-

cumstances of conversion they know their religion by different

names—'Catholicism', 'Orthodoxism', Tentecostalism'. Basically,

their religion is love towards God and neighbour, and faith in

Christ. To those Christians many of the doctrinal controversies of

the Western Churches seem very strange.

We have a story. Two farmers were friends. One evening they

sat together on a bench and looked at the starry sky. One of them

said : 'I would like to have pastureland as big as the area of the

sky we see!'

The other said: 'I would rather have as many sheep as there

are stars up there ! '

'But if you had so many sheep,' said the first, 'where would you

graze them all?'

'On your pasture,' replied the first. 'It's big enough ! '

The first began to cry : 'How dare you come with your sheep

on to my pasture!'

The one had no pasture, the other had no sheep, and they

quarrelled over things they didn't possess! I believe that we

Christians, also, are continually quarrelling over things that we

often really don't know.

How many theologians ever stop to realize how much geog-

raphy affects doctrinal discussions? How does one explain to a

Christian in the Lubi tribe in Upper Volta or to a brother among

the Auca Indians of Ecuador or to a believer of a tribe in the

Bering Strait area (where they have a language consisting of sixty

words), the difference between pre-Millennialism and post-Mil-

lennialism? I do not mean to imply by this that doctrinal thought

and teaching is unimportant. Far from it. What I want to stress is

the difference between faith in Christ, and the various theoretical

expressions of that faith which we call theological doctrines.

I hope that the cultivated and advanced Western Christians

will accept our primitive faith as genuine. Wherever 'two or three

are gathered together' in the name of Christ, the Saviour is there

also. The aim of these simple Soviet Christians is the glory of

God. If they were to come to the West they would probably

become as puzzled people as I am myself! How would they know

how to choose from innumerable Churches that all claim to be

Biblical and to be more in the right than the others?

40 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Whether we like it or not, the simple fact is that the Under-

ground Church in Russia is very little concerned about doctrinal

matters. It is difficult to see how it could be otherwise. There are,

perhaps, theologians^, in the West who will be shocked by this.

They would hold that salvation depends upon a grasp of true

doctrine. I can only plead that they do not, in fact, have the great

reformers on their side.

Bishop Latimer, during his trial by the Catholics, was asked if

he considered all his Catholic predecessors were damned because

they believed in such things as holy images and prayers to the

Virgin Mary, a faith which he did not share. His answer was as

follows : 'God knows his elect and diligently watches and keeps

them, so that all things serve to their salvation. The nature of fire

is to burn all that is laid in it. Yet God kept the three young men

in Babylon, that they burnt not... So false doctrine burns as the

fire; it corrupts. But God kept his elect, that they were not cor-

rupted with it, but always put their trust in the one everliving

God, through the death of Jesus Christ our Lord. In Elias' time,

idolatry and superstition reigned, so that Elias said : "Lord, they

have destroyed Thy altars and slain Thy prophets and preachers,

and I am left alone." But the Lord answered him: "I have re-

served to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed their

knees to Baal." So God, I trust, reserved our forefathers, in so

perilous times, more graciously than we think.'

This answer of Larimer's made clear that it was possible to

belong to a Church, considered by some Protestants as idolatrous

and erroneous, and still be saved. Enlightened Catholics think

the same about Protestants.

Instead of demanding doctrinal purity, it would be more posi-

tive to unite with the Underground Church against the official

leaders of the Russian Churches who are, in fact, merely stooges

of the Communists. Centuries ago when CaeciHan was elected

Bishop of Carthage in the year 311, a party rose up against him

objecting that his ordination was not valid. This was because he

had been ordained by Felix, Bishop of Artunga, who had been a

traitor during times of persecution, delivering up the Scriptures

to the heathen magistrates to be burnt. But men who have done

far worse than Felix conduct ordinations now in the Baptist and

Orthodox churches. They have given up their brethren to death.

They are the ones about whom it is said in the Bible: 'they

crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an

open shame' (Heb. 6:6).

OBSERVATIONS 41

The Documents

You will find in the documents tnat follow dramas and vic-

tories. You will meet children who have dared to ruin their future

careers and even endanger their own lives and the lives of their

parents. They have said to their schoolteachers : 'You, teachers,

lie to us. Everything on earth has been created by God.'

Now we will leave the documents to speak for themselves. We

have not presented all the documents that could have been set

out. We could have shown how bulldozers have flattened churches

in Tashkent, Brest and Vladivostok. We could have shown Chris-

tians being sacked because of their faith. We could have shown

expulsions from University, confiscation of property, Christians

put in asylums and many other things, as disturbing of church

services by volley ball matches in the church-yard, organized on

Sunday mornings by the Communist youth. (This explains

the case of priest Turkovskii, p. 51.) May these documents

suffice ! May they awaken the Christians of the free world to what

is happening to their brothers in Communist countries now, and

to what could happen to themselves in the future.

Source: Uchitelskaia Gazeta (Teacher's Gazette), June 18th

1961

1

Whose Fate is the Director's Concern?

From the Courtroom:

The judges enter!

The talking stops, those present stand up. The traditional

phrase imposes an inner composure upon the people. I can see

how their faces become stern, especially the faces of those two

who sit, apart from the rest, alone, by the window. Rows of

empty chairs, like a fence, separate them from the audience, a

wide aisle—from the judges' bench. Two—in an emptiness.

His red beard is broad and thick, his hair pulled back, his eyes

cast down; this is how Ignatii Semenovich Mullin looks. Spiritual

humbleness does not match at all with his heavy-set body, spark-

ling with health. On the other hand, Maria Iakovlevna is the

complete opposite of her husband; a little downtrodden woman,

continuously crying into the corner of a handkerchief, hardly

reaching his shoulders. He is the head of the family—a 'god-

given' one. He gives orders. Now the simple term 'respondent*1

receives a special meaning. Qtizen Mullin is held to respond for

the reasons why his daughter, Evdokiia, left home.

They say, there is no other girl in the fifth grade more in-

dustrious and studious than Dusia (diminutive of Evdokiia).

During the teaching period she would not speak a word; during

the recess, you could not make her come out to the hall—she

would sit at her desk, read and prepare her lessons. Her collar is

the whitest, her uniform the best pressed. Indeed, such children

are not often found in school.

In a small town there are few big secrets. And, although

Mullin's house is closed to strangers, the children revealed : they

are Staroveri [Old-believers]. This news reached the class super-

visor Mrs. Maria Konstantinovna Aldarkina.

Well, this explains this attentiveness in school (they would not

let her study at home), the books read during recess (the parents

do not allow reading), the uniform so white and starched (an

example for the 'worldly' ones). Even during the school hours

Dusia was not allowed to forget about God.

44

WHOSE FATE IS THE DIRECTOR'S CONCERN? 45

What does she say about her home? The day starts and ends

with prayers. Three daughters (the youngest is four years of age)

fervently pray and make deep bows. In turn, when relatives

gather together in the evening, the father praises the daughters

without end. Hearing him, the childless aunt makes a sign of the

cross, smiles benevolently and nods: 'When I die, I'll leave

everything to you, Ignat.'

Behind the quiet, one-syllable answers of Dusia, the teacher

sensed a tragedy. The little girl felt her situation as a burden. It

was obviously difficult for her to lead this double life, to be torn

between the school and the house, to pray and (at the same time)

read interesting books. Thus, Maria Konstantinovna picked the

only right way, though it might have looked, at first sight, a

roundabout one. She did not try, right away, to convince Dusia

that there was no God. After all, at the age of ten, a person could

not be regarded as believing. Rather, it was a habit, still without

realization, which does not fit at all the entire way of life of a

pupil. Maria Konstantinovna decided that it was this way of Life

that should win the case.

Gradually and consistently, Dusia became used to behaving in

school the same way as her class-mates. She participated in the

editing of the wall newspaper and read poems at evening gather-

ings. ;

'Do you pray?' Maria Konstantinovna inquired.

'Yes, I do,' Dusia replied.

'Do you believe?'

'No, but I am scared of the parents ...'

Perhaps she was afraid, perhaps she did not want to com-

plain.

Presently, Dusia acquired new, good and useful habits and

duties and it was necessary to talk about them openly. At one of

the parents' meetings, it was in the sixth grade, Aldarkina started

a conversation with Dusia's mother. As soon as Maria Konstanti-

novna mentioned that 'she should be allowed to join the Pioneers

(Commun ist children's organization) and to read at home', Mul-

lina pursed her lips :

'Our religion forbids it. We are—"Old-believers". It is a sin to

read, it is a sin to wear a scarf. Everything is a sin.'

Next day, Dusia came to school sad and quiet.

'It would be better, Maria Konstantinovna, if you would not

talk,' she said during the recess.

'What happened, did they scold you?'

46 THE SOVIET SAINTS

'They did.'

'Did they beat you?'

•They did, too...'

This was an open declaration of war, but Dusia decided not to

surrender. She became more stern and quiet. Everything in-

dicated that a fight was going on at home.

'Perhaps I should visit your home,' Maria Konstantinovna once

asked.

'No,' Dusia replied.

But soon, it was necessary to make that visit. This happened

during the last week of Lent, after the hungry and weakened

Dusia has been fed by her school-mates. They went together with

the teacher of history, Shapovalenko.

They were not admitted beyond the kitchen. Mrs. Mullin stood

up, barred the door and stood there during the entire conversa-

tion.

The conversation was not much different from that previously

held in school. The mother, on the one hand, complained that

Dusia helped at home too little; she sweeps the floor only twice a

week; on the other hand, she repeated again: 'It is a sin—to

read.'

The mentioning of the fast made her mad :

'We fasted and will continue to fast. I can do without meat...'

With this, they left. And the next day, Dusia declared in school

that she wouldn't go home any more. Why? The best answer is

contained in her letter to the editor mailed by her teacher,

Aldarkina :

'I left home. I left it for ever. I am forbidden to be a Pioneer, I

am not allowed to read fine literature, I am not allowed to make

friends with my schoolmates, to do community work, to attend

evening events in school, movies, theatres; they say nasty things

about our school. I am not going home.'

For a few days, Dusia stayed with her friends. Then she was

placed in a boarding-school. There, a line of aunts, headed by her

mother, came to see her. 'Come home,' they whispered into

Dusia's ear. 'Whatever has happened, you have your family, your

sisters. You should always think of them.'

So, Dusia went home for the May 1st holiday. Even the Court

was not able to establish what happened at home. Yet, upon her

return to the boarding school, the girl firmly declared : 'I am not

going there any more ! '

Only now it has become clear that it was not their child the

WHOSE FATE IS THE DIRECTOR'S CONCERN? 47

Mullins were concerned about. They were worried about their

own reputation in the eyes of their own relatives and fellow-

believers. They were concerned about the inheritance which the

rich aunt had promised her god-child. (It was their intention) to

use all kinds of tricks to lure Dusia home and then quickly move

to another town, mix with strange people and to forget the un-

pleasant incident.

No, it was impossible to leave the child in such a family. This

is why the school and the community of parents filed a petition to

deprive the Mullins of their parental power.

Dusia asked the Soviet people for help and received it. Our

Constitution allows everybody to believe in God, but the Law

forbids forcing religious ideas even upon children.

'Say, Mullin,' the judge asks, 'if your daughter returns home,

will you continue to make her pray?'

'Well, what harm will it do for her if she crosses her forehead?'

'Does it mean that, in choosing between God and your

daughter; you choose God?'

7 will not abandon my faith'—the man said gloomily.

The Court deprived the Mullins of their parental powers and

obligated them to pay the costs of the boarding-school for their

daughter.

In a detailed substantiation of the verdict, directed to the

school, the inadequate atheistic work among children was pointed

out.

I hardly returned to Moscow from my assignment, when a

letter came to the editor. And here is what it said : 'The day after

the trial, there assembled in the school, its director Zakirov,

partorg [party organizer] Kashapov and zavuch [principal of the

teaching staff] Mrs. Andreevshaia. The teacher, Mrs. Aldarkina,

was summoned. It is difficult briefly and clearly to reproduce the

conversation of the four people which lasted two hours with three

people against one. Apparently, teacher Aldarkina had deceived

the entire staff and destroyed all the good things that the school

had achieved due to the leadership of the director [it was

alleged] : Aldarkina did not work with the Mullins! Why didn't

she re-educate them in order to avoid the break in the family?

Now, the management of the school was to take the blame ...

Aldarkina brought about the trouble upon their heads by con-

tacting the newspaper. As if, without the interference of the

48 THE SOVIET SAINTS

editors, the matter would not have become known ...'

I am trying to find out how well Zakirov and Kashapov 'in-

vestigated' the fate of Dusia Mullin.

'When did it become known to you that the Mullins oppressed

their daughter?' I asked the director.

'After the girl left home.'

'Are there other believers in the school?'

'I don't know. There are several hundreds of pupils in the

school. You cannot watch all of them...'

Many people got involved in Dusia's fate: the Chief of the

Region, Sadreev, the principal of the boarding-school, Popova,

employees of the Court and of the Prosecutor's offiœ—all of

them had Dusia in mind. But the director had just himself in

mind in the first place. When the girl left home, he called the

parents into his office and, in a long discussion, tried to convince

Mullin to give his promise that he would stop persecuting his

daughter. And, although it was known from Dusia, her friends

and neighbours that such a 'promise' would not carry any weight,

Zakirov continued to insist upon having it. Apparently, in such

case, Dusia could be sent back home, left with her family and,

naturally, peace would come to the school. Then, nobody would

dare to blame the director for the lack of educational and anti-

religious work. It was only Mullin's fanaticism that upset his

attempts to 'settle' the matter out of Court.

Actually, the trial itself did not particularly upset Zakirov.

From the moment she went to the boarding-school, she ceased to

be regarded as a pupil of his school. This is why the director did

not go to see her and talk to her. He only attended the final

session of the Court.

It was that special reference to his school that upset him most.

And it was the reason for the dispersal (sic). Zakirov and Kasha-

pov understand the honour of the teaching staff in a peculiar way.

They confuse honour with personal, private tranquillity and this

is their only concern. Well, now there is plenty of reason for them

to be concerned.

Town of Bugulma,

Tatar Autonomous S.S.R.

L. Strizhovskii,

Special correspondent

1962

Source : Komsomolskala Pravda, June 21st 1962

2

A Sect of Fanatics Was Exposed

From the Courtroom:

Kharkov, June 20th. (T.A.S.S.) The assizes of the District

Court of Kharkov, tried the criminal case against the accused

leaders of, and active participants in, the religious sect of Piati-

desiatniki (Pentecostals) which existed illegally in Kharkov.

There were in rie dock—the leader of the sect N. M. Kozelko

who, just a few years ago, returned from prison where he served

his term for a serious crime, preachers G. V. Zinchenko, N. T.

Rubashka, I. P. Garkavii, F. M. Chubenko and M. T.

Durtan.

During the preliminary investigation and during the trial it was

established that the activities of this religious sect harmed the

health of the citizens and was combined with infringement of

their civil rights and with forcing them to refuse to fulfil their

social obligations.

It became known at the trial that, for example, I. Zin-

chenko, A. Rubleva, A. Pavlenko and S. Rzhevskaia became vic-

tims of the sectarians.

Witnesses—teachers of school No. 39 in Kharkov, which the

children of the accused Rubashka attend, gave the Court a picture

of the detrimental influence of the sectarians on the children. The

parents taught their children to keep away from everything

worldly, from our outstanding work, and prepared the youngsters

for the so-called 'life after death'.

The Court completely unmasked the hypocrites. Under die

impact of evidence, even the most ardent leaders of the sect were

forced to admit that they were tried justly.

The Court passed a decision under which N. M. Kozelko was

sentenced to five years in prison with confiscation of his property

and deportation, after serving the sentence, to far-away places of

the Soviet Union for another five years. N. T. Rubashka and I. P.

Garkavii were sentenced to three years in prison each, G. V.

Zinchenko and M. T. Durtan—to one and a half years in prison

each. F. M. Chubenko, who admitted the harmfulness of his

50

THE SHYNESS OF POWER 51

activities as a preacher, and declared that he would leave the sect,

was sentenced to conditional punishment with a probation term

three years, and was released from custody.

Source : Izvestiia, June 28th 1962

3

The Shyness of Power

The following event happened at the village of Novoiurevskoe,

in the Tambov Region. A big, husky young man approached a

little boy, seized him by his collar and tossed him several metres

away. The teacher, indignant, approached.

The hooligan replied :

'Your puppy was in my way.'

The teacher went to see the Chief of the regional unit of

Militsia, N. Rozhnov.

'Catch die hooligan ! '

'Right away, we'll teach him a lesson,' the chief of militia

sternly replied. 'Who was it, did you say, that harmed the boy?

Oh, Turkovskii. Well the matter is complicated...'

Girls and boys played volley-ball. Suddenly the same husky

youth appeared on the court.

'Stop the game. Find yourselves another place.'

'But the court has always been here. We do not disturb any-

body.'«

'Is that so? You don't want to do it voluntarily?' With a

metallic voice the youth said and shouted : 'Hey, Orthodox, come

and liquidate die court!'

At this instant, a few men came running, dug out the posts,

tore down the net; the children sadly went to complain to the

Prosecutor.

N. Bokarev, in charge of the Regional Prosecutor's office, was

also indignant.

'This is, you know not a minor act of hooliganism. This should

be punished by jail ... Just tell me about him. What is his

name?'

52 THE SOVIET SAINTS

'Turkovskhy the children replied.

'Turkovskii?' The Prosecutor cooled off immediately» 'This is

another story...'

Some time afterwards Turkovskii stripped a band from the

sleeve of a druzhinnik [volunteer civilian policeman], Viktor

Likhachev, and tore his jacket.

'Why didn't you bring the hooligan to his senses? No guts?' we

inquired.

'Well, I could have ... But it's forbidden I myself could be

jailed. Why? After all, Comrade Iartsev himself knows about

that hooligan, but he does not take any action against him...'

True enough, the Chairman of the Regional Executive Com-

mittee of Staroiurevskoe, V. Iartsev, is well informed about

everything. But he, too, when hearing the name of Turkovskii,

becomes uneasy :

'You see ' .

The whole secret proves to lie in the fact that Turkovskii is the

local minister. This fact worries the local leaders quite a bit. If it

were a normal Soviet citizen, a tractor driver, a locksmith, a

physician or agronomist, that had committed the excesses, he

would be brought to his senses immediately. But how to deal with

a violent minister?

We talked to many leaders of the Soviet (council) of Novo-

iurevskoe and of the Staroiurevskoe Region, with druzhinniki,

propagandists and workers on the cultural front. And we had

strange conversations.

They were strange, because literally none of them were con-

cerned with the question of how to oppose the influence of the

churchmen and sectarians, but rather to secure their tranquillity.

Obviously, our partners in conversation can send in a correction

of this statement : 'We never said anything like this.' Well, then

if so, how should we evaluate the case of the volley-ball court?

This court is located not far from the church but not on its

territory. Yet, instead of curbing the aggressive minister, they

endlessly discuss in the region the question : was the volley-baU

court built far enough from, or too close by the church.

We do not stretch the point. The village House of Culture is

also near the church. And the minister forbade playing the radio

and records in the club. The school is not far away. The minister

categorically demands that no physical exercises be conducted in

the fresh air, outside of the school (because this would also be in

front of the church). Furthermore, one of the points of Tur-

THE SHYNESS OF POWER 53

kovskii's ultimatum is : to stop anti-religious propaganda in the

village.

In our talks, we repeatedly hear the escape thesis: naturally,

we have sufficient power, but wouldn't we hurt the feelings of

those believing?

May we be permitted to ask : since when have the volley-ball

game, the dance music or physical exercise become offensive to

the believing people? (If somebody feels offended, it is his

private matter.)

Can a Pioneer be beaten for urging his friend not to go to

church? Who gave the permission to attack the druzhinnik who is

performing his duties? In short, we intend to put the question

like this : what about the feeling of non-believers, can they be

offended?

Prosecutor, Comrade Bokarev, basically agrees with all our

statements.

'But we still should not touch the minister. The unpleasantness

that might follow would be too much ...'

'What kind?' The Prosecutor makes a gesture of undetermined

meaning. 'Why do you ask me? The Regional Committee and the

Regional Executive Committee know about it, too ...'

'There is no doubt about it that Turkovskii will be tried,' the

Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee assures us.

But this is not all that the inhabitants of the village of Novo-

iurevskoe need.

'Naturally, the hooligan should be tried according to his

merits,' they say. 'But why should we exchange one useless thing

for another? We do not want to get just a "good'* minister. What

we need is that the church be closed, because it became a spreader

of scandals and active religious propaganda outside of its walls.3

This is the demand of those five thousand inhabitants of the

village of Novoiurevskoe. As we can see, this demand is not with-

out substantiation. But it proved to be impossible to carry it out.

A church may be closed only at the request of the believers them-

selves, and, naturally, no believer would request it.

We understand very well that this matter cannot be dealt with

by shooting from the hip. Naturally, there is a great majority of

non-believers at any settlement. But it would not be right to settle

such delicate matters mechanically, by simple voting. We respect

the freedom of conscience of every citizen and we are not entitled

to forbid them to perform their religious practices.

However, the church of Novoiurevskoe has turned, from a

54 THE SOVIET SAINTS

place where these religious rites are performed, into an active

propaganda centre of ignorance, and into a direct violator of

Soviet laws. Why then, as the people of Novoirevskoe demand,

could not this church which openly violates our laws, be closed?

Yes, close the church, don't just change the pastor ! This would

be a just settlement.

After all, the core of the matter lies not in this particular

church and its servant. The local Association for the spreading of

political and scientific knowledge, showed us an extensive pro-

gram of scientific-atheistic lectures : in the regional department

of cultural affairs they told us about anti-religious evening pro-

grams, exhibits, etc. All this is fine. But these lectures and

programs are arranged for convinced atheists. As a rule, they have

an instructive character. And it is not an accident that the number

of sectarians does not diminish in the region; rather often young

couples are married in church, and a young mother takes her baby

to church to be baptized ...

We were told : 'Well, you are talking about a militant, offen-

sive anti-religious propaganda. But how can it be done? The

believers cannot be dragged by force into the clubs.'

But, for example, could not an 'attack' be made by a massive

exposure of the way of life of the pastor of Novoiurevskoe, or of

the scandals coming from the walls of the church? Is it not per-

missible to talk about all this quite aloud at the village meetings?

It can be done. And then this will be heard by the participating

believers and those hesitating. But now, if we should be frank,

even people, far from being religious, bitterly smile :

'Whatever Father Nikolai wants, he will do. That's power.'

You must admit that such statements do not help the success of

atheistic propaganda.

Not long ago, some fanatics—sectarians of Staroiurevskoe were

deprived of parental powers. Should not such events become a

topic for widespread talks not only about the essence of the

religious belief but also about its inhumanity and cruelty? Yes, if

everything is told, the hearts of many believers might shudder.

Well, the local atheists did not use these opportunities.

We have a powerful weapon in our fight against religious in-

fluence, and ignorance. On our side is the truth, the truth about

the universe and about the laws which govern it. But I think that

the enlightenment alone might not be enough. If the sectarians

inflict an injury to the souls of children, and, sometimes, to their

bodies, if they drive people to psychiatric hospitals—they should

UNDER THE DOMINATION OF OBSCURITY 55

be punished with all severity of the law. If the minister commits

excesses and the church becomes a breeding ground for law-

breaking and for active religious propaganda and lawlessness, we

are not only entitled but obligated to take the most determined

measures. Soviet laws also apply to a citizen in clerical garb.

Village of Novoiurevskoe,

Tambov Region

V. Komov, Iu. Feofanov,

Special corerespondents of Izvestiia

Source : Kazakhstanskaia Pravda (Kasakstan Truth), January 7th

1962

4

Under the Domination of Obscurity

Early in the morning the inhabitants of the city of Ush Tobe

were awakened by ear-splitting cries. People hurried to the house

No. 60 on Vodoprovodna Street. They carried out of the house

three men poisoned to death by the fumes of carbon monoxide.

Two of them were brothers, Petr and Iakov Kirichko.

The mother of the dead—a sectarian—was tearing her hair,

wringing her hands and shedding tears.

'Why, dear God? Why, for what sins do You punish me?

Please make my sons ah* ve again, be merciful ! '

The reason for the tragedy was the fact that one of the

brothers—lakov—quarrelled with his brother Petr and the lat-

ter's friend P. Sirota, while attempting to make them join the

sect. When he saw that his attempts failed, he closed, for the

night, the chimney of the stove with the fire burning inside.

Baptists is the name of the members of one of the most re-

actionary religious sects. They attempt to catch in their nets as

many victims as possible, to confuse people's minds and to

undermine their will-power. The leaders of the sect teach their

56 THE SOVIET SAINTS

flock : do not attend movies or theatres; do not engage in sports;

do not sing, except pious songs; do not read fine literature !

The leaders of the Baptist sect pay special attention to people

who find themselves in a difficult situation or a plight, and to

inexperienced boys and girls.

We do not have to look far for an example. Here is one

Nadezhda Nikolenko—a young person of undetermined occupa-,

tion or place of abode. Her task is—to recruit 'souls' to the sect.

ït was she who, pretending to be a nurse, visited a young

Komsomol [Communist Youth Association] member in his

home. She tried to get him to join the sect. Yet, this time the

sectarian was clearly mistaken. When she realized that she would

be exposed, she disappeared.

And here is another striking event which shocked the whole

community of Ush Tobe. The religious fanatics, Anatolii and

Gennadii Pogodzev, bestially beat up their own brother, Valerii,

a worker at the Karatalskii Mezhkolkhostroi [inter-collective

farm management].

It is Sunday ... Everybody tries to use his day reasonably;

attending movies, visiting a library and the stadium, relaxing

with his family ... But what is it over there? Some people, look-

ing around like thieves, are sneaking along Kirov Street towards

house No. 44.

We saw a disgusting scene when we entered that house. Over

twenty praying people, kneeling and raising their arms, uttered

ear-splitting sounds, tore their hair and, in a wild orgy, hit the

floor with their heads. Here, along with adults, were also children.

Terrified, tormented, they stood there crowded in a corner, and

cried. One of them was Zoia Iusupova. She was only six years

old.

We talked to one of the chief preachers of the Baptist sect,

Ivan Grechikhin.

*We bring up our children/ he said, 'in fear of God. Therefore,

three times a week, we conduct prayer sessions.y

It cannot be said that people of the town do not know about all

this. But the Karatalskii Regional Party Committee decided that

it was a 'family' affair in which one should not interfere.

Meeting no opposition on the part of the Communists or the

community, the sectarians at Ush Tobe let themselves go.

The Subbotniki (Adventists), Piatidesiatniki, the Evangelists

and others recruit to their sects not only adults, but even children

of preschool age.

UNDER THE DOMINATION OF OBSCURITY 57

In the city of Ush Tobe, fifty 'houses of agitators' were

established, which were expected to become centres of individual

work with the believers, to arrange Sunday readings and evenings

of questions and answers. But, having established them (the

houses) the workers of the regional Party Committee forgot all

about the needed control and check-up of the work of the propa-

gandists and agitators, and neglected this important sector of the

ideological activity.

In the Karatalsk Region, there is a division of the Society for

the Promotion of Political and Scientific Knowledge. The mem-

bers of the Society read twenty lectures on atheistic topics. But

all of them were read to atheists. True, once, they tried to

assemble the believers, but the talks with them were carried out

to such an extent unconvincingly and incompetently that many of

those gathered did not even know why they were summoned.

The activists do not approach the citizens with clear and

fervent talks. Some Communists do not even give a good example

of bringing up their own families. The father of the Communist,

Petr Grechtkhin, the secretary of the Komsomol, the Centre of

Technical Inspection of the Ush Tobe station, is the head of the

Baptist community; Petr's wife is also a sectarian. It is obvious

that P. Grechikhin shows lack of principles, bargaining with his

conscience and yielding to ignorance and obscurantism.

Our Soviet reality, our ideas and our scientific achievements

disperse the darkness of superstitions. Believing people, in ever-

growing numbers free themselves from the religious chain; many

preachers abandon their sects. But our Party teaches us that, in

the field of anti-religious propaganda, we should not rely on leav-

ing things to themselves. It is necessary, thoughtfully and persis-

tently, to explain to the believers the evil of religious super-

stitions, and to conduct an active atheistic propaganda.

A struggle against the manifestations of the bourgeois ideology

and morality, superstitions and prejudices, constitutes a com-

ponent part of the work in the field of Communist education of

the workers.

7* is necessary/ the Program of the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union states, 'systematically to conduct a widespread

scientific-atheistic propaganda, patiently to explain the incon-

sistencies of religious beliefs which came to being on the past on

the basis of the domination of the elemental forces of nature over

the people, and social oppression, due to the ignorance of the

essential causes of natural and social phenomena.'

58 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Unfortunately} the Party organizations of the Karatalskii

Region do not yet work adequately on the fulfilment of this task,

as stated by the Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet

Union. In the scientific-atheistic propaganda work, too many

technicalities are admitted, too little individual work is conducted

with the believers. This is die reason why, at Ush Tobe, many

people still walk blindly in the darkness of superstitions.

Ush Tobe,

Region of Alma Ata

N. Shakhov,

Our special correspondent

Source : Komsomolskaia Pravda, July 5th 1962

The 'Quakers' Tremble with Fear from

Responsibility

From the Courtroom:

There are four of them sitting with gloomy faces in the dock.

Four leaders of the Piatidesiatniki—Pentecostals, one of the most

reactionary and fanatic sects. They lived in Krasnodon. During

the occupation, suddenly and openly Chernetskii would walk its

streets in a Hiderite uniform. Yes, it was the same streets on

which young Guardsmen secredy pasted posters and moved to

their assignments.

The past of the others—Mazhnikov, Kolesnichenko and Kazi-

mirov—was not much better. Having served lenient punishments,

they still had the chance to enter on the proper pathway. Instead,

those grabbers and obscurantists organized stinking subversion.

Now, in the free and happy city of Krasnodon, they were forced

to hide from die world. The 'brothers and sisters in Christ' met

during dark nights. Exhausting prayer practices started which

turned to frenzy, trembling and hysterics. AH this was needed by

'quakers' tremble with féar from responsibility 59

the scum in order to terrify their 'brothers and sisters' and make

them blindly submit to their will.

The electro-inspector, Sofia Trofimovna Breeva, told the Court

about the shocking family tragedy.

'We had a nice family. My daughter was growing. My husband, •

Nikolai Bielitskii worked as a machinist and was in good repute.

But he became a Piatidesiatnik. He started attending prayer

meetings and spent his days and nights there. When his fellow-

workers learned about it and started suggesting that he break with

the sectarians, he decided to submit a letter of resignation [to his

factory]. At that time, I was sick and bedridden in the hospital

with our daughter. Yet my husband refused to help me during my

hard time. This is the value of their "love thy neighbour"

[belief.] For a year and a half Nikolai would not work, having

turned into a lazy do-nothing who lived off the charity of the

sectarians. One day I decided to watch my husband in his "zeal".

Before my eyes, a healthy man whom I loved, turned into a spine-

less creature, a madman. Tears ran down his face and lather

appeared upon his mouth. Up to now, I tremble from aversion.

No, it was impossible to love such a person. After long quarrels

and persuasions we parted. Please punish with all the severity of

the Soviet Laws those who broke up our happiness and our

family.'

The sect has also other victims charged to its account. Their

entire activity had a direct anti-social character. The Pentecost-

als in pretty Krasnodon hate everything : the factories, schools,

libraries and movies.

'I was dragged into the sect,' nineteen-year-old Zotkina testi-

fied, 'but I soon realized where the Piatidesiatniki were pulling

me. My friends who opened my eyes, helped me. I thank them. I

started hating prayers and the people who wanted to bury me

alive.'

But perhaps most striking was the appearance at the trial of the

mother of a murdered young Guardsman, Polina Dmitrievna

Lopukhova, a teacher at the Gorkii school. For some time she has

been waging a courageous war for the son of the sectarians, Sasha

Plotnikov.

'We are not going to allow the fanatics to destroy the lives of

our children,' Polina Dmitrievna said in conclusion.

For three days, the People's Court of the Krasnodon Region

deliberated in the 'Young Guard' Cultural Centre. For three days

hundreds of people witnessed the exposure of the criminal activi-

60 THE SOVIET SAINTS

ties of Piatidesiatniki. The fanatics got their just rewards for

depriving Soviet people of the joy of creative work, for hurting

their human dignity, for jeering the weak and cheated ones and

robbing them (no wonder that the 'Brother preachers' had good

private residences and motor-cycles).

The Court sentenced the leaders of the sect of Piatidesiatniki,

Kolesnichenko and Kazimirov to five years in prison with sub-

sequent deportation for the same period of time, Chernetskii and

Mahnikov were also given prison terms.

Lugansk

L. Alekseeva

Is. Svintitskii

Source: Ogoniok (Little Flame), March 13th 1962

6

Behind Closed Shutters

'Well, Iasha, recite your assignment,' the 'lady teacher' says.

'... I look for the resurrection of the dead/ the slim boy, nine

years old, said quickly.

'Good boy ... And now, do explain when all this is going to

happen.'

Fear appears in the boy's blue eyes. Can it really happen that

his grandmother might return from the grave and again get hold

of his ear with her bony fingers?

'The resurrection of the dead will come/ the 'teacher' softly

suggests, 'during the second advent of Christ. And now, children,

let's repeat it all together/

Three dozen voices join in reciting.

On the outside, behind the walls of this house in which the

teaching of God's laws is conducted, a normal life is carried on

on this Sunday.

Young people crowd by the newspaper stand selling Komso-

molets Kubani. In the movie theatre 'Oktabrj' [October], filled

to capacity, the picture 'First Flight to the Stars' is shown. The

BEHIND CLOSED SHUTTERS 61

huge Hall of the Pioneers has been since early in the morning

occupied by the young tillers of the soil.

But neither the regional nor the provincial committees of

popular education, whose task it is to know, direct and head

popular education, knows about the existence of the above-men-

tioned 'school' in the very centre of the Krasnodar Province, in

the very City of Krasnodar.

Strange things happen to the pupils of the Sunday School,

who, during the rest of the week, are pupils of regular public

schools.

For example, in the school No. 41, in the second grade lC, a

lesson of singing is under way.

'Little eagle, little eagle, fly above the Sun,' all students sing in

a ringing voice. Only the slim boy of nine does not sing. He sits

there, with his head down, sadly covering his mouth with his little

hand.

'Forbidden, forbidden,' answers Iasha Stepaniuga, to all at-

tempts of the teacher to make him sing, and he cries bitterly.

lashtfs sister, Liudas is the only girl in grade six who did not

join the Pioneers.

In school. No. 23, there is a girl, twelve years old, Vali

Andreeva. Recently she took off her Pioneer scarf: 7 believe in

God and God does not approve.3

Viktor Bogomaz is finishing the tenth grade. Although he does

not mind drawing some visual-aid articles for the^4 school, he

regards the Bible as the most important visual-aid of them all...

In school No. 39 ... This sad list could be continued. We were

correct counting about thirty pupils of die 'Sunday School'. But,

even if, from the windows of the Committee on popular education

they cannot see every single pupil, in school, pupils of the type of

Iasha Stepaniuga cannot be overlooked. And yet, here is what the

senior girl Pioneer leader of the school No. 23, Tamara Kar-

penko, excitedly tells me how active her Pioneers work. On the

card of her region, there are all kinds of conventional markings:

an axe, a book, a doll... In the house marked by an axe, wood

needed to be chopped, as the inhabitant is an invalid; books are

read to old people; the little girl whom her mother leaves alone,

will be comforted with dolls. All these are good deeds. But

neither Tamara Karpenko, nor the head teacher, Postnov, nor the

lecturer, Mrs. Lugovaia, who finished special courses for anti-

religious work, can tell me in what way they pull out their pupils

from the religious quagmire...

62 THE SOVIET SAINTS

On the other hand, the sectarians—well, they work actively

and firmly stick to 'their' pupils. Naturally, it is not easy to make

people study biblical legends at the time when Gargarin orbits in

the space. Not everybody is ready to bite even the bait in the

form of free soup generously offered at the prayer meetings. First

to fall in are usually the children of the sectarians, who yield to

the will of the parents. It is terrifying to think in whose dirty

paws is the fate of such 'pupils' : the 'School' was set up on the

initiative of the hardened sectarians Dubovchenko and Kirillov,

who were sentenced in the past for anti-Soviet activities, and of

one Kobzar, who served his term for robbery.

What is the future of Iasha Stepaniuga? Will he become the

same as Eudokiia Brydnia, the same 'teacher' who teaches prayers

to children in the Sunday School?

When they found out at the worsted clotli factory about the

dark deeds of Eudokiia, the workers got angry. Brydnia was told

to discontinue her infamous occupation.

lFor the present, I'll discontinue/ she agreed gloomily, 'but in

the future, I'll do what my conscience tells me to.'

This conscience, directed by the experienced hand of such

people as Dubovchenko and Kobzar, suggested to her other forms

of sectarian propaganda: to visit homes and fill childish heads

with religious rubbish.

When I asked, at the combine factory, in what brigade (group)

Eudokiia Brydnia was working, I was told first one, then another

number.

'She does not stay long with any brigade,' the Party organizer

Iakubova explained. 'Although she is not a bad worker, each

brigade tries to get rid of her. After all, all of them are struggling

to get the distinction of a brigade of Communist labour. Now,

can a member of such a brigade be weaving the material for

God?'

The shift ended. The crowd moved towards the exit. People

walked in lively conversation. In the distance, separated from

others, hurriedly, not even glancing aside, a lonely figure walked

in the mud. This was Brydnia...

It is your fault, your neglect, comrades of the 'Kamvolnii'

factory combine, that Eudokiia, being twenty-two years of age,

turned into a renegade.

Do you remember how she entered school as a little girl? She

progressed like others, and even joined the Komsomol, like

others. Then, talk like this started :

BEHIND CLOSED SHUTTERS 63

'I am going to marry only the man whom the presbyter chooses

forme.'

'But you are so pretty, and the groom might be squint-eyed or

freckled [pock-marked],' her girl-friends teased her.

'Apparently such would be God's will.'

People merely laughed and shook their heads: what strange

ideas this girl has ...

Yes, now matters are too far advanced and it will be much

more difficult to make Brydnia return to the right way.

Now about Arkhip Lazarev. In order to learn his story, I went

to Spokoinaia Stanitsa, the centre of the Spokoinenskii Region. I

visited the Regional Party Committee.

'How could it happen that, so close to you, at Stanitsa

Nadezhnaia, Arkhip Lazarev has been sitting in chains?' I asked

the Secretary of the Regional Committee, Anna Avraanivba

Kurgan.

'Maybe, he had been sitting there for ten years,' the secretary

replied wryly. 'But we learned about it only a month ago when we

read about it in the local paper.'

About fifteen kilometres away from Spokoinaia, there is

Nadezhnaia Stanica. By the woods, on the steep bank of the river,

there stands the house in which the Lazarevs live. It stands mere

away from all the other houses, somehow resembling its owner

who, during the war was a German policeman and, in peace-time,

remained an individual peasant. One window in the house is

tightly closed by shutters. A narrow path leads to the abode of die

leader of the sectarians of Nadezhnaia.

Our approach was met with the mad barking of a dog;

strangers were approaching. The owner of the house met us with

distrust. Hesitantly, he asked us to come in.

The house was divided into two parts. In one of them, a kind

of private church was built: an iconostasis [a partition on which

icons are placed], burning sanctuary lamps, Communion bread

and a self-made, miniature 'God's grave*. An icon of the Mother

of God took the central place. I recognized it right away after the

description I saw in the 'Atheist's Guide' : it was the same icon

on which, at the order of the Tsarist satrap, Arakcheyev, was

painted his love, Minkina, as a model. Now, people come to pray

to this icon.

It was half-dark behind the wooden partition. The window was

tightly closed. It was here, on a wooden floor covered with torn

64 THE SOVIET SAINTS

rags, that 'God's servant', Arkhip, has passed ten years of his life,

chained by his leg.

Arkhip was only seven years old, when his mother and his older

sister—both religious fanatics—started to perform religious rites

with the child. The boy was scared, cried, asked to be left alone.

But they continued. They even started to 'treat' him for illness.

They would put a basin filled with water on his head and pour

melted wax into the water with prayers accompanying the pro-

cedure. Naturally, such 'procedures' caused nervous disorders in

the boy. He would escape to the woods. They would catch him

and continue to 'cure' him. He started crying in his sleep and

getting scared of other people. And the Lazarevs decided : 'Since

his illness is pleasing to God, it shows that his is God's choice.' A

very simple and cruel approach: disabled people, and, especially

those with nervous disorders, enjoy special respect on the part of

'true, orthodox Christians' to which the Lazarevs claim to belong.

In order to make 'God's choice' submit to God's will without

opposing it, he was put in chains. After that, he first forgot how

to read and write, then ceased to speak and understand.

He sits in front of us, a lost man of twenty-six. The expression

of his face is dull and thoughtless; his dimmed eyes fixed on one

spot. He could, never play with the village boys of his age. He

would never enter the agricultural institute, the way Iuri Khar-

chenko did; he would never become a physician, like Aleksie

Samonenko, or return to his native sovkhoz [state-farm] as an

engineer, like Dmitrii Bygolevskii...

'Yet die case of Arkhip is an exceptional one,' Comrade

Kurgan assures me. 'And, in general, we had, during the past

year, 2,106 lectures given and this, mind you, with only 2,000

planned. Of this number, sixty-five were anti-religious ones.?

Apparently, the leaders of Spokoinenskii Region are satisfied in

their minds. But, do people like the parents of Arkhip Lazarev, or

Bondarenko, or Malashein, or other members of the sect attend

such lectures? You, Comrade Kurgan, say that 'in reality there is

no sect, just a few old people praying quietly.' Quietly, indeed?

And do you know what propaganda and agitation these 'quiet'

people are engaged in? How they distribute anti-Soviet litera-

ture? How they threatened one of the local residents, Mrs. L...

demanding that she sacrifices to God her daughter Raia? It is

true, IVlrs. L's daughter is not in danger any more. But it was not

you, comrades, who helped her : Raia left, or rather escaped from

the settlement, and lives in a city now.

BEHIND CLOSED SHUTTERS 65

Now, finally, a criminal case against the Lazarevs is in pro-

gress; they eventually saw it as wise to spread the version that

their son was mentally retarded and they started healing him.

After ten years, the unhappy boy was unchained. They want to

take him to the hospital. But will they? This is not yet known

because, you see, a parental agreement is required for such action.

And the parents do not agree.

What to do, when the obscurantists ruin human life 'given by

God'. Are we sure that little Iasha Stepaniuga will not share

Arkhip Lazarev's fate? These were my uneasy thoughts when I

was leaving the settlement.

At Armavira I got the answer to my question. Two sisters were

admitted to the local children's home : Nina and Luda Berdarev.

They were taken away from their mother on the basis of a Court

decision: the woman fanatic had forbidden her children to attend

school. In vain the headmaster and the teachers tried to make

the sectarian understand her duties. Then, the Village Council of

Hin turned to the Court. The Court decided that the defendant

performed her powers with detriment to the children, and de-

prived her of her parental rights.

The sisters came to the children's home without a smile on

their tense faces. They prayed, crossed themselves, whispered.

The girls were not bothered by special talks or inquiries. Life in

the children's home took its normal course. The children studied,

worked in shops, went for excursions, watched television, attended

Pioneer meetings. The house on the Lermontovskaia Street was

visited by old, moustached trustees or by young girls from the rail

plant. Now, Nina, for the first time in her life, goes to a movie

theatre and does not cover her eyes, and watches 'The Cheated

One'. Then she tells her instructor : 'I liked it very much.'

/ noticed how happy Nina is now, how eagerly she reads and

how gladly she studies. Luda has not yet recovered completely,

but, surely, she will become like her sister. And again, I thought

of little Iasha Stepaniuga. I visited him at home. On the gate,

there was a sign : 'Vicious dog in the yard'. I hope the readers

will forgive me for the comparison : Iasha's mother looked to me

more vicious. Lidia Ivanovna immediately attacked me :

'Why do I not let them go to the movies? But this is a devil's

pleasure, that's why. I destroyed the radio receiver, too. I am

myself illiterate and, as you see, I live.' With pleasure, she looks

at her good, new house. 'My husband and I are believing people;

therefore, our children will not wear Pioneer scarfs .. /

66 THE SOVIET SAINTS

The married couple Stepaniuga—are staunch sectarians. They

have seven children—seven small Soviet citizens who are forced

to live behind tightly closed shutters, separating them from the

world. The bad will of their obscurantist parents may even

deprive them of their right to learning which has become binding

law for all children of our country. Would it not be better for the

children of such people as the Stepaniugas to live in big houses

with large windows through which the sun and the sky and the

green grass could be seen, perhaps in a house like tie one in

which Nina and Luda now live?

Alia Trubnikova,

Special correspondent of Ogoniok

Source: Kazakhstanskaia Pravda, January 31st 1962

7

End to the Obscurantists

From the Courtroom:

The camera men of the Television studio of Karaganda suc-

ceeded in photographing a few unusual scenes: In a small room,

people are kneeling and, in. a singing voice, shout incompre-

hensible invocations. Soon, they get into ecstasy, start shaking

faster and faster until, finally, some of them faint. This is the

praying exercise of the 'Christians of the Evangelic Faith', or, as

they are called, the Piatidesiatniki.

During the past years, this illegal sect spread in Karaganda and

got under its influence about two hundred people. The sectarians

started interfering in family lives of the working people and

recruiting new members everywhere it was possible.

The disease spread. Executive Committees of regional Coun-

cils and the workers' deputies and other social organizations re-

ceived dozens of petitions from citizens requesting that they be

protected against the infringement by the sectarians and that the

activities of the obscurantists be curbed. As a result, a criminal

trial got under way against the leaders of the sect.

END TO THE OBSCURANTISTS 67

For five days, a show trial against the 'pastors', the human soul

hunters, was in progress in the Karaganda Cultural Palace of the

miners. It aroused enormous interest in the working people of the

city.

Who are these sect leaders, so highly skilled in invading human

souls? Here is the 'presbyter' of the community, Afanazii Drob-

kov, a skinny man with a thin, Jesuit-type mouth, a sharp nose

and an oily voice. He has a special secondary education. He used

to be a teacher and taught Physics and Mathematics during the

war, he was taken prisoner and recruited by the German Intelli-

gence. 'For diligence', he was given the rank of a private first

class in Hitler's Army, and awarded a bronze medal. For this

treason, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. After serving his

time, he settled in Karaganda and undertook to organize the sect

of the Piatidesiatniki, in which he took the post of the Head.

And here is Geronim Domanskii, a sinister figure of a fanatic,

author of numerous pslams and sermons which are characterized

by his hatred of Soviet people. Some time ago, he was sentenced

for anti-Soviet activity. He served his time and came to Kara-

ganda where he became a deacon of the community.

Wriggling and playing the fool, the third defendant, 'regent'

Fedor Borovikov, gives his testimony. Twelve years ago, he was

sentenced; he then came to Karaganda and became an active

member of the sect.

Skilfully managing the believers, these leaders subjected the

whole sect to their will. They taught that 'God should take first

place in our thoughts, feelings and deeds'1. They tried to convince

the believers that everything that existed outside of their com-

munity, was 'sinful'. One should, they insisted, stay away from

worldly vanity. The earthly life is only a temporary existence—a

true life only will come after death, in heaven.

Everything in the sectarians is directed towards the destroying

in the human being the faith in his own powers, towards a pessi-

mistic conception of reality and, eventually, towards turning man

into a weak-willed slave.

We must not forget that the sect of the Pentecostals came into

existence in 1907 in the U.S.A. The introduction of this sect in

our country was the result of the work of American preachers

who, some forty years ago, started their religious offensive by

advancing the slogan: 'America and Russia for Christ.' In re-

spect to all Soviet matters, the sect took a clearly hostile position.

It is evident, that the residents of Karaganda were not inclined to

68 THE SOVIET SAINTS

tolerate the fact that the sect leaders educate the believers in

hatred towards the Soviet system and advance religion against the

bright ideas of our society.

Thirty-two witnesses appeared before the Court. Many of

them angrily told the Court about the lies and hypocrisy of die

sectarian preachers, of the fact that they entangled honest Soviet

people by dominating their souls. It was difficult to listen without

indignation to the testimony of the worker of mine No. 38,

Timofel Ursu, the locksmith of 'T.E.T.s', Michael Schchegol,

whose families were destroyed by the sectarianss of the retired

worker F. F. Chupretova, of the worker of mine No. 37, Mrs.

Elizaveta Novikova, of the manager of mine No. 38_3 Michael

Grebenshchikov, the leader Veniamin Shmunk and others. All of

them violently accused the sectarians.

But there v)ere also witnesses, who, raising their eyes towards

the ceiling, invoked God, incomprehensibly mumbled something

about conscience, about brother and sister in faith. These were

the members of the sect. They surprisingly resembled each other

—pale, tired faces.

Aleksei Kirko, a dirty-looking man not young any more. He is

an ardent fanatic. 'One finds what one seeks,' Kirko maintains. It

is easy to find what Kirko is seeking in life. It was not an accident

that such reactionary magazines as 'The Peace-maker Will Come',

published still in the 'lordly' Poland [pre-war Poland] and full

of libellous attacks against the young Soviet Republic, were kept

in his home.

And here, again, is Ivan Run, plasterer in mine No. 70. He

doesn't know even who Iuri Gagarin is : he is not familiar with

the achievements of Soviet science and technology.

The appearance of Mrs. Neonila Krechmarovskaia makes a

distressing impression. She came to Karaganda only one year ago

and immediately fell into the dragnet of the sectarians. Maria

Pliska, who met her, suggested that she stayed in her apartment

without payment. There the meetings of the sectarians took place

often. Krechmarovskaia started taking part in these meetings.

Now she is a downtrodden, poisoned woman.

Those present at the trial were virtually shocked by the evi-

dence given in testimony by the headmaster of the school No. 23

[Mrs.] E. G. Milevskaia. She told the story of the hard life of

the children of sectarians who attend her school. One is Liuda

Domanskaia. Like other children, she wears a Pioneer scarf

around her neck. Liuda is an exemplary student, jokes with her

END TO THE OBSCURANTISTS 69

girl-friends, laughs, plays during recess. But, when the end of the

school hours approach a shadow comes over her face. The girl

becomes uncommunicative, nervous, angry. When the last bell

rings, Liuda takes down her scarf and stoops and steals out of the

room. Her other life begins, a forced, gloomy life of the daughter

of a sectarian.

During the trial, many examples of suffering were described,

by people who believed that 'God's grace^3 comes as a result of

praying. Such 'grace' came also down on Anna Bavalennaia. The

sectarians used the occasion of her husband's illness and advised

her to seek solace in prayers. During one of the sermons, Anna

heard that even God's will can be tested ... and she made up her

mind. When, after the prayers, she came out on the street, hold-

ing her six-year-old son in her arms, she threw herself on the

ground in front of a passing truck. Fortunately, the driver noticed

her in time and stopped. Anna was not hurt.

The preachers triumphed :

'You see,' they said, 'God did not let you die. His will was

done.'

Then Anna threw herself in front of a train. Her son was hurt

and she passed away in terrible pain.

Also the plight of Michael Shchegol was described at the trial

While he was in service, the sectarians entangled his wife in their

nets, and moved her from the Crimea to Karaganda. There

Michael found her, completely changed.

The list of the crimes of the sectarians is a long one. The

Community Prosecutor," lecturer in Philosophy at the techno-

logical institute, [Mrs.] A. G. Arkhipova, talked about them

with indignation. Doctor of Sciences, an expert in Forensic

Medicine, Professor M. A. Sviadoshch, convincingly proved the

harm done by these praying sessions. The concluding statement

of the Prosecutor, P. G. Grachkov, sounded angry.

The trial clearly showed the malicious nature of the sectarian

teaching. In front of the spectators scandalous facts of scoffing

young people and children were presented in a long row.

It was proven in the course of the trial that Drobkov, Doman-

skii and Borovikov violated Soviet laws by organizing an illegal

sect. They conducted secret meetings of the sectarians. All these

acts are punishable under Section 200 of the Criminal Code of

the Kazakh S.S.R. So, those attending the trial met the just

sentence with approval.

The Judges of the District Court sentenced A. N. Drobkov and

70 THE SOVIET SAINTS

G. C. Domanskii to five years, and F. G. Borovikov to three years

in prison.

It should be added that the Party and Komsomol organization

of Karaganda wage a rather weak fight against the sectarians. No

party of Komsomol were present at the trial. The ground under

the feet of the obscurantists and fanatics is not yet hot enough in

the city. Naturally, their activities cannot be curbed by one trial,

even a very sensational one. An everyday, persistent, educational-

atheistic propaganda work must be conducted in order to save

from the clutches of the sectarians those whom the preachers, the

inveterate catches of human souls, have succeeded in bluffing.

City of Karaganda

V. Grigoriev

Source : Kazakhstanskäia Pravda, May 17th 1962

To Fight with Reason Rather than with

'Records'

Recently, one of the leaders of the local sect of the Evangelical

Christian Baptists, I. F. Koroliuk, was on trial at Shchuchinsk.

For many years he had preached sectarian dogmas, distributed

religious literature and dragged into the sect unsteady people,

especially children.

The People's Court, consistently, step by step, unmasked the

anti-social activities of Koroliuk, and showed the harm which he

caused to the Communist education of the working people. The

witnesses angrily accused the 'brother in Christ*.

'My daughter, Nadezhda, was only sixteen years of age when

she got under the influence of Koroliuk,'' Mrs. T. Moiseeva de-

clared. 'Until then, the girl was happy, but then she grew sad,

became secretive and in conversation with me, once she started

talking some nonsense, such as: "J am not living here, I am

merely existing, the true life will come in the other world." This

is what mis "God's righteous man" taught her.'

TO FIGHT WITH REASON RATHER THAN WITH 'RECORDS* 71

R. Cura : 'My brother's wife, Tatiana, did not return home for

several days. It came out later, that she was caught in a sticky

snare, cunningly prepared by Koroliuk. On this basis, scandals

occurred in the family.'

Important evidence was given by the witnesses Prusskaia,

Iushchitsina and Val. They all told how Koroliuk, like a spider,

spread his web in order to catch his next victim.

The People's Court passed a just decision which was met with

approval by the residents of the town.

Naturally, we could put a period and stop here, were it not for

one circumstance. Many people in the town and its vicinity are

still engulfed in the cloud of the sectarian nonsense. One should

help them to come out of it on the wide road of life.

Well, how was the existence of the sect at Shchuchinsk made

possible? How is the atheistic propaganda organized there, what

is the real impact it exerts on the believers?

The Regional Party Committee and many local Party organiza-

tions take a pacifying attitude towards the churchmen and sec-

tarians; they do not carry on a vigorous, offensive atheistic propa-

ganda. At times, the situation assumed curious forms.

In some settlements of the Urumkai sovkhoz the sectarians are

active without obstacles, they harm the souls of the people and

hamper the collective in its work. Comrade Kozakov, an atheist

lecturer, suggested to the members of the Party Committee, that

they make a few talks to the farmers and cattle breeders. He

personally appeared also in the village of Dmitreevka. After the

lecture, he visited the home of the Secretary of the Party organiza-

tion of that department, Comrade Marus and, to his amazement,

he saw an icon in the room. Marus hurriedly explained : his old

mother still prayed; therefore, out of respect to her, they still

keep this attribute of the past.

There are in the region some Communists in whose homes

religious rites are held.

The inveterate sectarian, Blank, worked for a long time as a

lecturer in the eight-year school No. 2; P. M. Nikolaeva lectured

in the upper grades of the 30th Railroad School and, in addition

... she sang in the Church choir. The teachers of these schools,

among them many Communists, passed by these facts indiffer-

ently. After long deliberations, the office of the Regional Party

Committee finally put on the order of the day the question of the

status and ways of improvement of the educational atheistic work

in the region. It was decided: to increase the atheistic work

72 THE SOVIET SAINTS

among the believers, to create permanent groups of atheist agi-

tators with the local Party organizations, etc. However, three

months have passed since that decision has been made and the

situation of the anti-religious propaganda remains unchanged.

'There are sectarians in our collective/ says Comrade Kol-

basink, Deputy Secretary of the local Party organization in the

furniture plant. 'We work on them, we read lectures...'

The Secretary of the Party organization of the glass factory

reports : 'I have not received the decision of the Regional Party

Office, but still, in the course of this year we had three lectures

read on educational-atheistic topics. We have free movies that

show the harm done by religion.'

Again and again the same thing. Lectures, movies, care for a

good 'Record'... Obviously, at Shchuchinsk they do not want to

understand that lectures alone do not suffice. What is needed is

persistent individual work. Only men the athetistic propaganda

can be successful.

The main reason which prevents the needed individual work

with the believers from expanding, is rooted in the formalistic,

bureaucratic attitude of some Party organization leaders to this

important matter. It is easy to establish how many anti-religious

lectures were read and how many people (no matter—believers or

not) have heard them. It is also easy to present in figures (whose

accuracy is always a relative one) other measures which were

undertaken. If the worst comes to the worst, one can be satisfied

with a simple earmark in the report.

But how can such a delicate psychological matter as the effect

of an atheist's work be expressed on paper? What figures can be

used to express the conquest of the soul of a believer?

Success can only come when the job is done not for the record's

sake.

V. Naumov

Source : Sovetskaia Rossiia, May 23rd 1962

9

God's Fools in Christ

From the Courtroom:

Those present in the courtroom were laughing aloud. Contrary

to the custom, the judges also smiled. It was obviously an

absurdity that those sitting in the dock, leaders of the sect of the

Piatidesiatniki were regarded by their flock as those seeking the

truth and by some even as 'saints'. Now these 'Father Saints'

were replying to the questions of the chairman of the Court:

'Say, Garbuzov, it is said that you have seen Jesus Christ alive.

Is it true?'

'There was such a vision,' Victor replies shyly, 'I looked and

saw Him coming out of the fire house and walking around on the

factory courtyard, even the flap of His robe was open. I rubbed

my eyes : but He kept walking on.'

'Did you talk to Him?'

'Well, no, I had no chance ...'

Yes, all this looks ridiculous at this moment, when there are

hundreds of people present in the courtroom, when the room is

brightly lit by electric lights. But the sect of the Piatidesiatniki

operates in the dark since it went underground. Vladimir and

Viktor Garbuzov were not on trial because they were believers.

There is no persecution for religious beliefs in our country. The

Garbuzov brothers are on trial charged with anti-social activities

which were harmful both to the country and to those who hap-

pened to be caught in the snare of the sect.

The Piatidesiatniki are an awfully reactionary sect. It is harm-

ful, first of all, to the rank and file members of the community,

the naïve and simple people who really trust these charlatans.

Their rites are savagely cruel. Those who are uninitiated can

hardly imagine the so-called ceremony of baptism with the Holy

Spirit. It is something wild, senseless and cruel. People kneel

down and bring themselves to ecstasy.

A witness, S. E. Marchenkov, testified in Court :

'I happened to come into the house of the kolkhoz member,

Mrs. Kotikova. I did not know that the Piatidesiatniki Baptists

assemble in her house, and I unexpectedly came there during the

high moment of their prayers. A terrible scene presented itself to

73

74 THE SOVIET SAINTS

my eyes. One of the praying women was singing psalms, others

tore their hair, still others writhed in cramps on the floor,

scratched the boards with their finger-nails, hit the floor with

their heads, shouted, laughed and cried. I automatically tiptoed

back and left the room.'

There is no wonder that many cannot stand such trials; they

get sick mentally and with other illnesses, and become invalids.

The spiritual pastors try many ways to enslave their 'brothers'

and 'sisters'. The members of die sect are forbidden to attend

movies, listen to the radio and to read newspapers. The pastors

declare all these things as devilish occupations.

The Garbuzovs themselves, however, did not shun the fruits of

civilization. They bought a motor-cycle, a television set, a radio

receiver and a tape recorder. As a matter of fact, the radio re-

ceiver was used by them to listen to libellous programs from

abroad, and with the aid of the tape recorder, they recorded

psalms of their own creation.

The sectarians are especially eager in hunting for youth and

engage in criminal activities by making the minors compose and

distribute 'holy' writings which always have reactionary contents.

'I am a mother and I wish all children happiness,' a witness,

Mrs. I. A. Nikolaieva, who was a member of die sect for a long

time, stated in the Court. 'I ask you, citizen judges, isolate these

monsters, protect innocent children! If you only knew how

cruelly, how pitilessly they wound the souls of the children. I'll

tell you about the tragedy of one Vania Podeshchenkov. The

Garbuzovs lured him into the sect when he was still a minor. With

Ms whole heart, he trusted their insidious speeches and believed

that one could merit God's graces by the way of great zeal. I

personally witnessed how this baptism of the Holy Spirit was

carried out. Vania kneeled for a long time, read prayers and

bowed. He hit the floor with his forehead, shouted and cried.

Sweat poured down from his body, his hair was tousled, his looks

were wild. Finally, the powerless youngster was picked up and

carried away hardly alive. After that, he nearly lost his mind.'

The audience kept silent, shocked by the testimony of the wit-

nesses. But all burst into prolonged and sincere applause when the

judge read the verdict. Vladimir Garbuzov was sentenced to five

years and Viktor Garbuzov to three years in prison.

Roslavl, Province of Smolensk

Dm. Osipov, Our correspondent

Source : lsvestiia} July 5th 1962

10

The Obscurantist

From the Courtroom:

In the settlement 'The Red Builder' (Krasnii StroiteT), there

worked as a driver for the management of the commercial trans-

port Mosgorispolkom, one I. F. Ovsiannikov. During the past

year, he joined the old-rite religious community, started drinking

and behaving like a hooligan.

As a father, he forced his small children Vera and Boris to

pray, wear crosses and forbade them to join the youth organiza-

tions of Oktabriata and Pioneers. For disobedience, he banged

their heads on the floor, made them kneel in front of the icons, he

offended them with indecent words and threw them out of the

house. When the mother tried to protect the children, Ovsian-

nikov beat her up and poured boiling water on her.

The People's Court had sentenced Ovsiannikov to eight years

of forced labour in the fall of 1961. Yet he did not stop taunting

his children and his wife. As a result of continual beatings and

persecutions, his daughter Vera was hospitalized.

Now, Ovsiannikov received a just reward for his fanaticism:

The People's Court of the Moskvoretskii Region sentenced him

to three years in prison. The Moscow City Court rejected the

appeal. The Court, by a special decision, drew the attention of

the social organizations to their weak anti-religious activity

among the population of the settlement.

M. Barkovskii,

Member of the Moscow City Court

75

Source : Sovetskaia Kirghizia, August 8th 1962

11

According to their Merits

From the Courtroom:

Iakov Peters is fifty-six years of age. Residing in the Ivanovka

Station of the Chuiskii Region, he headed, since 1960, the sect of

the Evangelical Christian Baptists. It is known that die Baptists

forbid their sect members to attend movies, theatres and clubs,

listen to the radio, to watch T.V. programs or to take part in the

activities of community organizations. They are trying to bar

their children from the influence of the school and the Pioneers,

and they forbid them to participate in the circles of artistic self-

activities and in sporting teams.

For the infringement upon the civil rights of Soviet people,

Peters was made to face criminal responsibility.

Recently, the assizes of the Chuiskii People's Court, with the

participation of the Community Prosecutor, tried the case against

Peters in the hall of the factory club. Peters was sentenced to four

years in prison with confinement in a camp of correctional labour.

Those present viewed the sentence with great approval.

V. Kim,

Assistant Prosecutor of the Chuiskii Region,

Junior Counsellor of Justice

Source : Kazakhstanskaia Pravda, September 12th 1962

12

Fanatics on Trial

A criminal trial against the leaders of an illegal Baptist com-

munity, operating in the Zaton District of the city, came to a

close here.

76

DURING THE TRIAL INTERMISSION 77

Here is what the young witness, a Pioneer girl, Vera Arent,

told the Court:

'Uncle Asaf and Aunt Erika visited us on the occasion of the

New Year tree (celebration). Nobody recognized them. The uncle

was dressed in sheepskin inside out, and a big iron chain clanged

in his hand, and the aunt was all in white with a terrible mask on

her face.

'Pray, children,' they shouted. 'We are going to put in chains

those who refuse to pray, and put them to death.'

' "Death"—Aunt Erika whipped our legs with switches and

made us kneel down.'

The girl told in detail about the horrors that existed in the

house of the Arents and other Baptist families. The leaders of the

sect tried, by force, to make minor children join in the secret

prayers of die sectarians. They forbade the children to visit

movies, concerts, engage in sports, and told the Pioneers to take

off their red scarfs.

The trial lasted for three days. Many witnesses testified and

completely exposed the fanaticism of the sectarians. The Court

sentenced the leaders of the sect to various terms in prison. The

Baptists V. Krivosheev and V. Riidnev were deprived of parental

rights.

Semipalatinsk

V. Zakharov,

Correspondent of Kasakh Telegr. Agency

Source : Komsomolskaia Pravda, September 25th 1962

13

During the Trial Intermission

(Notes of an Atheist)

Recently, I attended a trial session in the criminal case against

the leader of the sect of the Piatidesiatniki, Leonid Shevchenko.

Every time I entered the courtroom one particular contrast would

strike me. The people of Krasnoiarsk are usually exceptionally

78 . THE SOVIET SAINTS

healthy—physically and mentally. In the room, all the faces are

fresh, rosy—what we call 'blood and milk'. On the other hand, in

the docks in the corners of the room, I saw black clothing, sallow

complexions, sunken eyes, cheerless young men with their heads

shaven, girls with their heads covered with scarves in the fashion

of old women. Sectarians. Like dead grass withered in the spring.

This is not an accidental contrast and not only an outward one.

The tiredness of the sectarians is the result of their nightly

''zealotry'', unnatural rites and exhausting prayers.

It was not the first time that I met sectarians, attempting to

snatch my friends out of their claws. But, at this trial, the stink

and dirt of this little world opened to me with their full strength.

When you look for a word best suited to express the 'program'

of the Piatidesiatniki, you will find in it—hostility. Hostility,

reaction, hatred of humanity. The leaders of the sect forbid their

members everything 'secular', i.e. everything that is ours, Soviet :

books, radio, the Pioneer scarf, participation in social activities.

Even the joining of a Labour Union is declared to be a godless

thing.

The sects are hostile to everything that is bright and good in

man. All talks about sympathy, sharing and plenty of love which,

allegedly exist in their midst—are nothing else but fairy tales.

Once, on a narrow path across the frozen river of Kachu, I met

the preacher Elena Puchinskaia. We started to talk, cautiously,

ready to counter any caustic remark. Suddenly, my three-year-old

son ran over the ice towards the opening. I ran after him, caught

him into my arms, but the ice crashed under me. I managed to

get out of the hole holding my son over my head, but then fell

into another opening. The banks of the river were empty. I only

saw the silhouette of the sectarian on the path. She did not bother

to come to my help or to call people. She silently watched me.

Perhaps it was anger that added to my strength. I got out and,

wet with my terrified son in my hands, I went home. And the

preacher called after me :

'This is a sign.'

Yet they have sufficient 'sympathy' to fawn a person in distress

and to catch him in their spider web. Then the 'man-hating'

zealotries follow.

'Even if you know, very well, all the wild, immoral and

inhuman character of the sect, you have a hard time answering

questions like this : 'Why is it that the sectarians still find new

partisans? Where do they get their strength from? An assembly of

DURING THE TRIAL INTERMISSION 79

fanatical, half-illiterate old women ... And, among them, Lelia

Bordysheva, a sickly, secretive girl, Nadezhda Davidova, a young

woman not yet deprived of her charm, who not long ago gradu-

ated from the Pedagogical Institute of Krasnoiarsk ... What was

it that attracted them to Leonid Shevchenko, to Elena Puchin-

skaia?

I do not hesitate to reply for myself : it was determination and

activity of the soul catchers. We usually imagine our ideological

foes either as mentally retarded or as money grabbers whose only

aim is to profit from those fooled by them.

But Shevchenko is an engineer by education, strong, smart and

diabolically shrewd. Earlier, he was three times sentenced for anti-

Soviet activities. Apparently, he recognized that his open hostile

activity would not find anybody's support, he started acting under

the mask of a priest. Being experienced, knowing Psychology,

having mastered the ways of conspiracy, Shevchenko easily ad-

justed himself to the sectarian environment and later became the

* sect's leader.

He would go from house to house, getting to know the sectarian

families, looking for unstable people whom he tried to convert to

his sect either personally or through his helpers. He knew how to

help people to get a job, or to give efficient practical advice.

Kindness and threat, material support and blackmail, humble

plea and preaching in rage—these were the tools which Shev-

chenko mastered completely.

The witnesses told about broken families, about women who

wound up in mental institutions, about children with their souls

harmed. People, 'doped^1 by Shevchenko and his assistants, re-

fused to fulfil their citizen's duties, tore off their Pioneer scarves,

trampled the red flag with their shoes.

How much time and energy was used to create so much evil !

And what was it that we, the activists, the Komsomol members

did in opposition to this strategy and skilful tactics of the sec-

tarians?

Well, practically—nothing. Judge for yourselves: in all Kras-

noiarsk, a city of half a million inhabitants, there is only one more

or less active group of Komsomol members—atheists, consisting

of fifteen students. But even they have little training in the art of

convincing, the difficult job of dealing with those gone astray.

Now what about those gone astray? We don't even know how

to help a man who entered on the pathway of co-operation with

religion. The pious aunt told Vala N.: 'You are not going to

80 THE SOVIET SAINTS

enroll in the Institute : The teacher is against God ! ' Vala did not

follow the order. But this is as far as she was able to go. In the

home of her aunt the sectarians would meet as before. Now how

did the school-mate of Vala help her, the Komsomol member,

how did they support her weakening will to fight? In no way at

all.

Gena Kulikov's mother forced him to pray, beat him, locked

him up in the store-room. The boy starved, suffered humiliation,

but would not give in. He escaped from home and started a life of

a homeless. And we, the atheists, to our shame, did not even know

about this unequal struggle.

Our forces are scattered, not united by a common front-line

connecting teachers and parents, propagandists and Komsomol

workers. In the Komsomol environment, they don't even consider

it a major neglect when an activist does not conduct any anti-

religious work and doesn't even know it. I knew many facts which

made me worry. / knew that several Komosol members fell under

the influence of religious people, and I went to the Central

regional committee of the V.L.K.S.M. [Leninist Young Com-

munist League of the Soviet Union], hoping that this agency

would finally turn its interest towards atheistic work. But we did

not get beyond talking.

It cannot be excused or even understood that, in the City

Committee of the Communist Youth, not a single person is busy

with the atheist work or prepares young people for this job. Why

this indifference, such inactivity among the Komsomol leaders?

They ask persistently for waste paper, for scrap metal, for

membership dues. They even give orders [to collect these items

and dues]. But it does not cause them any headache that people

get lost, that through sectarian channels, hostile ideology pene-

trates into our midst, along with wild habits. We cannot rely only

on the essential influence of our basically very healthy Soviet

environment. Even the greenest meadow is not secure from rotten

grass. We should act in such a way that the forces of the healthy

environment lend their support to the work we started and kill the

roots of malicious thistle.

Krasnoiarsk

I. Voevodin,

Chairman of the Club of Atheists

Source : Turkmenskaia Iskra, October 7th 1962

14

The Sentence Was Met with Approval

One late evening in July the residents of Belinskii Street were

awakened from their sleep by shrill cries. When they ran out to

the street they saw near one house a group of people who tried to

pick up from the ground a woman shaken by hysterics.

'Another job of these damned sectarians. When will they be

taken under control,' a tall, elderly man said gloomily. It was

suggested that an ambulance should be called.

'She does not need any doctors. Our sister in Christ was visited

by God's grace; she talks with Him,' a present sectarian said in

an oily voice. The woman was picked up and carried into a house.

Six neat houses were situated on one side of Belinskii Street.

Over high fences one could see bright white walls covered with

climbing vine. Houses like any other ordinary ones. It is difficult

to believe that, inside, a disgusting sect of fanatics, the Piati-

desiatniki made its nest.

Three times weekly, at night, trying not to catch the eyes of the

passers-by, 'brothers' and 'sisters' sneak in here. Some bring

children with them. Quietly the gate creaks.

Gradually, the little room becomes crowded. Its windows are

tightly covered by heavy curtains.

All kneel down. One of the leaders of the sect starts to read the

gospel in a monotonous, dull voice. Those present repeat after

him. The murmur, initially hardly heard, becomes louder and

louder.

Then the so-called proritsatel [augur] of the sect, Podolskii, a

big man of forty-three, starts his sermon.

The essence of his sermon is always the same. He accuses the

believers of not conscientiously following the 'Holy Scriptures',

of aiming at worldly things, threatens with all possible heavenly

punishments that await those who would attend movies, theatres,

read newspapers or books and take part in community life. Eüs

voice rises to a scream.

It is terrifying to look at this picture from outside. In the

stuffy, tightly covered room, hysterical cries and shouts are

heard; people are shaking and hitting the floor. According to the

81

82 THE SOVIET SAINTS

assertions of the leaders, it is exactly at such moments that 'God'

descends upon them. With their eyes wide open from horror,

terrified children watch their shouting parents.

The zeal causes psychological disorder in people and hurts

them morally and physically. At times, it has a tragic effect. One

cannot read without deep compassion the letter from Anisia

Zakharovna Flinta, full of extreme sorrow.

Her husband who came to Mary in 1960, fell under the in-

fluence of Piatidesiatniki. Having regularly attended their meet-

ings, he eventually ruined his nervous system, became insane and

died. His wife remained alone with seven minor children. 'May

they be damned, those fanatics who took away the father of^1 the

children and my husband,' Anisia Flinta writes.

With Jesuit-like cunningness and disloyalty, smartly taking

advantage of the slightest difficulties of the people, the Piati-

desiatniki managed to draw them into their nets. For example,

they found out that Evdokiia Kirichenko was left alone after her

husband's death and was frequently ill. They arranged to visit her

at her home. They pretended to sympathize with her and comfort

her; making reference to the 'will of God' they gradually

managed to convince her that one can get rid of a sickness only

through prayers. Evdokiia started to attend their meetings, but

the more fervently she prayed the worse she fared healthwise. In

addition, the sectarians started to drag into the sect her daughter

Galina. After a few senseless prayer exercises, the latter, too, was

not feeling well. Then, Kirichenko realized into what abyss the

Piatidesiatniki had dragged her, and she broke with them. The

seamstress of the Krupskaia factory, Lidiia Muliar, and the

young worker Nadeshda Nekrasova also left the sect.

Well, and what happened to the gay and lovely girl, Liza

Lapiichuk, the mail-carrier of the local communication office?

In a short time, she became tired, sickly and irritable. One

could hardly believe that she was only twenty-two years of age.

Liza is zealous in her prayers and rejects all earthly joys.

A killer physically destroys a man. The Pentecostals destroy

him morally. It is children who suffer most. Aleksander, the son

of Razdaigora, one of the most ardent fanatics of the sect, is

fifteen years of age, but he has read only one book, has never been

to the movies; instead, he every day, at the parent's insistence,

reads aloud the Holy Scripture. Anatolii, twelve, the son of the

leader of the sect, Gonchar, attends the fourth grade. He is a poor

THE SENTENCE WAS MET WITH APPROVAL 83

student, does not associate with anybody, does not attend evening

meetings at school.

The sectarians claim that they have no leaders, that they are all

equal under God. But this is not so. There are leaders, all right.

It was they who, by cunning and lies, have dragged into their

spider web unwise, uneducated, unstable people. The moral

image of these 'spiritual pastors' is disgusting and loathsome.

Here is one of them—Sergei Moroz. He is not yet forty years of

age. During the difficult years of the 'Fatherland War' while a

member of the Soviet Army, he betrayed his country. The Soviet

Government showed true humanity in treating him and con-

ditionally set him free from jail.

Also other leaders of the Pentecostals spent years in prisons,

such as the sectarian presbyter, Ivan Gonchar, and Fedor Velsh.

Also the augur of the sect, Podolskii, managed to avoid being

drafted into the Soviet Army, by presenting all kinds of certifi-

cates.

At present, they besmirch everything around them. Their

sermons are full of lies and hypocrisy, from the beginning to the

end. Calling upon the sect members, in the name of God, to

practise moderation and abstinence, they themselves turned dur-

ing their lives into grabbers and money grubbers. They have all

solid, big homes surrounded by high stone walls, orchards, bee-

hives and many other valuable things. Having imposed upon the

people they receive monthly dues in the form of so-called dona-

tions for God, they have never given any account to the believers

as to how this money is being spent. The wives of the leaders,

while taking no part in any useful community work, are quite

busy tailoring at home and then selling their products at specu-

lative prices on the market. Ivan Gonchar, who works at the

building department of the trust Turkmengidrosiroi, systematic-

ally brings home from there boards, sheet-iron and other mat-

erials. Podolskii privately works as a carpenter at collective farms

charging extremely high prices. In order to conceal traces, he

registered the big house which he bought with the proceeds, in the

name of the sister of his wife, Solomiia Kuziak.

'God forbids beating women,' the leaders of the sect say hypo-

critically. At the same time, one of them, Sergei Moroz, sys-

tematically ridicules his wife. When this became widely known,

'presbyter' Gonchar gave him utterly unholy advice :

'You stupid, you better take her into the store-room and beat

her there, but see to it that no traces are left.'

84 THE SOVIET SAINTS

The working people requested that the leaders and inspirers of

the fanatical sect be made criminally responsible.

So, now, Ivan Gonchar, Vasilii Podolskii, Sergei Moroz and

Fedor Velsh are sitting in the dock. Their shoulders are stooped,

their eyes look around frightened.

The big hall of the summer club in the settlement of the

builders of the Karakumskii canal, is filled. One after another the

witnesses appear. Among them are also those who, some time ago,

definitely broke away from the Pentecostals, when they recog-

nized the extent of their depravation and obscurantism. The

testimony of the witnesses completely unmasked die savage and

fanatical activity of the sect. The treatment of the children by the

Pentecostals made the workers especially indignant. When it was

described, the audience reacted with angry shouts :

'Villains, wild fanatics, rascals ! '

The heads of the defendants bow lower and lower. Nothing in

the world would make them look into the hundreds of angry and

condemning eyes.

When Gonchar is asked how he would react to the Court's

decision depriving him of his parental power, he looks up and

whispers indifferently:

'All according to God's will: apparently this is what He

wants.'

The concluding statement of the community prosecutor, the

master workman of the building department of the trust Turk-

mengidrostroi, Comrade Ivanov !

'We cannot tolerate any more the criminal activities of the

leaders of this fanatical sect. They crippled the lives of Soviet

people, divert them from productive and creative work, prevent

them from building Communism. In the name of the collective of

the builders of the Karakumskii canal, we request that these

malicious fanatics be isolated.'

The People's Court passes a just judgement: the leaders of the

sect of the Pentecostals, Conchar, Podolskii, Moroz and Velsh are

sentenced to five years in prison each, with the confiscation of

their personal property. Ivan Gonchar is deprived of his parental

power.

Those present met this decision with approving applause.

V. Pantiukhin

I. Nudelman

Source : Kazakhstanskaia Pravda, December 19th 1962

15

Under the Mask of a cSainf

From the Courtroom:

Now, after the trial, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have been

put together. It was established that I. le. Grunvald, a native of

the Gomel Region, and employee of the Karaganda cloth com-

binat [group of enterprises] near Alma Ata, by means of the

abuse of religious prejudices and cheating, engaged in extortion

of money from the believers, misappropriated the money and

squandered it for drink. Furthermore, he dragged into the sect of

the Baptists his minor son Michael, forbade him to wear his

Pioneer scarf, to attend movies, reply in school to questions on

science and chemistry...

It started with little things. Early in 1959, in the worker's

settlement, gossip -was spread from house to house: 'A saint,3

they said, 'appeared at the combinate plant system.'

'Old women are stirring up trouble,' the local party and ad-

ministration workers decided. 'They'll get bored and stop it.'

But Grunvald thought differently. Having proclaimed himself

a 'saint', he started to organize the sect. He found trustful people.

He found a place for secret meetings. The head of the sect started

inciting the believers to boycott the elections to the People's

Courts, to break up mass cultural programs, and he lured children

into his sect. Grunvald behaved in his life scandalously. Five

times he married .and left his family as soon as children were

born. He often threw drinking parties, used dirty language and

beat women mercilessly. When he became 'saint', he decided to

return to his third wife, Marfa, not in order to repent his sins and

to help his family, but in order to take away his son.

As long as Misha was with his mother, he was a good pupil,

joined the Pioneers, attended the programs of many groups,

engaged in sports.

All of a sudden, the boy was literally changed. He started to

shun his friends, neglected his homework, took off his Pioneer

scarf. So it went on ... At his father's order, the boy would copy

at night various chapters from the Bible, and, during the day

time, distribute the leaflets among the population. In school, he

85

86 THE SOVIET SAINTS

told his superiors: 'The teachers are lying. Everything on earth

•was created by God?

And Grunvald? While the believers honoured him as a 'saint',

he drank vodka and in a state of drunkenness he blasphemed

against God and scolded the Baptists for not contributing enough

to the 'common purse'.

Now, the community, the workers of the Court and of the

Prosecutor's office decided to tackle the job.

By the decision of the People's Court of the Dzhambul Region,

in the Alma Ata Province, I. Ie. Grunvald, who was head of the

illegal sect of Baptists for four years, was sentenced to three years

in prison. He was deprived of his parental power in respect to his

son»

This is the whole story of the 'saint' rascal. He is in jail.

Misha, saved from the hands of the Baptists, again wears the

Pioneer scarf.

We could put a period to this story at this point. But I would

like to ask these credulous people who continue to gather secretly

in dark huts in order to zealously pray to God : To whom do you

entrust your fate, your soul? Whom do you support with your

hard-earned roubles?

S. Chestnov

1963

Source : Pravda Vostoka (Truth of the East), March 17th 1963

16

The Chairman in the Role of a Hypocrite

From the Courtroom:

At the meeting of the Tashkent Baptists one could often see an

elegantly dressed man, with a clean-shaven face and quick-mov-

ing eyes. He took a picturesque pose and talked about 'elevated'

ideals of baptism, about how good the Baptists were, free from

devil, adultery and lies.

Why, who was this sectarian preacher? A man with two souls

and with two families, a man blemished with many serious crimes

against the country and the Soviet people.

In 1942, I. N. Volchenko, then living on the territory tem-

porarily occupied by the Fascists, voluntarily became a German

policeman, Tlie Fascist faithfully served his masters, helped the

persecutors to torture -partisans and to rob Soviet citizens. He

almost beat to death hungry children who picked corn in the

fields or brought some wood from the forests.

At Volchenko's denunciation, many Soviet citizens who fought

against the oppressors, were shot by the Fascists. When in

January 1943 the occupation forces retreated to the West, Vol-

chenko helped them to transport prisoners and the stolen goods.

In 1945 the traitor was arrested and sentenced. But he soon

escaped from the prison, managed to get papers in the name of

Ivan Josypovich Ivanenko and started advancing to the leadership

of the Baptists. He married. Children were born. Neither his wife

nor his children knew with what kind of a person they lived.

For a long time, Volchenko-Ivanenko stubbornly tried to win

his wife over to the sect of the Baptists. Not being successful, he

left his family. He would appear in one or another town as a

Baptist preacher. Using the ignorance of the sectarians, he lived

at their expense, drinking and leading a dissipated life.

Volchenko-Ivanenko knew that his family had a hard time

supporting itself and that his son was sick. But this did not bother

this man of no conscience and honour a bit.

In the prayer houses he read sermons composed by himself,

such as: 'How many unhappy and poor children do not hear

about God.3 At the same time, naturally he would not disclose his

88

SIX WHO MADE THE CHOICE 89

address; to his wife, he wrote : 'I am not going to give anything

to unbelieving children and God Himself will help me in this.

And if you start Court procedure to get alimony, I will escape

abroad.'

In 1958, residing in the Moscow Community of Evangelical

Christian Baptists, Volchenko-Ivanenko met the then Minister of

Cultural Affairs of the U.S.A. [sic] Deckford who came to the

U.S.S.R. as a tourist. He gave Deckford false 'testimony' con-

cerning the i situation of the believers in the U.S.S.R. and gave

him a Baptist tittle-tattle composed by himself for the use in the

'Voice of America^3.

Soon, the rascal moved to Tashkent. There he easily found

common language with the sectarian leaders.

But even the strongest rope can be broken. The criminal was

brought to criminal responsibility and sentenced.

It was a just retribution ! Let this story make all those who still

remain in the nets of similar rascals and obscurantists, stop and

think.

A. Gorskii

Source : Sovetskaia Rossiia, June 9th 1963

17

Six Who Made the Choice

From the Courtroom:

'With whom do you want to live, Liuba?' the Judge asks.

'With Mother and Father or with your brother?'

'It is very bad to stay with Mother,' the little girl replies and

sits down next to a blond youth.

Subsequently, five others give the same reply: Vera, Pavel,

Petr, Nadezhda and Mariia.

Two elderly people in the front dock keep silent and their

sharp eyes gleam with hatred.

7 am suffering for my faith,3 the woman says finally.

L. V. Mikriukova had ten children. But her family did not

90 THE SOVIET SAINTS

know any laughter, no gay children playing interrupted the dull

silence. From early in the morning till late at night, religious

psalms were sung in the room, books smelling with rot and

incense were read. Children, shivering from fear, would hide

under the bed.

The little things, grew in the Mikriukov family, deprived of

joy, happiness or light. They missed school activities, avoided

other children of their age and never attended movies.

lAs long as I live, you are not going to belong to ilie Pioneers,3

the mother shouted when she saw the red scarves on Vera^3s and

Liubds necks. Blows followed and the red calico was torn to

shreds.

So it went on until Mrs. Mikriukov's son from the first mar-

riage, Robert Malozemov, a Komsomol member, came home

from the Army. The mother planned to make him a 'preacher of

the word of God'. But she was not successful. School, Komsomol,

the Army, his factory... made him look at the Baptist fanaticism

of his mother with different eyes.

With Robert's appearance, happy changes came into the

family. The children were attracted by the happy, full-of-life

Komsomol boy. Radio was heard in the house. The stepfather

broke the wiring three times, but each time Robert patiently fixed

it. He would take the children to the puppet theatre and to the

circus or on a trip out of town, and he brought them interesting

books from the library. In the spring he bought them a T.V.

set.

'I am going to throw this devil's machine out of the window,'

the stepfather threatened.

And the mother shouted :

'You are not my children any more. God will punish you. I am

not going to feed and clothe you ! '

*We'll manage ourselves,' Robert replied quietly.

Six children were now in his arms. He was with them all day

long : it was necessary to prepare the meals, to feed the youngest,

to mend their clothing, to help children in their homework. And

in the evening he went to the factory to work the night shift. It

was good that his fellow-workers at the Communist Labour Shop,

where Robert is employed, are with him. They are helping their

friend.

Now, the People's Court of the Moscow Region hears the case

concerning the guardianship of the six children of L. V. and

D. V. Mikriukov.

THE TRIAL SHOULD BE CONTINUED 91

'I request that the Court places the children in my care for

upbringing. They should be removed from the black net of the

Baptists and brought up to be true Soviet people. I am a

Komsomol member and am responsible for my brothers and

sisters. We wUl manage; we have many friends. The three

youngest are still with the parents. They should not be left there

to be harmed...'

The People's Court decided to place six children of the Mik-

riukovs in the care of Robert Malozemov for upbringing. Until

the children come of ages alimony will be taken from their

parents.

Leningrad, June 8th (by phone)

V. Averin,

Our correspondent

Source : Sovetskaia Moldaviia, Kishinev, August 23rd 1963

18

The Trial Should Be Continued

The defendant did not hide anything; he answered all ques-

tions in detail.

'Where did the Jehovist literature come from which you dis-

tributed?' the presiding Judge asked.

'From across the ocean.3

'Did it have anti-Soviet character?'

'Yes.3

'Do you admit that your activity was criminal?'

'Not only do I admit it; I condemn it and I am breaking with

the Underground for ever. I regret that I lost my young years,

that I lived eighteen years for nothing...'

Hundreds of people who filled the hall of the Cultural Centre

of Rascani, were listening with tense attentiveness to every word

of the defendant. On the faces of the members of the sect there

were guarded looks and confusion; in the eyes of some 'sisters'

92 THE SOVIET SAINTS

and 'brothers' there are sparkles of hate. What is happening to

Zaporojan? He seems transformed.

Ivan Zaporojan was known as an ardent member of the organi-

zation 'Jehovah's Witnesses', not only by the sectarians of the

village of Vasileutsi but also by those of other villages. In 1945

he joined the 'Heralds of Eternal Kingdom' and, with all his soul,

attached himself to Jehovah's religious teaching. A year later he

was condemned for refusing to serve in the Soviet Army. He

returned home in 1949, and again engaged in the same activities

as before. In 1950 another draft notice came from the regional

drafting board and Zaporojan repeated the same thing for which

he had served his term before. I am not going to the Army,' he

said, 'my religion does not permit us to take arms in our hands'

The 'servant of God' was sentenced with all severity of Law for

desertion and anti-Soviet propaganda.

To the Soviet State, man is more valuable than anything else.

Therefore, its Laws are so humane, and therefore, Ivan Zaporo-

jan was set free before his term had expired. They thought that

this man had thought over his situation and had thrown out of his

mind and heart everything that connected him with the shameful

past. He would live a new life and start thinking the right way.

Yet having returned to Vasileutsi in 1956, he again went to see

the sectarian leaders.

'I appoint you to be the servant of the circle and a liaison,' P.

Geletiuk, the area manager at that time, told him.

Three years passed, and Zaporojan became deputy servant of

the group. From Geletiuk he received the journal Bashnia Strazhi

[Watchtower] and other secret publications and distributed them

among the sectarians, then delivered coded accounts to the 'Area

servanf. '

It was not with good purposes that the sectarians assembled in

Zaporojan's house at night. They befouled with dirt our reality

and prayed for the advent of Armageddon.

'Do not vote in the elections, do not join the Soviet Army, do

not get active in public affairs, because God does not like it,' he

taught the rank-and-file sectarians.

Zaporojan used every opportunity to make people come to

him : their need of support, their failures or their weaknesses...

Well, what happened to Zaporojan? Why did the active

preacher of Jehovism make a complete about face and turned his

back on the Underground? Why doesn't he, as before, defend the

organization of the 'Jehovah's Witnesses' but, on the contrary,

THE TRIAL SHOULD BE CONTINUED 93

unmasks it? Has the leader shrunk in the face of punishment?

Ivan Zaporojan wrote his declaration about his break with the

Jehovists on June 8th 1963, soon after his arrest. But it was not

dictated by the feeling of fear. After all, he was tried before and

he was not afraid, because he deeply believed. Now, however, this

belief was not present any more, but, instead, there was realiza-

tion of the senselessness of further work underground...

It was the thought that the organization of 'Jehovah's Wit-

nesses' suffers bankruptcy in the Soviet country, that it was time

to end the double Me, that penetrated Zaporojan's conscience

four years ago. He tried to chase this thought away from his

mind, he regarded it as Satan's delusion, but he was not able to

get rid of this realization. *

Before his eyes, the sect dispersed; it was deserted not only by

some rank-and-file believers, but also by some leaders, such as the

area manager Pavel Geletiuk, the section servant Petr Syrgi ...

Also depressing was the break between the leaders of Jehovism in

Siberia, which, as Zaporojan learned, was caused by their dis-

agreement concerning the division money. It appeared that there,

at the top, people believed not in God but in their worldly life.

Slowly, the enlightenment came about and it was only the

sentiment of strict Jehovist discipline developed over many years,

and also his wife, blinded by fanaticism, who would not even hear

of any break with 'brothers' and 'sisters^, that kept him on the old

road. So, when Zaporojan was arrested, he finally could breathe

freely. Time had come to put a dot over the past. At the in-

vestigation, he admitted everything honestly, told in detail about

his improper activities and wrote the declaration concerning his

"break with the anti-social organization of the Jehovah's Wit-

nesses.

Eighteen years he lived in vain... Ivan Zaporojan had to pay a

high price for his enlightenment. The presiding Judge, I. A.

Guranda, more than once mentioned these eighteen lost years to

the sectarians present in the courtroom. He wanted these people,

who had not yet freed themselves from the influence of religious

ideology, to learn a lesson from the bitter experience of Zaporojan

and to realize that they not only deprive themselves of the joys of

a vigorous, creative and inspired life but, also willingly or

unwillingly, take part in an anti-social activity of the organization

Jehovah's Witnesses and in its criminal connections with die

American imperialism.

The workers of die Rascani District, present in the courtroom»

94 ' THE SOVIET SAINTS

amply learned how pitiful was the role of the rank-and-file

faithfuls who became victims of Jehovism.

Although the presiding Judge ordered several short recesses,

the trial essentially did not stop for even a minute. As soon as the

Judges left their seats and the guards removed the defendant, the

kolkhoz members, workers and educated people would surround

the sectarians and start a really heated conversation with them.

Some appealed to the human pride of the erring ones, others

talked about the absurdities of which the Bible is full, still others

put them to shame and pointed out the harmfulness of 'Jehovah's

Witnesses' ... And the 'heralds of Kingdom' (mostly women)

said something about God and Armageddon, (the place where,

according to the book of Revelation, the last battle of history will

take place).

These oral skirmishes involuntarily brought to our minds the

thought: Why is it so seldom that such community trials take

place against the sectarianism in our villages,' settlements, towns

—where there still remain those 'witnesses' and other 'brothers3

and 'sisters' in Christ? Aren't we too yielding to people who

speculate with the belief in God? Why do we sometimes miss the

realization of our right to an active, continuous and militant anti-

religious propaganda?

The present Court trial showed that the atheists from Vasi-

leutsi attack the obsolete vestiges rather timidly and do not make

war on the criminal Jehovist propaganda. Five of six comrades

who appeared as witnesses called themselves agitators. But not a

single one of them answered [in the positive] to the question of

the judges : 'With whom of the believers do you work? Whom

did you get out of the sect?'

The sectarian Vera Zabolotna is even a relative of the agitator

Maria Tsymbaliuk. When the presiding Judge, Ivan Afanasievich

Guranda, asked Maria whether she talked to Vera about her

erring, there was a reply:

7 did not, she lives outside of my section...'

Also the other agitators, whom we had the opportunity to hear

at that trial, 'work' the same way with the believers. They met

the sectarians only in selsovet—the village council, when the

Jehovah's Witnesses were summoned there to explain whether

they would participate in the elections of the organs of admini-

stration.

The candid admission of the defendant as to his mistakes and

his condemnation of his harmful underground activity, were

SUCH THINGS ARE NOT FORGIVEN 95

appreciated by the Court; Zaporojan was sentenced conditionally

to ten years in prison with a three-year term of probation.

The testimony of thirteen witnesses, and the convincing, well-

founded statements of the public prosecutor—the headmaster of

the school at Nagoriansk, V. K. Kasianenko, and of the State

Prosecutor, A. P. Poluiektov, will surely leave their impact on the

consciousness of the rank-and-file sectarians, and will help them

to realize that the adherence to this reactionary organization con-

stitutes a crime against the country and the people.

The trial which ended in Rascani should be continued in

Vasileutsi and other villages. Let our atheists be judges at these

trials of conscience ! Every day a fight should start for a new man.

Massively, actively and persuasively one should expose all and

sundry religious survivals, and help those who still have the bad

luck of being under the influence of a religious ideology, in-

cluding the Jehovist one, to return to a healthy and valuable life.

Settlement of Rascani

N. Chernous,

Our special correspondent

Source: Pravda Vostoka (Truth of the East), November 15th

1963

19

Such Things Are Not Forgiven

From the Courtroom:

The assizes of the District Court of Andizhan [Uzbekistan,

U.S.S.R., Translator] at a public trial in Namangan considered

the criminal case of illegal meetings of a non-registered Baptist

sect.

In the dock, there were ardent preachers of baptism, Maria

Shevchuk, Taisiia Tkachenko, Ekaterina Vekazina.

For three days the Court thoroughly investigated the matter,

heard the testimony of the accused and of witnesses. This made it

possible to establish the criminal activities of the accused.

Maria Shevchuk has a daughter, a son-in-law and grand-

96 THE SOVIET SAINTS

children. The State provided her with a pension. She could live

and enjoy life. Yet this uneducated, fanatical woman became one

of the organizers of the secret Baptist sect at Namangan, and a

leader at secret meetings of the sect. People often talked to her

and explained that her 'activities' were harmful to society. Nothing

helped.

She maintained:

'I became a Baptist because God had placed me in the society.

He cured me from a serious illness.'

'Did you turn to physicians, too, at that time?' the Judge

asked.

'Yes, I turned to the physicians, too'—and she added hastily—

'but, obviously, God cures the sick ones through people.' Then

she continued : 'I started seeking those who believed. Sometimes

we would visit some sick woman and pray to God that He might

save her.'

'Well, did He save them?'

'He did'

'And did you call a physician?'

'We did,' Mrs. Shevchuk mumbled to a general laughter of

those present in the courtroom.

Mrs. Shevchuk attempted to lure into the nets of the sect Mrs.

E. F. Karpova, her seriously sick brother, luri Karpov and some

others, but met with their rebuttal.

The fanatical woman managed to control the life of her grand-

daughter Liuba. Mrs. Shevchuk made her copy songs and verses

from Old Testament books published in Tsarist Russia, and dis-

tribute the texts of the so-called Baptist Hymn. It is easy to

imagine how all this affected the girl and the formation of her

character and philosophy of life.

Shevchuk succeeded in getting into the sect Taisiia Tkachenko

and Ekaterina Vekazina. They became equally fanatical in all

their behaviour and activities, and affected adversely those

around them.

The accused Tkachenko, among other things, said:

'One night I heard a divine song from Heaven and wrote it

down.3

But this 'sister in Christ^5 was caught lying. She was shown at

the Court an old book from which she copied the 'divine song

from Heaven'. Yet many had believed her.

Working at a clothes factory, Taisiia Tkachenko told the

women workers:

SUCH THINGS ARE NOT FORGIVEN 97

'You are walking on the wrong pathway, you are lost sheep'

This meant: life in this world is vanity of vanities and, there-

fore, one should wait for a paradise of life in heaven.

Ekaterina Vekazina, like her 'sisters', propagated baptism and

organized meetings. When asked by the Judge what was the

purpose of inducing people to the sect, she lied, dodged and,

finally, admitted:

'We wanted to make all people join.'

Along with the 'sisters in Christ', there sat in the dock Georgii

Vekazin, a juvenile, but ostensibly a spoiled youth. This year, in

February, he returned from a labour colony where he served his

time for theft. He did not want to work or study, but, encouraged

by his fanatical mother, he lead a parasitic way of life. He made a

'friendship' with a fourteen-year-old girl who lived in the neigh-

bourhood The neighbours often drew the attention of the parents

to the obviously abnormal development of this friendship'. Yet

nobody would take any precautions: 'God would settle every-

thing.' And so, while the parents prayed, Georgii, using physical

strength and threatening with death, raped the girl.

In her last word, the accused Tkachenko said among other

things:

'We are not liked in Namagan.'

' This is true. Well, and why, we could ask, should people like

Mrs. Tkachenko, Mrs. Shevchuk and the Vekazins? Because they

tried to divert people from our vigorous life, from the partici-

pation in the structure of Communism? Because they tried to

make people believe in 'life in paradise after death'? Or, perhaps,

because they crippled the lives of children? No, nobody can like

this and these things are not forgiven !

The Court, in the name of the people, sentenced M. N. Shev-

chuk, T. D. Tkachenko and E. K. Vekazina to two years in

prison each, and Georgii Vekazin—to eight years in prison.

Kh. Kirgizbeeva,

City Attorney

I. Malenkov,

Correspondent of Pravda Vostoka,

not of the staff

Source : Sovetskaia Rossiia, December 22nd 1963

20

Scales Fell from the Eyes

From the Courtroom:

'Do they justly try your son?' the Judge asks.

Deadly silence fell upon the courtroom. One minute of silence

seemed very long. All were awaiting what the elderly, greying

man had to say. After all, his own son was there, in the dock.

The Court procedure had only started, no sentence had been

passed yet and he, the father, was to be the first judge. It is not

easy, but he says :

'Yes, they are right to try him. He is guilty.'

Now what was it that Ian Pinka had done? Why does he sit as

a defendant in the dock?

...Once upon a time, there appeared on the streets of

Klaipeda a young, slim man. His arrival was not noticed. The

people who passed by him could not guess that they saw the very

'Messenger of a living God'. But this was what he announced

during the next meeting of the sect of the Pentecostals.

'I have come to you from God Himself, in order to save those

who are deep in sins.'

No matter how submissive the flock was, how intensively the

leaders tried to bluff them, the people could not seriously believe

that the 'Messenger of God' fell down to them from heaven.

Where did he live before? But this was a matter which the

'God's' man was least inclined to discuss. After all, he had spent

the past five years in prison, serving his time for robbery.

'I suffered for my faith in God,' Pinka lied without even blink-

ing his eye. 'I was in prison ... for the truth...'

He looked sternly and imperatively into the eyes of his flock;

the sectarians could not bear his gaze and looked down humbly,

submissively.

Having thus frightened the sectarians, Pinka did whatever he

pleased. He made the sectarians fast and take nothing into their

mouths for three to four days, but he himself misappropriated

their money and lived to his heart's delight. He forbade the faith-

ful to attend movies, to read newspapers or to turn to physicians

for medical help, but he himself went to seaside resorts to rest.

98

SCALES FELL FROM THE EYES 99

During the praying sessions, he would bring people to hysterics

and loss of consciousness while he was quietly watching how they

tortured themselves.

A young woman, a resident of Klaipeda, Titepe, was separated

from her husband and temporarily in a difficult situation. Taking

advantage of this, the fanatics dragged her into their sect. She

was to pay a high price for her trust.

The woman became seriously ill. Her temperature would rise

rapidly and she often lost her consciousness.

'It is for your sins that God sent this suffering upon you,' Pinka

blasphemed. 'Get up and pray ! ' he ordered her.

Only the interference of the neighbours who called for an

ambulance, saved the life of the woman.

A member of the sect, one 'sister' Anna, fell seriously ill as a

result of exhausting prayers and fasting. In a half-insane state of

mind, she believed she had heard 'the voice of God' which

promised to lift her up to the third heaven. In order to better fly

to the address indicated, she sold up all her movables. At present

she is under treatment in a mental hospital.

It was revealed in the course of the trial that the sectarians

were preparing their own trial against 'sister' Malysheva. During

a prayer session, the 'voice from Heaven' ordered that her fingers

and her head were to be cut off. It should be said that choosing

her was not accidental. Malysheva had many doubts and, worst of

all, she wore a modern hair-do, was manicured and attended

movies, by which she lead other 'sisters' into temptation. This is

the reason why they were preparing to try her. However, Maly-

sheva escaped from the prayers and never came again.

In 1961 Pinka moved to the Smolensk Region. Here, too, he

would not abandon his criminal occupation. He was warned

several times, but nothing helped.

... The trial is over. Now everybody understands why even his

own father had said :

'Yes, they are right to try him. He is guilty.'

Ian Pinka was sentenced to five years in prison.

N. Iakovlev

1964

Source: Uchiteîskaia Gazeta (Teacher's Gazette), January 18th

1964

21

Sectarians on Trial

Riga (T.A.S.S. correspondence). Hundreds of toiling people of

the village crowded in the auditorium of the Community House

in the town of Viesite. Here the assizes of the People's Court of

the Ekabpilskii Region was in session, trying the case against the

Pentecostals—sectarians, Ianis and Zenta Osma. Before the

Court there appeared as witnesses—the director of the Secondary

School of Viesite, V. Polisktov, the supervisor of the teaching

department of this school, A. Lapinia, the teacher. Mrs. la.

Kivlenieste, the 'Brigadier' of the Sel-Khos co-operative 'Viesite',

A. Dabolin, and others. They testified that the married couple

Osma, every Sunday make their children attend prayers where

the sectarians, in a state of religious fanaticism, sing ear-splitting

songs. The children are forbidden to read fine literature, attend

movie theatres, school gatherings, concerts or watch television

programs. No wonder that Ruta, Ianis and Peteris are poor

students, behave anti-socially and are physically and mentally

poorly developed.

'I am exchanging children for God,' Ianis Osma admitted

frankly.

The Community Prosecutors proposed that the sectarians be

stripped of their parental rights and their children be given to the

State for upbringing.

The People's Court sustained this motion. Ianis and Zenta

Osma, who seriously violated Soviet Laws concerning the bring-

ing up of the young generation, were deprived of parental power.

102

Source. Kazakhstanskcùa Pravda, February 8th 1964

22

According to their Merits

From the Courtroom:

'I.P.K.H.S.'—this is the abbreviation of the name of a sect of

obscurantists (Union of True Orthodox Christians), whose dark

deeds were described in Kazakhstanskaia Pravda of December

8th 1963.

For a few days, a trial against the leaders of the sect was

conducted at Alma Ata. One after another the witnesses appeared

and an obscure picture of the doings in the Underground of the

'I.P.K.H.S.' was revealed in its full nakedness. In especially pre-

pared hiding-places, the sectarians would indulge in fasting and

prayers.

Margarita Tortsova spent nearly seven years in the Under-

ground. Appearing before the Court, she stated :

'I am grateful to the people who helped me to escape from the

realm of darkness and obscurantism. Now, for a few months I

have been working at die Novokuznetsk metal factory as an

electro-solderer. I was qualified as fourth class.'

Now the sentence was passed.

For anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation, for production,

storage and distribution of literature of libellous contents, for

leadership in an Underground sect, the activity of which, con-

ducted in the form of the execution of religious practices, was

combined with causing harm to health and with infringement

upon the rights of citizens, Aleksiej Grigorovich Bogatyrev, alias

Mina Mikhajlovich Serafimov, alias Aleksiej Grigorievich Lab-

lonskii, alias Mina, the Monk, was sentenced to seven years in

prison with confinement in a colony of correctional labour with a

strict régime.

Grigorii Perevishin, alias Vasilii Nikolaevich, alias Varlaam,

the Monk, was sentenced to five years in prison with confinement

in a colony of correctional labour with a strict régime.

For active participation in anti-Soviet activities of the Under-

ground sect, for preparation of hideouts in his home where, with

his knowledge, slanderous anti-Soviet literature was stored, for

giving his house for the carrying out of sectarian meetings, Viktor

103

104 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Vasilevich Karlin was sentenced to three years in prison with

confinement in a colony of correctional labour with a strict

régime.

Those present at the trial heard the sentence with unanimous

approval.

Source: Pravda Vostoka (Truth of the East), February 29th

1964

23

Fanaticism of the Believers and Indifference

of the Atheists

The public trial of a group of more active members of the

illegal community of the Evangelical Christian Baptists was

approaching its conclusion, when there appeared in the club hall

of the kenaf plant, an employee of the Tashkent art factory.

Watching the dock and noticing Aleksei Neverov in it, she was

greatly surprised. Lenia Neverov? It couldn't be. But he was a

handsome boy, a conscientious worker !

I heard many similar statements during that trial. Not only in

respect to Neverov but also in respect to his fellow-defendants in

the dock, Boris Garmashov and Aksen Zubov, the latter, by the

way, being Aleksei Neverov's father-in-law.

Well, how did it happen that these people, so different from

each other but, at the same time somehow strikingly resembling

each other, found themselves before the Court? Could it be an

accident, some kind of fatal mistake? Not at all, everything was

in order.

But let us start at the beginning and get acquainted with them

more closely!

Here is Aleksei Neverov. A strong, healthy man, thirty years of

age. Father of five. Learned master in textile design in the art

factory. A precise, conscientious worker, a little nervous, but, in

general, a polite man—this is how his fellow-workers and neigh-

bours described him. True, in the characteristics of Neverov,

FANATICISM OF THE BELIEVERS 105

supplied by the factory and attached to his (naturally, criminal)

case, we can read the following words: 'He lost the feeling of

collectiveness, he shuns the collective'.

'He lost the feeling of collectiveness.' These bitter words well

explain the core of the matter. All his life as an intelligent being,

Neverov has been under an influence which is strange to our

system and to our society. This is his tragedy.

Still as a student at the art college and as a Komsomol, Aleksei

was not so eager to learn but rather to have an easy life. During

his free time, together with his older brother, Vladimir, also a

student, he learned another 'lesson', a 'lesson' in robbing and

stealing. The effect was quite logical. In 1952 the two bad

brothers were caught at one 'job' and wound up behind bars;

Vladimir received eighteen years and Aleksei fifteen years in

prison. But Aleksei served less than one-third of the penalty. In

1955 he was freed by an amnesty.

It would seem that the severe punishment would bring Aleksei

to his senses, make him think over his way of life and decide to

straighten it out. But nothing like that happened. Another ob-

stacle appeared in his way. This time it was an obstacle in the

form of religious opiate. Neverov did not have the strength to

overcome it and found himself in the community of Evangelical

Christian Baptists.

But this alone was not too bad. The Constitution of our

country guarantees freedom of conscience. Religious beliefs are a

private matter of every Soviet citizen. Our government guarantees

the right freely to perform religious rites, and does not interfere

in the activities of religious associations. On the other hand,

religious organizations and groups have no right to interfere in

government matters. In other words, the freedom of practising

religious rites is guaranteed only to the extent to which it does not

violate public order and is not connected with infringement of the

rights of the citizens of the U.S.S.R. And it should be said that

the great majority of the believers strictly observe these laws. But

not all of them. To some of them, these laws are like bones stuck

in their throats. Aleksei Neverov, as it happened, found himself

in this category, along with Boris Garmashov and Aksen Zubov.

Boris Garmashov's outer appearance is pleasant Handsome,

built like an athlete, a young man. 'He should rather play soccer

than read sermons,' someone in the courtroom noted. He is

married, has two children and his wife is expecting a third one.

His education—ten grades [primary school]. His profession—

106 THE SOVIET SAINTS

stove-inspector. He worked in the building department of Tash-

oblpotrebsoiuz [name of the Tashkent Provincial enterprise].

Early in his youth Boris lost his father. His mother, a very

little-educated, highly religious woman, gave him a 'correspond-

ing' education. Boris, as they say, with his mother's milk received

the religious opiate which, step by step, poisoned his mind.

And, finally, there is Aksen Flegontovich Zubov, an elderly

man grown wise with life's experience. In his defence speech, he

told not without pride, that he worked for a quarter of a century

as a locksmith at the first shoe factory, had many privileges and

more than once received a bonus for good work.

A few years ago, Zubov retired. But the quiet life was a burden

to him. So he became utterly absorbed in the anti-social activities

of the illegal community of the Baptists.

How did the anti-social work of Neverov, Garmashov and

Zubov show? They knowingly opposed the existing laws which

regulated the performance of religious cults. Without official per-

mission of the authorities, they organized at Kuiluk an illegal

community and, systematically met for secret prayers in the home

of one H. Matiukhina as well as in the apartments of other

believers.

In 1961, under the direction of the illegal organizing com-

mittee created near Moscow by such arch-parasites and charla-

tans as G. Kriuchenko and A. Prokofiev (Pravda Vostoka wrote

about the latter in October 1962), Neverov and Garmashov

organized the so-called initiative group and started a vigorous

provocative activity among the believers, instigating them in the

disobedience to the Soviet Laws. They maliciously libelled our

system, demanded full freedom of action for themselves, i.e.

freedom to conduct religious propaganda, which means freedom

of coercion of human conscience.

Neverov, Garmashov and Zubov frequently received in their

homes Prokofiev, Kriuchenko, Zakharov and other noted Under-

ground missionaries and obediently placed at their disposal the

tribunes for reactionary sermons. They would copy and distribute

among the believers, provocative literature (domestic and foreign),

various papers, announcements, appeals and protests. As if this

was not enough, they arranged, individually or in groups, listen-

ing sessions of special sermons broadcast in the Russian language

by the radio transmitters from the U.S.A., Canada and Ecuador,

recorded them on tapes and then distributed them in various

ways.

FANATICISM OF THE BELIEVERS 107

Naturally, they, as well as their 'ideological leaders' clearly see

and hear that the masses of the Soviet people are not only in-

different to religion but totally reject it. In this respect, the ad-

mission contained in the hand-written, anonymous booklet : God

or Nature, is very characteristic. Here it is : 'At our age of crude

materialism, the rejection of God became fashionable. Atheism

deeply penetrated the minds not only of people of low education

but also those of so-called high education who, using their

diplomas, pretend to know absolute truth which, as they main-

tain, they have found in the materialism.'

This is why Neverov, Garmashov and Zubov, their advisers

and leaders, put special stress in their activities on withdrawing

unstable young people from social life and on leading them into

the world of mysticism and superstition. They used as a directive

in this activity the article, in part anonymous, 'The enemies of

the Christian youth.'

What is it that the authors of that article declare to be enemies

of the youth? First of all 'bad books' which include all literature

except the Bible. They explain : The reading of 'bad books' leads

to a cooling-off attitude to the Bible and to the 'divine work'. In

the subsequent chapters the authors warn the 'Christian' youth

against uniting with nonbelieving people within their age group,

call upon the youth not to attend theatres and movies, not to go to

parks, not to participate in mass cultural plays and sports com-

petitions, qualifying all this as a 'mirage' and 'devil's bait'. In

conclusion, there is a man-hating statement : 'Friendship with the

world means hostility to God.'

Wq]1, and what is it that they propose to fill the leisure time of

the young people with? In this case, their program is not very

extensive : Pray zealously, study the Bible and you will 'achieve

spiritual salvation and balance'. Well, is it not rather little? Now,

in order to somehow attract the youth to the 'divine work', our

'heroes' organized out-of-town excursions, children and youth

meetings, all kinds of circles of artistic activities, and 'evenings of

love'. Such circles and 'evenings' were arranged in the premises

of Zubov and Garmashov and in other places. But, again, all these

means would come to one thing : study of the Bible, recitals of

religious verses and singing of religious songs. Poisoned by re-

ligious opiates, Neverov and Garmashov also attempt to poison

the minds of their children, compel them to pray to God, to learn

poems and songs assigned to them, and forbid them to play with

108 THE SOVIET SAINTS

neighbours' children. They severely punish their children for

every disobedience.

- It is difficult to tell, in detail, about all the criminal activities

of Neverov, Garmashov and Zubov, to judge to the full extent

and to evaluate the moral harm which they afflicted on them-

selves and the people around them. The damage they caused is

great. Yet, we wish to dwell longer on one particular aspect of

their activities.

In their sermons they openly called upon the believing young

people to use religious reasons to avoid service in the Soviet

Army, and, should this prove impossible, they urge them not to

carry arms. Furthermore, their action was not limited to the

sermons. In his correspondence with his younger brother, Sergei,

who served in the Navy, Neverov tried to incite him to refuse to

carry arms and instructed him how to make religious propaganda

among the sailors. But what has religion to do with it? Nothing at

all. This is all politics and, at that, anti-Soviet politics.

Could the Soviet Government tolerate such politics and such

activities? Naturally—no. So, the criminals received just punish-

ment.

With this, we could put the period and end the story. But there

is more to talk about and to think about. Naturally, it is right that

the criminal fanatics be separated from the society. But here they

live and work among us, their like-minded fellows and 'Brothers-

in-arms'. Many of them are sincere in their delusion but are

under the influence of people who are not, as a rule, concerned

about their fate. One would like to hope that the last trial would

make them stop and think about the sense and objectives of their

lives and activities, and would open their eyes and make them see

that there is only one step from the malicious fanaticism to a

crime against the State. The example of Neverov, Garmashov

and Zubov is ample evidence of this truth.

And, a second thing. The Court trial against Neverov, Gar-

mashov and Zubov exposed serious shortcomings in the ideo-

logical and educational work of some lower level party organiza-

tions; their lack of attention and indifference to the spiritual

world of people. After all, it is true that the religious influence

penetrates where there is no systematic, interesting and manifold

in its form, educational work and a tactful, individual approach to

human beings. And, the other way around, where people are

always in plain view, and where they feel the attention directed at

them, the religious survivals vanish.

FANATICISM OF THE BELIEVERS 109

In this respect, die story of Eduard Nakhtigal is very instruc-

tive. From his early years, Edik (diminutive from Eduard) was

brought up in a religious spirit and then became an ardent

Baptist. Then, in 1959, he was drafted and called to serve in the

ranks of the Soviet Army. When he was ready to go for induction,

the most important thing among the treasures of the inductee

was, probably, the Bible. Now, the service went under way. At

the beginning, Nakhtigal shunned his comrades, refused to carry

arms and stubbornly studied the 'divine' book.

The commanding officers of the unit and his fellow-soldiers

were able to find a key to the heart of the young man and to

conquer the religious opiate. So, Nakhtigal threw die Bible into,

pardon me, the latrine, joined the ranks of V.L.K.S.M. and

became an exemplary soldier.

However, after the demobilization, Nakhtigal stumbled again.

His parents and an old friend succeeded in converting the

'prodigal son' to the old faith. Obviously, here we have a man

who quite easily trades his principles and is not able to form his

own firm convictions. Greatly responsible for this state of affairs

are his fellow-workers at the Technological Rubber Articles

Factory where Nakhtigal is presently employed.

It is no secret that we still have many party and government

leaders who tend to judge a man merely according to his pro-

ductive value. If a worker performs his norm at a rate of 105 to

110 per cent, if he is not loafing, then everything is all right. And

what he does after work, how he lives, how he brings up his

children—this is his private affair. And only when such a man

appears at the edge of an abyss, they naively ask themselves:

'How could it have happened?' It is exactly die way the employee

of the art factory was surprised when she saw Neverov in the

dock.

. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to remove the short-

coming in our ideological work and come closer to people and

their lives. A militant and purposeful work in the field of atheistic

education constitutes an important segment of the ideological

front. No Communist, regardless of the position he holds, can and

has the right to evade this issue.

V. Ziuganov

Source : Komsomolskaia Pravda, April 10th 1964

24

A Proud Badge

(Reason against religion)

Every morning a long line of trucks leaves, through the gate,

the premises of the Automobile Pool Management of Kremerovo.

I well know the truck No. WH I 44-46 and its driver. His

name is Maerov. Aleksandr Maerov. I met him three years ago.

He is a Siberian, a young man of twenty-six. When I see him at

the driving wheel I can hardly believe that, only a short time ago,

his name was Father Aleksandr ...

The little village of Sergeevka is located far away from a town

and from the railroad. With its log cabins and fences made of

planks, it virtually nestles in the taiga (vast Siberian forest) and

hides under huge cedars and firs. Kiril Longinovich Maerov liked

Sergeevka and, late in the twenties, he moved here, escaping

collectivization. 7 do not want to work together with the Anti-

christs/ said he. '

Long hours would he kneel in front of the icons, bowed to the

cold boards of the floor, and pray to God for His grace. Seven

children followed their father's example.. Continually, he im-

pressed upon the children that people are merely guests on earth

and, in order to get into the Paradise, one should not offend

God.

Sasha (diminutive from Aleksandr) had difficulties in his

studies. For one year, he did not attend school at all and two

winters he spent in the fifth grade. For this his church was

responsible. Nobody in the school knew that in the evenings

Sasha had to burn the incense for the church, put the candles in

place and take care of the articles of the church service.

Sasha finished his semiletka (seven years' basic school) when he

was eighteen. What should he do next? Study? Work? But the

father decided :

'Go to the seminary.'

It was within the walls of the seminary that the first doubts as

to the truth of religion came to Sasha's mind. He was afraid to

talk about it openly : after all, the seminarians were taught that

all doubts in the existence of God come 'from the evil^3, and that

iio

A PROUD BADGE 111

they were supposed simply to believe in everything that was

written in the holy books. Also, there was no time for deep

thoughts. From early morning to late at night they had to learn

by heart psalms and other verses as well as evangelical and

biblical texts.

Once, Sasha mentioned his doubts to his fellow-seminarian.

The latter replied : 'Don't think of nonsense, what do you need it

for? You should think of the way to get a rich parish.'

The inconsistencies of the religious teaching, and the sur-

rounding atmosphere of love of money and a safe and comfortable

life, brought about Sasha's disappointment. He started to pray

even more. Yet his doubts did not disappear. Then, the idea came

to his mind that only by serving the church would he be delivered

from his tribulations, and that only by becoming a minister and

devoting himself entirely to the service of God, would he find the

truth.

Before becoming a minister, Maerov was supposed to get

married. Meeting his father, Aleksander mentioned marriage.

Kiril Longinovich asked :

'And who is the bride? Is she baptized?'

It was evident that his son's selection did not please him:

'Zina Malyshenko, an orphan who grew up in a modest and poor

family.'

Seeing that his son was stubborn, the father tried a cunning

trick: He prepared five slips with the names of five girls he

picked, placed the slips into the gospel, put the book for the

night under die icon in the corner and prayed for a long time. In

the morning he gave his son the slip with the name of his future

wife, allegedly chosen by God himself.

Sasha was not to be shaken in his decision and opposed the will

of his father.

Exactly at the age of twenty, Sasha became a deacon and after

three more months, a priest in the parish of Shunga, some seven

kilometres from Kostroma.

Long hours and days passed in meditation on the sense of life.

The temptation would come to him to engage in a real life and to

take a job, any job, if only it would be useful to society. Sasha

envied the people who hurried to work in the morning, envied

boisterous boys and girls who climbed the trucks with their

spades and pails and went to the fields.

He knew that his abandoning the priesthood would be met with

'bayonets fixed' [sic]. But that was not what scared him. He was

112 THE SOVIET SAINTS

much more concerned with the question asto whether he would

be able to find his place in life.

So, Aleksandr wrote a report to the eparchial office at Kos-

troma :

'After a long-lasting meditation and analysis of the religious

dogmas I came to the firm conclusion that I had not chosen the

right course in my life, because I found the whole inconsistency

of the religious teaching. I cannot preach what I do not now

firmly believe. Therefore, I took a firm decision to break with the

religion, to take off my pastoral garb and take up a job useful for

the community. I took the liberty to take this step conscientiously

and firmly.'

Avraam, the superior monk, came to Shunga for negotiations.

'Do not sin before God, Father Aleksandr! If two and a half

thousand roubles are not enough, we double this amount. You are

young and we are going to create a paradise on earth for you...'

the messenger of the bishop persuaded.

But Maerov would not yield. This made the monk mad and he

started threatening :

'You traitor to Christ! You will die from starvation! You

don't know how to do anything ! '

Aleksandr could not remain at Shunga any longer.

In the summer of 1960 Sasha came to Kremerovo. His father

would not believe that his son had taken off the priest's cross and

garb for ever. He still hoped to see Sasha in charge of his parish

in the Znamenskoi church. When he saw that his son had finally

broke with religion, he said with malice : 'You crucified Christ!

You are going to wallow like a dog under a fence! There is no

room for you in my house any more ! '

Sasha went out to look for a job in factories and construction

enterprises. No sense in denying : he had to swallow many a bitter

pill. Some would say : 'No openings. We do not need students.'

Others, advised him to come and inquire again in a week or two.

Still others ... take, for example, the automobile repair factory at

Kremerovo. Sasha even filed an application : he decided to learn

to become a tinsmith. But here was the trouble: he could not

produce his work book, because Maerov did not have one. The

Chief of the Department of Manpower stemly asked :

'Have you come out of prison?'

'No, from Kostroma...'

'Well, what happened, did you stay with your parents on their

support until you became twenty-three?'

A PROUD BADGE 113

'I was an employee of a cult association.'

'Well, then, you better take your application and get lost. Stay

away from sins!'

Once, Sasha visited the editor's office of the paper Komso-

molets Kuzbasa. He was received there sincerely, like a friend.

Having heard his story, they called up Comrade Mironov,

Deputy Chief of the managing committee of Proftekhobrazovanie

[professional technical training].

On the same day, Aleksandr was enrolled in the Third Tech-

nical School.

Sasha's scholastic achievements were no worse than those of

others. True, he did not have the scholarship. For six months he

worked at nights as an automobile mechanic and driver at the

Predzavodskaia Automobile Base. They celebrated an open house

in a new apartment: the Town Executive Committee did not

neglect the Maerov family in its need.

Recently, Sasha passed his entrance examination to a higher

school. He was transferred to the Fourth Automobile Pool

Management. The managers accepted him into their family with-

out unnecessary inquiries, without any reproaches for his past. He

works like all others—and is writing his 'work biography'.

But Sasha does not break his relations with Kostroma. He

corresponds with Komsomol members and Pioneers and advises

parents to keep their children away from the churchmen. Sasha's

letters are full of joy and optimism.

'Each of us has his own feast days. They are something special,

remembered all your life. For me, such a feast was the day when

I joined the Komsomol. The members of my age had received

their red badges at the age of fifteen; I received it at the age of

twenty-six.'

I remember how, in the fall of 1958,1 came to the Regional

committee of Komsomol. I had studied the 'law', assuming that

they would examine me. Instead, they asked me to tell them my

story. There were so many young people gathered in the room

that there were no seats or even standing room left. They ap-

plauded... They shook my hands ... They approved, were

happy for me.

From there, directly from the meeting, I went to the corn

harvest. And when I came back, they handed me in the Kom-

somol card. I pinned the badge to the lapel of my jacket, hung the

jacket on the back of a chair ... It was such a bright badge, with

Lenin's silhouette on it... I feel like I have been reborn. On my

114 , THE SOVIET SAINTS

chest, there is now not a cross, but a proud badge of V.L.K.S.M.

[Ail-Union League of Communist Youth]. I realize that the

membership in Komsomol places on me many obligations. I

promise to work and live in a way that would not make me

ashamed to look into the eyes of the people.'

Kremerovo

M. Shcherbakov

Source: Sovetskaia Justitsia (Soviet Justice) No. 9, May 1964

25

With the Cross on their Chests and with

Switches in their Hands

On a dark night, iahen the deadly silence was only interrupted

from time to time by the occasional barkings of a sleepy dog,

small windows in a little slate-covered wooden house were dimly

lighted for the brethren in Christ. Sneaking, scared of their own

shadows, there came people from all sides. The servants of God,

with amazing agility filled the half-dark room with a low ceiling.

With the full assembly of the believers in this room, it became so

crowded that it wasn't possible to bow to the floor in reverence to

God without hitting one's neighbour's back with the head. Be-

cause of the stuffy air, the flame in the lamp was blinking.

Streaks of sweat ran down the tired, gloomy faces.

'With all your heart, rest your hope with God and do not rely

on your mind,' Subbotin the pastor admonished, with his chin up

and his eyes with a feverish gleam raised.

In the stinking air, children, not wanting to stay behind the

adults, raised up their skinny little arms and then hit the wooden

floor with their pale foreheads, asking the Almighty not to be

angry with them and to strengthen their weak spirit in faith to

Him.

Soon, Subbotin got into a white heat, wildly rolled his eyes,

WITH THE CROSS ON THEIR CHESTS AND ... 115

waved his arms and alternately shouted hysterically aloud in a

singing voice [sic] and turned to a whisper :

'People commit outrages. Having forgotten God, they offend

their ears by listening to the radio, they read indecent books, go to

the movies and to meetings which divert them from a proper God- "

pleasing life...'

In the course of a few hours, the tired hearts of the believers

were agitated to the utmost by the fiery words of the possessed

pastor.

At the same time, outside on the street, hiding in a corner stood

guard one of 'God's servants', guarding the meeting against the

ever-present workers and representatives of the government and

also against a possible unwanted invasion by any blasphemous

intruder.

Liubov Mikhailovna Khmara took the pots from the stove,

vigorously stirred the cabbage soup with a ladle and poured some

into a Thermos bottle. Pleasantly smiling, she looked at the nurse

of the local hospital of the Kulundinskii sovkhoz, Valentina

Mikhailovna Kurganskaia, who came to the kitchen to get food

for the sick ones, and in an oily voice, cautiously said:

'Life has become difficult. Even when both husband and wife

work in one family, there is always some want of this or that... I

really don't know how you can manage all alone with children ...'

Not realizing what the cook was hinting at, Valentina Mik-

hailovna replied in short:

'I do not complain about my fortune.'

'You should not force yourself too hard,' Liubov Mikhailovna

continued, without paying attention to her words. 'One should

live with people in friendship, then they would help.'

'I do not quarrel with anybody and do not offend anybody,' the

nurse said.

'One should respect good people not forgetting God,' Liubov

Mikhailovna continued, coming step by step to the point. 'And

everything will be rewarded to you a hundredfold.'

'What hundredfold?' Valentina Mikhailovna got interested.

'They will build you a house and will give you money,' Liubov

Mikhailovna whispered.

*Who will give it?'

'Brothers.' Liubov Mikhailovna disclosed her secret.

'Well, let them give, if they like it,' Valentina Mikhailovna

smiled.

116 THE SOVIET SAINTS

'Join our sect, recover your belief in God,' the cook passion-

ately asked.

'Leave me alone with your sect and your belief,' the nurse said

angrily. 'Give me the Thermos bottle and let me go.'

It was not always that the oily voices of the sectarians suc-

ceeded. But this would not bother them too much. They had

other ways in their arsenal, by which they sometimes succeeded in

scaring people, breaking their will and turning them into

believers.

In most cases it was juveniles and children that became their

victims. This was the fate, for example, of the eleven-year-old

Zupzana Reimer. Her aunt, a Baptist, Elizaveta Petrovna Ul, who

worked as a storekeeper in the bakery, was enraged by the

wish of her niece to become a Pioneer girl, grabbed her arm,

pulled her to the cellar and, opening the cover, put the girl into

the pit. The girl shouted, cried, banged with her little fists on the

wooden cover and called for help. But her voice was lost in the

damp underground room without penetrating outside, faded away

down there, painfully and hopelessly. Only after a few hours the

aunt opened the door and furiously asked her pinched and pale-

faced niece:

'Are you going to be a Pioneer girl?'

For Zuzana it was a terrible and frightening experience to stay

all alone in the pit, but she would not submit. Ul then applied

another terrible measure: she starved her niece. Finally the

despotic and cruel aunt succeeded. Zuzana not only refused to

join the Pioneer girls but also started attending the meetings of

the Baptists.

Also Anatolii Khmara, born in 1951, was to meet God by way

of similar methods. Together with his school-mates, Vitia Lenskü

and Vitia Kozrev, he came home one day, happy, shining. His

father, Nikolai Kuzmich Khmara, a Baptist, upon seeing a

Pioneer scarf around his son's neck, knit his brow in displeasure

and called sternly:

'Come here!'

Not knowing about the displeasure boiling in his father's chest

and suspecting nothing about his intentions, the son quietly

approached him. The father tore off the bright red scarf, cut it to

pieces with an axe, gathered the remnants into the palm of his

hand to the last shred, threw everything into die fire burning in

the stove, made a sign of a cross and sighed, obviously having got

rid of an evil spirit.

WITH THE CROSS ON THEIR CHESTS AND ... 117

Soon, he made Tola [Anatolii] and his older son, Vladimir,

bora in 1950, attend the prayers, learn religious verses and

psalms^ Now, they pray before and after meals, and read religious

verses. At this time, the children are scared to such an extent and

deprived of memory, that they insist that they left the Pioneers of

their own will, that nobody forced them and that they themselves

found God.

The brothers have harnessed themselves into the reins of the

Baptist faith and are pulling, overtaxing their strength, a burden

of the exhausting sectarian rites, beyond the capacity of their age.

They have very little time for studying or for sports. There is no

wonder that they became poor students.

'How long do the prayers last?'

'No more than four hours,' Vladimir explained in his con-

versation with his teacher.

Four hours—but this is one half of a working day !

The happy childhood is lost for these children, cruelly and

mercilessly. Their happiness, their bright laughter and careless

play were stolen from diem, their childish minds were enmeshed

in die web of religious beliefs.

The working people of die Kulunda Regional Centre could not

watch indifferently the anti-social doings of die Baptiste. The

community of the region assembled in the House of Culture. Four

hundred people attended. They summoned Subbotin, the

preacher. He approached the rostrum firmly and self-assuredly,

pretending calmness. In short, by his behaviour, he wanted to

show the people that he was ready to accept all trials and tribula-

tions for his faith. Obviously, for this reason, when giving his

explanations, he applied many dishonest measures : he pretended

not to understand, he lied, avoided direct answers and dodged.

'Why did you not register your sect?' he was asked.

'They don't register,' said Subbotin hypocritically. 'Our repre-

sentative went there ... we wrote to Moscow...'

When he was told that that 'representative' did not turn any-

where, Subbotin, puzzled, made a helpless gesture :

1 did not know it.'

It was obvious to everybody that the pastor was cunning and

inconsistent. It was disclosed at the meeting that the sectarians

did not respect State order or the rules of socialist community

life.

118 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Judge for yourselves. It suffices Subbotin to come home and

make a dissatisfied face, to make his wife fall to the ground like a

mown sheaf, In what way has he achieved this? In a simple

way—by tyranny. He beats up his children and makes his wife

kneel down for punishment.

'Do you know that, under our laws, tortures and tyranny are

severely punished?' he was asked at the meeting.

'Well, I neither torture nor tyrannize them,' the pastor ex-

plained. 'Simply, for their own good, for educational purposes, I

take the switch from time to time. It is allowed and necessary to

use a switch...'

Obviously [he had] a cross on his chest and switches in his

hand. Therefore, the framed signs in Subbotin's home : 'God is

love' and 'Take your burdens to the Lord', look ridiculous and

hypocritical. By the way, Subbotin's son reproduced these signs

with his camera. Then these numerous sayings, which the pastor

himself rudely violated, were distributed in the city of Frunze

among the members of the same community, as well as in other

cities.

For Subbotin, the meeting turned out to be a bitter pill. It was

necessary to reply to the questions impressively and convincingly,

without injury to his pastoral dignity. What, for example, could

he say concerning secret meetings at three or four o'clock in the

morning?

'We do not assemble at 4 a.m.,' was all that the pastor was able

to say. It came out that they had their meetings at 2 a.m. But is

there a big difference?

The community of the Kulunda Regional Centre decided: to

ask the Prosecutor to initiate a criminal case against the most

active members of the Baptist community.

There appeared before the Court as defendants: Feokrit

Ivanovich Subbotin, Liubov Michailovna Khmara and the

brothers Nikolai Kuzmich Khmara and Vasilii Kuzmich Khmara.

The trial lasted four days. For four days the collective of the

judges of the Altai Country Court painstakingly investigated the

case of the Kulunda sect.

The defendants pleaded not guilty, having declared that they

did not commit any crime, then refused to testify on die essence

of the charges.

They carefully withheld from the Court the contents of their

WITH THE CROSS ON THEIR CHESTS AND... 119

sermons at the meetings. However, the testimony of witnesses and

the evidence gathered during the investigation, proved that, by

dragging minors into their group, they brought them up in a

separation of the communal life, called upon the believers to

refuse to fulfil their public obligations, incited the believers to

disobey the druzhinniki, to refuse to join labour unions and, in

general, to abstain from any public activity. The prayers were

conducted illegally, at night-time, in unsanitary conditions and

with the participation of minors. The chief sanitary physician of

the Kulunda Region came to the conclusion that the premises in

which the prayers were conducted were not fit for meetings (there

was not the required volume of air, the ventilation' was not

available, etc.).

Prolonged prayers in such rooms adversely affected healthy

people, especially children.

The trial also brought to light the pre-history of the creation of

this community. At Kulunda there existed for a long time an

unregistered community of believing Evangelical Christian Bap-

tists. This community preached the Bible and performed re-

ligious practices in accordance with the statutes of the All-Union

Council of the Evangelical Christian Baptists (V.S.E.K.H.B.).

From 1961 on, all kinds of appeals, communiqués and other texts

criticizing V.S.E.K.H.B. started to appear among believing Bap-

tists. Since that time, the activities of a portion of the community

have been of a reactionary character.

In November 1962 the Chairman of the Settlement Council of

Kulunda tried either to register the Community or to terminate

its activities.

The old people complied, but the younger members of the

community, with Subbotin at their head, separated. They started

illegal meetings at night-time. This group of the believers re-

fused to recognize the official status of the V.S.E.K.H.B. and got

out from under the control of the Laws concerning religious cults,

which are in force in the U.S.S.R.

Subbotin organized an illegal school for the training of young

Baptists. After the schooling, examinations were held on the basis

of questionnaires which included such questions as: 'On what

day did God create man?' Yet the question : on what day was it

that the activities of the Community became harmful to our State,

to our society, to the people, including the believers themselves,

did not interest Subbotin at all.

The tribunal in charge of criminal matters, of the Altai

120 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Country Court, sentenced the organizer of the Kulunda group of

the reactionarily disposed Baptists, Subbotin, to five years in

prison, the brothers, N. Khmara and V. Khmara, to three years in

prison, and in consideration of the circumstances mitigating the

responsibility, imposed a conditional sentence on Mrs. L.

Khmara.

Simultaneously, the Country Court passed down a decision

under Civil Law by which it submitted to the Kulunda Regional

Executive Committee of the Soviet workers the question of a

possible transfer of the upbringing of minor children of those

sentenced to youth institutions. They should grow to become

builders of Communism and not moral freaks.

The Supreme Court of the Russian S.F.S.R. upheld the sen-

tence.

V.Tonkikh

Source. Sovetskaia fustitsia (Soviet Justice), No. 10, May 1964,

pp.l2ff.

26

Crimes Against Persons and Citizens' Rights

Committed by Religions Groups

Commentary on the Criminal Code of the Russian S.F.S.R.

Encroachments on the rights and interests of Soviet citizens, no

matter under what pretext or in what form they are executed,

present a considerable social danger and are recognized in

Criminal Law as crimes. Even cases of encroachment on persons

and rights of citizens committed in the form of the propagation of

religious beliefs and performance of religious rites, are not ex-

cluded from this rule.

Section 227, Criminal Code, of the Russian S.F.S.R. (Socialist

Federative Soviet Republic), establishes reponsibility for organiz-

ing or leading a group, the activities of which, undertaken under

CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS AND CITIZENS' RIGHTS 121

the pretext of the propagation of religious beliefs and the per-

formance of religious rites, are connected with inflicting harm to

the health of citizens, with the encroachment on the person or any

rights of citizens or with inciting citizens to abstain from par-

ticipation in community activities or from the performance of

citizen's duties, as well as with the engagement of minors in the

activities of such group.

The crime referred to in Section 227, Criminal Code, of the

Russian S.F.S.R., inflicts harm to many social relations; the per-

formance of fanatical rites hurts the believers physically and

morally and is essentially harmful to the health of the citizens.

The inducement of believers to abstain from community activities

infringes on the political right of citizens and on the orderly

fufilment of citizens' duties. Finally, the social danger of the

activities of this type of religious groups is expressed in the fact

that it is often connected with the engagement of minors in their

activities, and that these groups constitute a shelter for ad-

venturers and parasites who live at the expense of the believers.

The objective aspect of the offence provided in Paragraph 1,

Section 227, may be expressed either in the fact of organization

of such group, or in the leadership of such group.

A group (in the meaning of Section 227, Criminal Code) is a

religious organization (including a religious sect) the activities of

which, conducted under the pretext of the propagation of re-

ligious teachings or the performance of religious practices, is con-

nected with die encroachment on the person and rights of

citizens. In this respect, it is of no importance as to whether such

a religious association under whose name such group exists (Evan-

gelic Christian Baptist; Seventh Day Adventists) may be regis-

tered or whether its activities are directly forbidden by Law

(Witnesses of Jehovah, Piatidesiatniki, Khlists, Innokentievtsi

and others).

The majority of the believers appear to be cheated, to be

victims of criminal activities of sectarian preachers. Therefore,

one should not assume that the rank-and-file participants of re-

ligious congregations (groups) are united for the purpose of

committing crimes. Even more so, these groups should not be

regarded as criminal associations (criminal sects) for this reason

only, that in their midst, criminals are busy, encroaching on the

persons and rights of the believers. In consideration of the above,

only organizers (leaders) and active participants in such religious

groups—persons truly guilty of a crime, and not rank-and-file

122 THE SOVIET SAINTS

believers, can be made criminally responsible for the commitment

of the deeds listed in Section 227.

Organizing of a group-^-is the creation of any religious associa-

tion with the purpose, under the pretext of religious activities, to

execute acts which inflict harm on the health of citizens or is

connected with other encroachments on the person or rights of

citizens. The organizer of a group—is a person who formed a

religious association (appointed preachers, recruited believers to

the sect, provided the group with literature, prepared plans for its

activities, etc.) It is not at all required that the organiser par-

ticipates in the subsequent activities of the group which he had

formed. For example, there are known wandering preachers who

spread some religious teachings in various parts of the country.

Some sectarian 'authorities' are only engaged in organizational

activities concerning the formation of illegal groups in various

places, and then execute a general leadership from one religious

centre.

Thus, in 1961, one of the leaders of the sect of the Piatidesiat-

niki, Prokhorov, was made to stand trial, because, for many years,

he was systematically active organizing sectarian groups. He

formed several congregations. He placed specially selected

preachers at the head of each of these congregations.

During the prayer meetings of the sectarians, the leaders of the

above-mentioned congregations, Korytko, Khomiakov and others,

referred to evangelical commandments and called upon the be-

lievers not to be carried away by 'worldly matters', not to take

part in social life, not to attend theatres or movies, not to read

Soviet literature. As a result of all this, Citizen N., born in 1944,

was driven to fanaticism and stopped attending school. Two girls

left the Komsomol and ceased to attend cultural and educational

programs.

Prokhorov was sentenced, under Paragraph i, Section 227,

Criminal Code of the Russian S.F.S.R., to five years' deprivation

of freedom.

Leadership of a group is determined by such acts of persons

heading a given group, as carrying out of illegal assemblies at

which the sectarians are told about the necessity of refusal to

participate in social activities or to fulfil citizen's duties; prepara-

tion and carrying out of wild fanatical rites of the sect (baptism

with 'the Holy Spirif or by 'Holy Water^3, etc.); recruiting of new

members of the sect, including minors, etc.

It should be stressed that the leaders of the group (sect) may

CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS AND CITIZENS* RIGHTS 123

engage in the above-mentioned criminal activities not only during

the (prayer)'meetings but also by individually influencing the

believers.

It has no bearing on the composition of the crime, in what way

the leader of the group makes the believers fulfil their religious

commandments and participate in the activities of the group

(threatening, scaring or cheating).

The activities of the leader of the sectarian group of the so-

called group of 'Christians of Evangelical Faith', Korytko, can

serve as an example of the leadership of one of these groups.

In order to excite religious fanaticism among the believers,

Korytko organized systematically_3 jour times a week, illegal

meetings of the sectarians, which had a rather gloomy character

and were accompanied by shouts and visual and hearing hal-

lucinations. During the mass hysteria, the believers made in-

coherent sounds, trembled, cried and asked the 'Holy Spirit' to

fulfil their wishes. Some believers even lost consciousness.

Korytko was sentenced under Paragraph 1, Section 227,

Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., to deprivation of freedom.

Subject to criminal responsibility under Paragraph 1, Section

227, Criminal Code, are the leaders and organizers of any such

group, the activities of which, carried out under the pretext of

religious rites and teachings, are connected with the particular

[criminal] effects stated by law.

1. Causing harm to the health of citizens is characteristic of the

activities of several fanatical sects (Piatidesiatniki, Khlysts, In-

nokentievtsi, Skoptsi, etc.). The harm to the health of the be-

lievers can be inflicted, on the one hand, in the process of the

praying itself (zealotry), by long-lasting fasts, or refusal to accept

medical assistance, and on the other hand, as a result of sacrifices

which they regard as a payment for the 'absolution of sins'. In the

first case, the believers, being under the impact of abnormal sur-

roundings, bring themselves to a harmful health condition. In this

situation, the role of the sectarian preachers is limited to a psy-

chological influence on the believers and to carrying the process

of praying to a heated state.

In consideration of the above, the activity of the leaders of

religious groups (fanatical sects) is qualified not as offences

against the person but, rather, as those provided by Paragraph 1,

Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R.

By analogy, the question of the responsibility of the organizers

and leaders of sects should be decided, in case their sect numbers

124 THE SOVIET SAINTS

inflict harm upon their own health as a result of fasting and

refusal to accept medical assistance.

In the Court practice, there are frequent cases where a decision

has to be made as to the qualification of the acts of sectarians,

who, carrying out the orders of their leaders, refuse to take their

sick relatives to a hospital and do not call the physician but hope

for the 'power of God'. In our opinion, such acts should be

qualified as active participation in the activities of a fanatical

group (Paragraph 2, Section 227, Criminal Code, and corre-

sponding sections of the chapter dealing with offences against the

person), depending upon the circumstances of the deed, such as

intentional killing, or unintentional, one resulting from omission.

If the sect leaders, in the process of performing religious rites,

intentionally inflict bodily harm on the believer (for example,

castration of the believers in the sect of Skoptsi), or to cause his

death (the rite of burying alive in the sect of the Innokentievtsi-

tatunisti) they are subject to criminal responsibility for a com-

pound offence under Paragraph 1, Section 227, Criminal Code,

R.S.F.S.R., and a corresponding section of the chapter dealing

with offences against the person (intentional serious bodily injury,

intentional killing).

The attempt to characterize such fanatical rite of some sects as

the act of sacrifice, brings about several, legal questions.

The panel of judges for criminal cases, of the Supreme Court

of the R.S.F.S.R., in its decision of June 1st 1961, in the case

against Fedotov, Afonin, Kalinina and others, pointed out that

the act of the leaders and preachers of a religious sect, who in-

cited people they had recruited to their sect, to commit suicide,

should be considered under Section 107 (causing other people's

suicide) and Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R. (see

'Bulletin of the Supreme Court R.S.F.S.R.', 1961, No. 4,

pp. 8-9).

The above-mentioned persons, being leaders and preachers of

an illegal sect of the Piatidesiatniki systematically conducted

meetings and prayers with the sectarians, which were accom-

panied by fanatical rites that drove people to a frenzy.

Afonin and Kalinina, in their preachings and in their talk with

the believer, Mrs. K., propagated the idea that, 'for the sake of

eternal life and our Lord', one should accept any sacrifice. As a

result, Mrs. K. attempted to throw her minor daughter in front of,

an automobile. Driven to a state of depression, she ended her life

by suicide, having thrown herself before a moving train. In the

CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS AND CITIZENS* RIGHTS 125

same way, the believer, Mrs. N., was moved to commit suicide.

7/ the leaders of a sect, under the pretext of religious activities,

instigate believers to kill their relatives, their deeds should be

qualified as compound offences—as instigation to killing and

leadership of a fanatical sect.

The leader of the same sectarian group, Fedotov, along with

driving some of the believers to suicide, required the rank-and-

file sectarians, for the sake of the absolution of 'heavy sins', to

sacrifice their children. Thus, on July 21st 1960, he summoned

Citizen K,, charged her with the revealing of the secrets of the

sect, and ordered her to kill her daughter. Only due to the fact

that Mrs. K. told other believers about it, the monstrous crime

was prevented.

By the decision of the Moscow District Court of April 26th

1961, Afonin and Kalinina were sentenced under Section 107

and Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., and the sect leader,

Fedotov, also under Section 17, and under Section 136a,

Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., of 1926, to various terms in prison.

2. Other encroachments on the person or rights of citizens may

consist of locking up the believers in isolated apartments, de-

priving them of liberty; encouraging them to sexual lewdness (the

sect of Khlysts); prohibiting marriage with non-believers, the use

of Soviet money, acceptance of support and retirement pensions,

attending movies and theatres, reading newspapers, having child-

ren educated in schools, etc.

3. The instigation of the citizens to refuse to participate in

social activities or to fulfil citizens' duties, as one of the char-

acteristics of the criminal activity of the organizers and leaders of

religious sects, may consist of various acts : the prohibiting of the

believers to take part in social life (attend meetings and assem-

blies, participate in festive demonstrations); instigating the be-

lievers to refuse to join Labour Unions and other public organiza-

tions or forcing them to leave them: prohibiting the believers

from participating in the elections to the Soviets of workers'

deputies and to other representative bodies', encouraging the

believers not to work at the enterprises and kolkhozi [collective

farms]; not to pay taxes, etc.

4. The drawing of minors into the group may be carried out

both by the leaders and by other members of the sect.

The drawing of minors into the group by organizers and

leaders of those groups is considered under Paragraph 1, Section

227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., and by other active members—

126 THE SOVIET SAINTS

according to Paragraph 2 of the same section. This is so, because

Paragraph 1, Section 227, provides for criminal responsibility not

for the drawing of minors into the group, as an independent

offence, but, rather, for organizing and leading a group, the

activity of which is connected with the above-mentioned acts.

The ways of drawing minors into a group may be different {con-

vincing, fraud, threat, beating, etcj. It has no bearing on the

characteristic of the crime, whether or not the minors were

relatives of the perpetrator.

The drawing into a group requires, first of all, making the

minors participate in its activities {presence at illegal meetings;

participation in prayers and executing religious rites, etc.). A

religious education of a minor at home, as far as it is not con-

nected with the drawing of the minor into the group, does not

constitute the above offence.

It is not required for an offence as provided in Section 227,

Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., to be considered as accomplished,

that, as the result of the activities of the organizer or leader of the

group, the effects indicated in the law, be present. The fact that

such a group has been formed, suffices.

Paragraph 2, Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., pro-

vides for criminal responsibility for active participation in the

activities of the group, including systematic propaganda aimed at

the committing by the group members of acts directed against the

person or the rights of citizens.

The active participation in the activities of a group may be

expressed by the drawing into it of new members, including

minors, by the fulfilment of the particular orders of the leaders

{execution of the rite of 'baptism by water^3, supplying of religious

literature, claiming to be a 'prophet', etc.), by providing room for

illegal meetings, by collecting financial means among the be-

lievers, etc.

A systematic propaganda, aiming at the commitment of deeds

listed in Paragraph 1, Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R.,

consists of more than one case of dissemination of all kind of

religious ideas which could inspire the believers to refuse to

participate in social activities and to fulfil their citizen's duties, as

well as to commit acts which cause harm to the health of people.

It has no bearing on the presence of essential characteristics of the

crime, or in what form (orally or in writing) this propaganda is

executed.

The crime is considered as accomplished the moment when the

CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS AND CITIZENS* RIGHTS 127

above-mentioned acts are executed, regardless of how the citizens

reacted to them. If harmful effects resulted from such propa-

ganda, they should be considered as aggravating circumstances

and should constitute reasons for the application to the guilty

person of more severe punishment.

It should be pointed out that the criminal responsibility ex-

tends not only to active participants in illegal sects whose ac-

tivities are generally forbidden by law but also to those religious

groups (sects) which, not being forbidden, however, use their

existence for the commission of acts which are harmful to the

health of the citizens, for instigating the believers to refuse to

participate in social activities or to fulfil their citizen's duties, or

for other encroachments on the rights and interests of the citizens.

The subjective aspect of the offence in question is expressed in

intentional guilt. The organizer and the leader of a group, as well

as its active participants recognize the social danger of their acts,

especially, that they are connected with inciting the citizens to

refuse to participate in social activities and to fulfil their citizen's

duties, or with the drawing of minors into their group; that they

foresee the dangerous effects of their deeds and intend for them to

come about.

As far as such effects as inflicting harm on the health of the

citizens, guilt may appear both, in the form of intent and of

negligence. If the perpetrator indirectly causes grave harm to the

health of the injured or causes his death, his deed should be

qualified as a compound offence under Section 227, Criminal

Code, R.S.F.S.R., and corresponding provisions of the chapter

dealing with offences against die person.

Religious fanaticism, advantages or other base reasons can

constitute motives for the commission of the given crime.

The note to Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R., explains

that if the acts of the persons mentioned in Part Two of this

section, or the persons who committed them, do not present a

major social danger, social educational measures can be applied.

The question as to whether the given act and the person who

committed it constitute a serious social danger, should be resolved

in every separate case in consideration of all circumstances ac-

companying the commission of the deed.

Being relieved from criminal responsibility and penalty, as

mentioned above, does not constitute a complete absence of re-

sponsibility of persons who committed a socially dangerous act.

In such cases a substitution of criminal responsibility by social

128 THE SOVIET SAINTS

educational measures takes place. The provisions of Law, in-

cluded in the note to Section 227, Criminal Code, R.S.F.S.R.,

gives the opportunity on a broad basis to engage the society in the

struggle against the anti-social activities of the religious sects, to

prevent the commission of crimes and to conduct an extensive

educational work directed towards the removal of religious

prejudices from the consciousness of people.

M. Mikhailov .

Iu. Milko

Source : Komsomolskaia Pravda, May 22nd 1964, p. 4

27

Black and Red

(Reason against religion)

Outside the windows, electric wires sang a fearful song. A

storm was gathering. Early darkness came heavily upon the

earth...

Sadness came over my mind. But, mind you, it was not so

much because of the weather, but rather due to the tragic human

story which they told me a while ago.

On the couch, in front of me, a Httle boy sat and enthusiastic-

ally turned the pages of a book with his ink-stained fingers. No-

thing on his face reflected the recent tragedy. There was just a

hint of sadness...

I could hardly believe that this fifth-grader, Kolia Sviridov,

was the same boy whom the charlatans with crosses on their

chests had declared to be a 'sainf and 'successor of the Emperor'.

Kolia had no childhood and did not know his parents, although

they lived nearby. He was a 'God's child? and a God's child must

not have parents on earth. In his early years, Kolia was taken

away from his mother and given for upbringing to 'sisters'—nuns.

Such was God's will...

At six o'clock every morning, the one-eyed grandmother,

Agrafena, would wake up the boy—and make him pray. Her

BLACK AND RED 129

fingers were bony and hard like the fire-tongs which she used to

put charcoal into the samovar...

Grandmother Agrafena was regarded as the senior among the

'sisters'. She was the first one to go down on her knees in front of

the private iconostasis and, more ardently than all the others, she

would make the bows all the way to the floor. She loved God

more than the others. Maybe God loved her, too, and Kolia was

wondering : how is it possible to love such a wicked old woman?

In summer they sometimes allowed the boy to go outside on

the street—early in the morning or late at night so that nobody

could 'cast a spell' on the 'holy' child. The cold dew of the grass

made his bare feet cold (monks do not wear shoes).

There was fog rolling in the thicket on the river bank—soft,

warm and humid, like hot milk that you could spoon out and

drink. The boy wanted to stay awhile on the street, but the

merciless Agrafena took him by his shoulder with her hard hands

and lead him back into the mud-hut. Such was God's will...

In the cell of the child, in the corner behind the big clay oven,

there hung old valuable icons of the Holy Mother and other

saints. The paint on the icons was cracked from age and had

become dark; Kolia had the impression that the eyes of the

Mother of God were wall-eyed. For some reason they reminded

him of Agrafena.

The old people demanded that the boy should love God; but

Kolia did not love God and was scared of Him.

The boy walked with his head down, stooped, feeling the heavy

burden of constant fear upon him. Kolia would want to be a

normal boy, to run around, to play and laugh. But he was sup-

posed to remain the 'holy successor to the Emperor'. Such was

God's will...

God proved to be cruel and demanding. He took away the son

from Petr and Praskoviia Sviridov. Also for the sake of Jesus

Christ, Evodikiia Svididova, a distant relative of Kolia's father,

entered the underground monastery under the leadership of

Grandmother Agrafena.

God had made dozens of people who had built their mud

houses on the banks of the Temirtau reservoir, to separate them-

selves with walls of icons from the outer world. A few kilometres

away from these mud houses, nightly fires were burning in the

first furnaces of the Kazakhstanskaia Magnitka plant, but here,

crowded in tight groups, people were praying by the flickering

light of small candles. God forbade work, threatening to render

130 THE SOVIET SAINTS

the 'culprits' into the hands of the Satan. God would not permit

children to attend the school of the 'Antichrist', because they did

not teach there'the laws of God'.

It was God that forbade Petr Sviridov and his brother, Val-

entin, at an hour of national emergency, to take up arms in the

defence of the country against the enemies.

But, by the way, all this pleased not only God alone...

The believers were told to abandon worldly life, to refuse to

recognize the Soviet Government and its laws but, rather,

patiently to wait for the return of Emperor Nicholas II or his

successor. 'God wanted' them to remain 'truly orthodox Chris-

tians', devoted with their bodies and souls to Him alone and to

His 'chosen' one—the Emperor of Russia.

Acting as 'God's mouthpiece', the preachers announced Kolia,

the newly born son of Petr and Praskoviia, to be the 'successor to

the Emperor', and locked him in the underground monastery.

The news of the appearance of the 'holy child' at Temirtau

spread to sectarian centres in other cities. Believers from Kara-

ganda moved here. The illegal monastery filled with new monks.

Leaving her family, one Ekaterina Lernikova came to Temirtau

and took her vows as a nun. In the tiny settlement near Temir-

tau, they tried to use the boy for the purposes of arousing re-

ligious fanaticism.

The Cheka [political police] members found Kolia. In a black

robe of a monk, the seven-year-old boy sat in his corner behind

the oven, pale and tiny like a potato plant grown in a cellar. An

old lamp was hanging above his head. In this underground

monastery, the agents of State Security found, in a secret hiding-

place, about two thousand old Tsarist roubles. The 'sisters in

Christ' had preserved them for over forty years ...

In August 1960, a Comrade's Court convened in the Cultural

Centre of the workers of metallurgy. The Court decided to deport

six most active sectarian parasites to distant regions of the Soviet

Union for their refusal to engage in a socially useful work. Truly,

they deserved to be judged with all the severity of our Law. But

people who believe in the future and whom the truth of life makes

strong, are usually human.

The People's Court approved the decision of the Comrade's

Court concerning the deportation of the leaders of the sect and

deprived Petr and Praskoviia Sviridov of the paternal rights. The

people did not take away the child from the parents—because

they had abandoned the child long ago; people took it from the

BLACK AND RED 131

demanding and cruel 'God' who stole from the little boy more

than one-half of his childhood.

It is easy to put Kolia into a children's home, to a boarding-

school or even in a sanatorium. He can get his shoes, clothing,

food and a desk in the class-room. But children are happy only

when they feel the warmth of paternal care, when they can call

somebody—even not aloud—their father and mother.

An official pursuit of duty brought together Kolia and Captain

Khutornoi. It was he, Roman Iakovlevich Khutornoi, who visited

the settlement near Temirtau, met relatives and friends of the

sectarians until he found Kolia in the underground monastery.

A few days before the Court session, Captain Khutornoi came

to visit the youth.

'He is playing and running around somewhere,' the stern

Grandmother Agrafena said while she continued to cross herself.

Roman Iakovlevich entered the fore-room, looked around with

an experienced eye and soon brought the boy out of the cellar.

'What are you doing here?'

'I am Kolia, the Honly Monk . . . ' The boy started to answer

the way he was trained.

'Don't bother.' Khutornoi stopped him. 'I know everything. I

know, that you are the successor to the Emperor and I am the

Antichrist ... What do you think, do I really look like the Anti-

christ ...?' The Captain smiled and put his hand on Kolia's

shoulder.

Kolia completely forgot the grandmother's advice that, at the

sight of the Antichrist, one should make the sign of a cross and

that, in general one should not get close and let him touch you.

With a mixture of fear and curiosity, he watched the man who

knew in advance what he was about to say.

'If you want, I'll drive you in an automobile,' Roman Iakovle-

vich suggested.

The boy quickly approached the car and sat next to the

driver...

. All evening, Kolia had to kneel and pray for forgiveness of his

'sin' against God. At night, he was dreaming of the shiny Pobeda

[make of the car]. Through the windshield the happy eyes of the

new acquaintance were looking at him.

It was probably at that time that the friendship between the

two was born, a friendship chary of cordiality, shy and touchy.

Or, perhaps, it happened later, when the boy became an inmate of

the children's home.

132 THE SOVIET SAINTS

Kolia slowly adjusted to the children's collective. He avoided

bright boys and looked down upon the girls. The sectarians had

firmly put into his mind the idea that 'a woman is not worthy of

any attention of the Holy Monk'.

In his free time, Kolia hid in a corner, read or secretly prayed

to God. He read well and learned to write quickly. At the request

of Captain Khutornoi, he was transferred to the second grade.

Having himself been in the past an inmate of a children's

home, and having a hard life behind him, Roman Iakovlevich

visited the children's home nearly every day. Naturally, giving

his free time to a 'strange' boy, teaching him to play and to laugh,

all this was not a part of the official duties of the Captain of State

Security, Khutornoi. But, apparently, it is not so easy to always

see where the official duty ends and humanity begins...

In the fall, Kolia jell sick. The physicians found myocarditis—

an inflammation of the myocardium. The boy was hospitalized.

The young lady-doctor, Andreeva, had some twenty patients.

Now there was one more, a special one. He was the 'quietest'. He

never complained, never played or laughed. He accepted the

kindness of the grown-ups with hesitation and suspicion.

Kolia 'opened his mind' only to Captain Khutornoi and to the

senior nurse of the hospital, Valentina Fedorovna Karnaukhova.

He boasted before other boys with 'his Captain'. And the nurse—

she apparently became more than just a nurse to him, but a

mother, too.

The boy had many adult friends. Several times he was visited

by the Secretary of the Oktiabrskii Regional Committee of Kom-

somol, Georgii Shestakov. Strange children came to see him, girls

would bring him sweets. 'Strange' teachers would come to teach

him right there in his hospital room...

Kolia spent his winter vacation with Roman Iakovlevich

Khutornoi's family. For the second semester he transferred to a

boarding-school...

This winter I visited again the boarding-school in which Kolia

attends the fifth grade. I talked to the school director, N. A.

Chepurina, and to Kolia's first teacher, a young pedagogue S. A.

Bocharoba. She now teaches the fifth grade and I asked her to

take me to the classes.

There were many pupils eager to tell about the religion of the

ancient Greeks. The teacher called Kolia.

'The ancient Greeks invented gods because they could not ex-

plain the phenomena of the nature...'

WILD FANATICS 133

Koliä talked about Zeus the Thunderer, about Prometheus who

stole fire from the gods and gave it to people. I listened to him

and thought of other things. How much work and effort, how

much kindness and humaneness was needed on the part of the

teachers to warm up the frozen heart of the boy, to give him back

his childhood and to inflame his soul with die beautiful sparks of

Prometheus' fire

The teachers told me about Kolia's first meeting with his

mother. Praskoviia Alekseevna came to the school with Aunt

Niura, her relative on her husband's side.

The boy talked to the aunt, paying no attention to the strange

woman. ,

'Kolia, don't you know me?' his mother decided to ask.

Who is this_3 Aunt Niura?'

Praskoviia Alekseevna's face twisted and trembled. She

bunked her eyes again and again. Heavy tears rolled down her

face and fell on the nun's black robe. Perhaps these tears of the

mother who lost her son washed away from her eyes the unseen

curtain and she could see her son again—alive, worldly, real. She

saw the world, the earth, the people who, not for Christ's sake but

for life's sake, have been taking care of this 'strange', but dear to

them, boy.

Temirtau

A. Bogachuk,

Our correspondent

Source: Sovetskaia Latviia, June 18th 1964

28

Wild Fanatics

From the Courtroom:

Recently, the assizes of the People's Court of the Balvskii

Region tried the criminal case against the organizers and active

participants of a group of the sect of the Piatidesiatniki, /.

KoltsoVj Mrs. E. Koltsov and P. Liepinsh. The activity of this

134 THE SOVIET SAINTS

sea has brought harm to the health of the people. Also, the

sectarians instigated people to refuse to fulfil their citizen's

duties.

The testimony of the defendants and witnesses uncovered to

those present in the courtroom the loathsome and fanatical char-

acter of the rites performed by the sect of die Pentecostals.

How were the prayers conducted in this sect?

The defendant, P. Liepinsh, testified:

'We gathered together, got down on all fours and started bark-

ing like dogs. This is how we turned to God. It was like in a

madhouse.'

Liepinsh's story was supplemented by the witnesses Pommers,

Ositis, Didin and others, who testified that, during the prayers,

people looked insane, leaped like rabbits, howled and made

senseless sounds. Incidentally>, one of the meetings took place in

Koltsov's pigsty.

Equally hysterical shouts accompanied the 'baptisms' which

were arranged by the leader of the sect, Koltsov. Half-undressed

men and women would immerse in the water in the pit which is

usually used by the local kolkhoz as a silage for the cattle.

These wild orgies could not remain without an ill effect upon

the health of the people. One of the first victims of these inhuman

rites of the Pentecostals was Elena Koltsova, a sister of the

sect's leader. For several years she suffered from tuberculosis.

The woman was many times instructed to enter the tuberculosis

dispensary, and several times physicians came to her home to give

her medical help.

But Koltsov convinced his sister that, if she joined the sect and

performed all the rites, she would be delivered from her illness.

The sick woman believed him, joined the sect and started avoid-

ing the physicians. The sectarians subjected Miss E. Koltsov to

the 'baptism' in cold water and made her regularly perform the

fanatical rites. This eventually ruined her health and soon she died.

The fanatical performance of the rites nearly deprived of life

another member of the sect, Petr Liepinsh. He was saved by his

brother Ianis who, against the will of the sectarian, took him to

the hospital. Immediate surgery saved Petr's life.

The leader of the sect categorically forbade the 'brothers in

Christ' to attend meetings or movies, to listen to radio, to read

newspapers, books and magazines. All this was pronounced as a

great sin. On various pretences, they told the believers to avoid

service in the Soviet Army.

WILD FANATICS 135

The fanatics would not stop at any means to drag people into

their sect. Threats and direct force were applied. When the sect

leader_31. Koltsov saw that he was not able to lure Ianis Liepinsh

into the sect he announced that 'the Holy Spirif ordered the

obstinate one to be killed or burned to death. Ianis,, persecuted by

the Piatidesiatniki, was forced not to stay at home at night and to

hide in his neighbours^3 homes.

In our country, the fight against the grave survival in people's

minds—religion, is conducted by way of patient enlightenment

concerning the inconsistencies of the religious creeds, and by

propagation of the scientific and technological achievements.

However, we are not permitted to hurt the religious feelings of

the believers, in this connection. On the other hand, the laws

which protect the rights of the Soviet people do not allow the

infringement upon the person of a citizen and upon his health.

The sectarians ignored diese laws.

It was only the interference of the administrative organs that

put an end to the criminal activity of the sect of the Piatidesiat-

niki in the town of Rugai. The leader of the sect, I. Koltsov, was

sentenced to five years in prison. Also, according to their merits,

other sect leaders were sentenced. But can we end the story here?

This whole story makes us think of many things.. Did not the

sect act illegally and criminally for too long a period of time?

Where had the militant atheists been? Apparently they did not

pay the necessary attention to the educational atheistic propa-

ganda at Rugai. It was not without reason that the Community

Prosecutors, comrades who participated in the trial, Trepsha and

Stradynia, stressed this matter.

The Court trial against the leaders of the sect of the Piati-

desiatniki should serve as a significant lesson to the Party, Kom-

somol and other social organizations of the Balvskii Region. They

should undertake every measure in order to better the atheistic

propaganda work among the population and persistently educate

people in the materialistic philosophy of life.

S. Zhilinskii,

Prosecutor of the Balvskii Region

1965

Source: Selskaia Zhizn (Village Life), February 13th 1965, p.4

29

Those Who Spread Darkness

The belief of a superstitious man in mysteries and ghosts does

not make sense. It prevents him from being an active builder of a

new society and looking at die world with bright eyes. You can

read about it in many letters to the editors. Here are some of

them.

'Sidor Pliukhin, from the village of Chumakovo near Novosi-

birsk, reads his Bible from the early morning,' I. Fedotov writes,

'and then he hurries to earn money as a carpenter in the nearby

village. He knocks with the butt of his axe at the rotten parts of a

house and tells the owner :

'Well, the poor house asks to be repaired.. .'

'People are shocked by the amount of money he charges, but

Pliukhin is all smiles when he replies :

'The price is simply divine.'

'Resourceful Akulina, his wife, also knows now to catch her

prey. As soon as she sees a girl overcome by sadness, she displays

cards in front of her and starts her mysterious talk. "Well, your

sweetheart loves you no more. But do not worry, I am going to

help you." Then she goes into whisper: "I know a good medi-

cine, just come to me with a gift."

'Hope rises in the girl's heart, she hurries to see the sorceress.

Akulina obviously fools around: she either scares the gullible girl

or consoles her ... And, if her attempt to gain profit fails, she

gets in a rage :

' "I am going to frame you, you will howl in front of me." '

The fanaticism of the bigot coincides with dirty tricks. As

reader, A. Barshchevakii, writes to the editor : 'There lives in the

village of Kurmysh near Kazan a Tatiana Sharonova-Kuvaeva.

Long ago she traded her conscience for greediness, abandoned

honest work and profits from human plight.

' "One mass for the dead is not enough," she blasphemes. "The

soul of the dead will lament."

'Trusting people order panakhida services from her again and

again. And she, having grabbed a bag of crosses and icons [holy

pictures] goes out to the villages to trade them.'

138

THOSE WHO SPREAD DARKNESS 139

Some spreaders of obscurity propagate the rubbish about the

'holy water', the charcoal and other superstitions not in good

faith, others because of their stupidity.

'The following happened in the village of Starino near Chere-

povets,' A. Fomichev reports. 'There is one well—the water went

bad.'

'"Did you pour the holy water into it?" Matrena, an old

woman, asked the village-dwellers.

' "Yes, we did, yesterday."

' "Did you remove the smell?"

1 "No, we didn't."

'Matrena poured the "holy water" again and again. After three

days, the well was cleaned and the water became clear, pleasing

to the taste.

' "Well, the 'holy water' helped," Matrena insists.'

A dying woman was brought from her house to the hospital.

The surgeon performed the operation, saved the patient's life.

The superstitious woman now insists that, apparently, God Him-

self let her live for the sake of her children. This fact is reported

with dismay by Ludmila Shchitova of the village of Krasnii

kardon in the province of Tselinograd.

The priests and all kind of other charlatans infest the minds of

the gullible people the way a burdock infests the field.

Mrs. K. Glazkova, a teacher from the village of N. Ilderiakovo

near Kazan, A. Bilina from the village of Srub near Nezhin and

many other readers report that superstition firmly persists only in

those places where it is regarded as something entirely harmless.

N. Akulinichev writes that, in the village of Narishkino, Tul-

skaia Province, even the local church choir member, Evgenia

Kosova reproaches the atheists. 'Formerly, it was gay and in-

teresting in our club; I myself used to sing in the club's choir.

Now the club is often locked, there is hardly any activity carried

on there.' Well, so now she sings in the church.

So far, superstitions of all colours and shades are still alive.

Therefore, we have no right to forget or weaken the propaganda

of scientific atheism. It is not fitting that the atheists keep 'quieter

than water and lower than grass'.

V. Parfenov

Source : Selskaia Zhizn (Village Life), May 13th 1965, p.4

30

Reason Against Dope

Considering the letters to the editor

'My father was a believing man. And the more he believed in

God, the more sins he had,' writes Grigorii Dmitrievich Koni-

akhin, a resident of the village of Fruktovoc, Bakhchisarai Region

in the Crimea Oblast (Province). In his letter, Grigorii Dmitrie-

vich tells the story of his life, a life hard and bitter, memories of

long-lasting and tiresome disputes and searching for the real

truth : in what surrounds us or in religion, in the teaching of the

Bible or the Gospel... The enlightenment finally came, but not

soon and not easily at all. After the teachers in his school had

planted in his mind a spark of doubt in religion and inspired him

with the lové of his country, the years of the Fatherland War

made the volunteer soldier Koniakhin ask himself again and

again: 'If God is so merciful, why does He allow millions of

people to perish from the hands of the Fascists?'

Grigorii Dimitrievich concluded his letter-revelation with

these notable lines : '

'It is painful to realize that there are still people among us who

believe in the biblical fairy tales! I am now broadening my

general education, though it is sometimes difficult to catch up on

what was neglected during the years of youth.'

Incidentally, the letter from the village of Fruktovoc is not

at all an exception in the voluminous mail coming to our editor.

It has become a habit with our Soviet people that, whether they

gain victory or suffer failure, they wish to present it to the people

for their judgement, to hear their good advice or just criticism.

*I have found that any religion is an opiate for people,' P.

Zilitinkevich, a former priest of the Crimean sovkhoz, Vino-

gradni, writes. 'Naturally, it was not all of a sudden that I

decided to disfrock and admit my guilt in cheating the believers.

But, finally, I did this, too, and I think that I did the right

thing.'

And here is another letter which calls for consideration. The

author of the letter is N. Sokolov, Chairman of the kolkhoz,

Rossiia, Tutaievskii Region in the Province of Iaroslavl. He asks

140

REASON AGAINST DOPE 141

the editors and the readers for their advice concerning what he

should do. And the story told by the kolkhoz Chairman is quite

interesting. There is a church in their village. There is the family

of the priest with two children in school. So, one day these

children came to school with crosses around their necks: The

community was indignant. They tried to convince the parents—

without success. Then they forbade the priesfs children to attend

school. The parents filed a complaint. The Chairman of the

Regional Department of Education gave an explanation: the

Law on general education may not be violated, the children

should attend school.

Well, the story that happened was not a pleasant one. But,

after all, who is responsible for it? Surely, the Chairman of the

Regional Department is right. Nobody has the right to violate the

Law on the general compulsory education. Regardless of the

parents, the children are, first of all, our Soviet children. These

children are to live in our society, together with all others and

arm in arm with them, they will build and form this society.

What is important is that these children grow morally and

physically healthy. And who should take care of this? Our

teachers, our community. They are obliged to educate all children

to live by principles, to persuade them and to make them cour-

ageous enough to take off their crosses in spite of the believers.

Is it difficult to achieve? No doubt about it. What is needed is

not days or weeks, not one or another sensational measure; rather,

persistent, day-by-day work of the teachers, and a sensitive,

benevolent attitude of the community is of utmost importance.

Some people, upon reading these lines, may justly note : well,

all this advice is too general. Yes, that's how it is. It is so, because

the work of an atheist means reaching human minds, and his way

is usually different in each case, depending upon the individual

who needs his advice and his cordial sympathy.

Naturally, the way of the teacher-atheist of Iaroslavl, in reach-

ing the minds of the children of the servant of God will be quite

different from that of the Byelorussian physician, Petr Stepano-

vich Poleiko of the village of Khoino in Polissia. He, Petr

Stepanovich, is convinced that the main thing in the fight against

superstition is not crowded lectures or some other large-scale

program, but first of all intimate talks with people in which there

may be quarrels, disputes and, above all, explanation by the

physician-atheist. This is why Petr Stepanovich does not need

any club hall or a coloured poster announcing his lecture; he goes

142 THE SOVIET SAINTS

into every house and is prepared to explain for,hours the harmful-

ness of superstitions, sorcery and adherence to old, obsolete

customs.

Again, the lecture group of the village of Nizovka, Ardatovskii

Region, Mordovia, has its own way to the minds of die audience.

The leader of the group, A. Lenin, reports to our editor how

thoroughly they prepare for every lecture, talk with a family or

even for a conversation with any individual.

Letters ... letters ... There are many of them in our mail to

the editor and, among them, there are many that tell about the

work of village atheists. They are different letters, but they

usually show a unity in one thing: a sincere gratitude to people

who know how to fight against religious dope.

O, Tonkikh

1966

Source: Doshkolnoe Vospitanie (Pre-School Education), No. 3,

March 1966, pp. 91-95

31

The Road Without God Is Wider

Children are born to be happy

We received many letters in reference to the article 'This

should never be forgotten'. The readers ask: 'What facts, proving

the evil of religion, can be mentioned in the talks with parents;

what should be suggested as reading material on atheism; what is

the best way to separate children from the influence of religion?'

But they also ask such questions as: 'Why is it that the atheists

oppose religion with such ardour, what wrong did it cause to

people and why is it dangerous to children? After all, in our times

one cannot find religious people even with a lamp on a bright day

{Doshkolnoe Vospitanie, No. 7,1963).

ils a member of the City Council I am the Chairman of the

permanent Committee which controls the execution of the laws

concerning [religious] cults, and, therefore, I can state with

authority that many people are under the influence of religion and

that religion continues its search for new souls. Acting either

gradually or pushing their way through, the church people are

trying to use every possible opportunity to strengthen their posi-

tion. In their struggle for the believers, they generously use sweet

words about love of your neighbours, and they do not hesitate to

apply kindness or threat, money or violence.

Here is an example : In May 1965 I was present at the meet-

ing of the old-rite church Dvadtsiatka [group of twenty]. There

was under discussion the review of the report on the misappro-

priation of 4,000 roubles by the Treasurer of the congregation,

S. I. Orlov and other members. In the church, where little lights

were burning in front of the icons and the shine of flickering

candle-light played on the faces of the 'saints^1, the members of

the Dvadtsiatka sect had nearly started a fight accusing each

other of fraud (there were talks about cheating in the candle

business, profiteering from selling crosses, etc.).

And what hatred and malice they showed in respect to one

member of our Committee for the only reason that he had read

144

THE ROAD WITHOUT GOD IS WIDER 145

the complaints of the believers at the Executive Committee!

They threatened to 'annihilate him from the face of the Earth'.

Here is their love towards their neighbour and following 'God's

Laws' : 'do not steal, do not kill ! '

The membership of this sect of old-rite Dvadtsiatka basically

consists of people aged fifty and over (over seventy per cent). In

its majority the sect consists of women (ninety per cent). Many

of them did not attend church before their retirement age but

then, after reaching old age, started regular attendance. Some of

them are afflicted with religious fanaticism to such'an extent that

they start exerting influence upon the members of their families,

especially on the youth and children.

All this compels us definitely to improve the atheist education.

The workers of the kindergarten should attempt to know better

every family so that they be able, in time, to prove helpful to the

parents and children.

One should open the young parents' eyes concerning the bap-

tism of the babies: after all, during the immersion of the baby

into the water, a sudden death can occur if water gets into the

respiratory tract.

Physicians of the epidemic centres have discovered that, during

the baptism and Communion even the most basic rules of sanita-

tion and hygiene are neglected: the babies are bathed all in the

same water in turn without it being disinfected; neither is the

spoon disinfected by which the priest distributes <the blood and

body of God' to the communicants.

At our pedagogical consultations and at our group or general

meetings, there is always this one item of the order of the day:

the atheistic education of the children and anti-religious propa-

ganda among the parents.

In addition to 'radio-lessons' conducted by the city, at which

our educators and some parents appear with lectures and talks, we

arrange similar programs in the kindergartens. The parents can

receive counsel, hear a lecture or read books. We also organize the

so-called home lessons. For this purpose, we prepare materials on

atheism and give them to families. Also, we attend movies or

theatres in groups and then discuss what we saw. For example,

the educator V. V. Blagoderova saw, together with the parents,

the motion pictures 'Everything Remains With People' and S. V.

Boikova and N. N. Smirnova—the picture 'The Miraculous

One'. Then they exchanged their views.

We also devoted to the struggle against the religious ideology

146 THE SOVIET SAINTS

our 'talking magazine for parents' which started at the club of the

Railroad men and then continued at our kindergarten. The maga-

zine had such articles as 'Medicine, Religion and Witchcraft',

'Science and Superstitions', 'On Space Flights', etc.

Our active educators continue to increase their knowledge. It

cannot be otherwise, because the parents often ask questions

which have to be answered. We collect newspaper articles on

interesting topics, we have assembled a library on atheism, have

prepared a list of literature recommended for parents, etc. Among

them are, e.g., A. Chekhov, Kanitel, On the Eve of Fasting, The

Secret; A. Kuprin, Olesia, Anafema; A. Serafimovich, The Holy

Place (?), The Miracle, The Sacrament of Communion; M.

Gorkii, Pamphlets, The Honeymoon, The Pogroms; V. Tendria-

kov, The Miraculous One, Omuta; M. Twain, A Letter to an

Angel, Captain Stromfield's Visit to Heaven, and E. Ozheshko,

The Witch.

The church uses many popular holidays, customs and rites for

its purposes; by attributing to them religious forms and mystical

character, it created its own special religious rites, ceremonies and

holidays. In opposition, we present our own customs and holi-

days, e.g. 'Winter Tale', 'Russian Birch', 'Happy Childhood', and

we celebrate in the kindergarten birthdays of the children.

Such a holiday was, e.g. the performance of 'Happy Child-

hood' celebrated on June 1st, the 'Day of Care of Children'.

Children, dressed for the occasion, marched to Lenin's monument

and to the Obelisk of the Dead Soldiers. They placed a great

number of fresh flowers at the foot of these monuments.

In the alleys of the park—there was laughter, games, dances.

After that the children went by buses to the House of Culture to

see the puppet theatre. In the evening they enjoyed fireworks.

Once a month (on the 14th) we, in the kindergarten, celebrate

children's birthday. On this day children and teachers exchange

gifts and also parents bring their gifts to the kindergarten.

We all gather in the hall : we offer our gifts and congratula-

tions and, following a half-hour concert, we take seats at the

tables which are decorated with flowers and on which are placed

cookies, cakes and candies. If the birthday is celebrated in the

spring or fall, the parents plant a tree in the garden of the kinder-

garten. We have many such trees, especially in the groups of the

teachers G. V. Shankovaia and A. I. Vorobiovaia.

We pay a lot of attention to the upbringing in the spirit of

Communist morality. The city-organized parent-teacher meeting

THE ROAD WITHOUT GOD IS WIDER 147

was devoted to this purpose, and the question how to, improve the

atheistic education in schools and kindergartens was discussed.

All this we can do only together with the families.

M. Skei

Supervisor of the Kindergarten at Rzhev

OUR PASSIVENESS SUPPORTS RELIGION

My parents were poor peasants. My father firmly believed in

God and read the Bible every day. This book lay on the table like

a sacred thing. In the mornings he would make us—his six

children, kneel in front of the icons, kneel to the right beside us

and read the prayers which we were supposed to repeat after

him.

Both our father and mother knew how to sing nicely. While

sewing clothing, preparing hemp for weaving linen or doing some

other work, they would sing religious songs and we, the children,

liked their singing so much that, involuntarily, we learned them.

When we grew older we started to sing with them.

When I was ten years old, my father told me to join the church

choir. So I walked four to five kilometres [about three miles] to

the village where the church was located. Not only me: the

greater part of the church choir consisted of inhabitants of our

village. The sexton would come to our village for rehearsals. In

the evenings we would gather for rehearsals in one of our people's

houses (in turns); next day the sexton would leave.

My turn came. Mother became restless : 'What should I offer

the sexton to eat? I'll run over to Marusia to find out what they

gave him : after all, it's Lent now.'

We would eat cooked or baked potatoes, sour cabbage and

cucumbers.

When mother returned from cousin Marusia, she had a piece of

bacon, rolls, a bottle of milk and some ten eggs. For all this one

had to work two days with the thrasher.

The rehearsal ended, the choir members left. Mother heated

the stove, fried the eggs with bacon and put them on the table

along with a glass of milk. She also placed some vodka on the

table. But we, as usual, received baked potatoes, cabbage, cucum-

bers and dark bread.

The smell from the fried eggs and bacon spread all over the

room and made our mouths water profusely.

148 THE SOVIET SAINTS

'If we coujd just taste a little of the bacon,' my brother said.

'But it would be a sin. You would get a swelling like an egg on

your head for eating fat things. This is what mother taught us,' I

replied, 'and during the Lent, at that, just before Easter.'

So we stupid ones waited for the morning to see the swelling on

the sexton's head from the eggs, milk and bacon. But he got up

as if nothing had happened, happily patting his belly. He ate the

same for breakfast and departed.

We all turned to mother with question after question. But she,

shocked and puzzled, just stood in front of the icons, crossed

herself and said : 'Forgive me, O God ! '

For us, the children, this was the end of our believing in God.

So it was for our mother. We felt that she performed the Easter

rites only for the appearance's sake, and she hardly attended

church. I participated in the church choir until I got married. I

went there not because I believed in God, but there was nowhere

to go.

I saw the fraud even more when I observed the priests dividing

their income and quarrelling with each other.

And when my mother fell sick and felt that she might die soon,

she told me : 'Watch out, don't let this liar priest bury me.'

Even now there are people in our country who let their children

grow up as believers. Our indifference, our passiveness plays a

major role in this.

One should not let it happen that the children remain under the

influence of the believers. And we, the workers of kindergartens,

still do little to prevent this.

Only when children come to the kindergarten with a cross or an

Easter egg, or when they do not come at all because they go to

church with their grandmothers, we start to act and we act quietly

in order not to hurt the feelings of the parents or children and so

that other children in the group do not notice anything. What is

needed is a persistent, planned atheistic work. This is the only

way to stop the influence of religion upon the children.

M. Dobrenia,

Teacher at Sumy

THE EASTER EGG

Children crowded around Kola. There was a coloured egg in

the boy's hand. All watched die egg attentively and many tried to

touch it.

THE ROAD WITHOUT GOD IS WIDER 149

Seeing me, the children cried:

'Look what a pretty egg Kola has ! '

'Yes, it is pretty,' I agreed. I could not say that it was not

pretty, because it would not be true.

'It was Easter yesterday,' Kola explained seriously, then he

added : 'We have many like this one.'

'I ate the Easter bread (paskhd) and such an egg yesterday on a

visit,' Tania said. 'It was very, very good.'

'And I think that this egg is like any other, quite ordinary,' I

remarked. The children listened. 'It was lucky that nothing

happened to Tania and Kola; after all, the colour is poisonous, so

they could have got sick.'

'Why, then, do they colour the eggs?' one of the children

asked. Then I decided to tell the children about this religious

holiday.

'It was long, long ago. At that time people did not know why

the rain or the snow comes down, why the wind blows, the

thunder cracks, the lightning strikes ... They then invented God

and said that it was He that did all this. The reason for this was

that people did not know much. But now, even you know well

how the rain starts.'

'There were no physicians at that time. People got sick and

there was nobody to cure them; so many died. And, again, people

believed that it was God that sent death, and He did it to bad

people. But good people died too. It was believed that God lived

in heaven above. But what do you think is there above us in the

sky?' [Translator's note : the same term, nebo, means heaven or

sky in Russian.]

'Clouds.'

'Right. And above the clouds?'

'Cosmos. The airless space ! '

The children started talking about the cosmonauts, about Alek-

sei Leonov who left the space craft and stepped out into space.

'The people assumed that God lived in heaven the way we live

on earth. In order to gain His favours, everybody tried to serve

Him something tasty: they baked cakes, cookies and coloured

eggs to make them look nice ... Yet God would not come to take

these things. How could He come? But He does not exist. Then

people ate everything themselves. Even nowadays some un-

educated people still think, in that old way, that God lives in

heaven, and continue to colour eggs for Him in order to eat them

afterwards.'

150 THE SOVIET SAINTS

The children laughed gaily and looked at Tania. The girl

turned, red-faced.

One year passed. Ola's mother, who came to the kindergarten

to pick up her daughter, told me that their grandmother had

suddenly announced :

'I have bought eggs. Easter is near.'

Upon hearing this, Ola started enlightening her grandmother.

We all listened. Then Ola asked:

'Now, Grandma, do you believe that there is no God?'

Who knows what the grandmother was thinking, but she told

her granddaughter :

'Yes, I believe, I believe.'

Then Ola kissed her grandmother on both her cheeks.

S. Zhilak

City of Minsk

IT IS POOR HELP FROM WITCH DOCTOR AND

GOD

No persuasion or promises would help: the married couple

would not be reconciled—the husband left Elizaveta Tsegelniuk.

Now, this worker of Kindergarten No. 19 in Petrozavodsk de-

cided to turn for outside, help. She heard from somebody that

there lived in the city.a sorceress who could do everything: to

return the loved one and to foretell trouble.

The woman went to the address given to her on Volodarskogo

Street. The sorceress met the new customer in a very friendly

way. She recognized at once that she did not come empty-

handed.

The seance of witchcraft lasted quite a while. It included

questions and secret whispering over some liquid which the

deserted 'queen of hearts' was supposed to drink in one gulp.

Elizaveta returned home full of hopes. After all, the sorceress had

promised her that her husband would surely return to her and

even love her more than before. She even fixed the exact date of

this return : November 10th.

On that day Elizaveta sat by the window from early morning

till late at night, but in vain; the husband did not come back. The

woman went to the sorceress with complaints. 'Wait,' the latter

told her again, 'be patient. Others wait much longer.' She sat

down on a stool, put a pail with water in front of her and started

gazing into it.

THE ROAD WITHOUT GOD IS WIDER 151

'I see it quite clearly, your loved one will come back.'

So Elizaveta started waiting.

And the sorceress did not waste time : she cured not only the

soul but also the body; she charmed illnesses away.

She was particularly eager to cure children. She knew that

parents would give everything to make the child well again. The

sorceress had a firm fee for everything: for example—the price

of charming away of hernia in a boy—was three roubles or a

cake.

Most of all, the sorceress is visited by believing parents or

members of families, who bring up children. They think that

shots and bitter medicines applied by the doctors are cruel. On

the other hand, a sorcerer is kind, merciful ... His words are

sweet and the liquids [sweetened] with honey. He would pray

some and then give the needy one holy water or some herbs to

drink...

Using the limitless confidence of a child who trusts that the

parents wish him well, the adults, because of their ignorance,

cause damage to their children.

At Davlekanov, Kola Fedaev fell sick. His condition grew

increasingly worse. When the boy lost consciousness the parents

lost their heads. But the local sorceress, Shvedova, came to their

help. She started to pray, to charm the sickness away, and

forbade the calling of a physician : he would interfere with 'the

word'.

When medical help was called for, anyhow, the boy was

in a very serious condition. The physicians could hardly save

him.

Some people, especially in remote places, far away from cul-

tural centres, still blindly trust the sorcerers who, they believe,

are endowed with abilities given to them by some sacred power

and, therefore, can cure all illnesses.

In the village of Kovarzino of the Vologodskaia Oblast [Pro-

vince], a funny thing happened. A woman had a heart condition

and turned to a doctor who prescribed a drug. She took it for a

long period of time, but did not feel any better. The woman was

discouraged.

Then the pious women advised: 'You should go and see

Mazikha. She has a magic word and special water for everything.

Mazikha will help you for sure.'

The woman asked her acquaintance, a nurse working in the

local hospital, to go to Mazikha. The nurse could not refuse the

152 THE SOVIET SAINTS

request of a sick friend, but at the same time, could not very well

go to the sorcerer: after all, she was a medical employee. The

whole village would laugh at her. But she found a way out. She

went to die village store, bought a bottle of Vermouth wine,

removed the label and the sealing wax and brought the bottle to

the sick one.

'Take one small glass of it before dinner, Mazikha said to tell

you.'

This 'charmed medicine' was the woman's last hope. She took

it for one week and felt much better. She regained her good mood

and went to work.

Only then her friend confessed to her the truth. And it was not

the contents of the bottle that helped the woman, but rather the

belief that she would get well.

Unfortunately, it is not always that the stories connected with

the sorcerers end in a comical way. More often they bring about

serious effects and tragic solutions.

Nurlan, the son of Gazimshan Khusainov, a worker of the

Pritobolskii sovkhoz in the Kustanaiskii Region, underwent cir-

cumcision. The boy started bleeding. The parents called a

sorcerer. He came and started his charms, reciting some words.

Naturally it would not help. The seven-year-old boy passed

away.

And here is what happened in Tadzhikistan. Akmoldzhan

Babadzhanov was growing strong and happy. Suddenly he fell

sick. The right thing to do was to take him to the hospital where

the physicians would restore him to health in a few days. But his

parents went to the neighbouring village to see the 'healer' Muin.

The first thing he did was to demand a large sum of money and

only after that he started his healing procedure from a distance,

by prayers. The condition of the sick boy did not improve. The

Muin went to see the sick boy at his home. He looked at his

mouth, into his eyes, tried the weak muscles and eventually

declared :

'He has too much blood. He should be kept for ten days with-

out food.'

The boy was locked up in a shed. He cried for a long time, but

nobody would care to look after him. After ten days Muin

appeared, examined the sick boy and said :

v 'Everything goes the way it should.' With an old razor, he cut

the vein on Akmoldzhan's arm. He let out a great deal of blood

and, having said his prayers, dressed the wound with a dirty rag,

THE ROAD WITHOUT GOD IS WIDER 153

took as his fee a lamb and a great deal of things, and left for

home.

After a few days the boy died from infection. It was only the

interference of authorities that prevented other fatalities.

Such are the sorcerers. They are ignorant, half-literate people,

adventurers and charlatans. Upon a closer look at the facts of

'healing' practices of these people, it seems incredible that these

'healers' could be trusted: in cases of skin inflammation, they

apply dirty wool, green dirt [moss?], tobacco, etc.; in cases of

burns and frostbites, they apply fresh poultry dung; they cure

dislocation with charming or massaging with wheel grease. For

their practice they use dog's dung, human urine, spiders, wood-

lice, black roaches and ground glass. They often apply poisonous

matters, sublimate, mercury or arsenic without understanding

their effects on human organism and having no idea of dosage.

'All sicknesses come from God,' the religion teaches. 'He is

sending them to people for their sins.' Apparently, they are

caused by evil spirits which penetrate into the body of a man; so

in order to heal him those spirits must be chased out. For this

purpose it is necessary to carry the 'holy cross', to pray, drink

water which had been blessed in church or taken from 'holy'

wells. The belief in the miraculous powers of the cross, the

prayers, the 'holy' water, etc., originates the belief in the powers

of the sorcerers and healers. Thus, religion does not repudiate

sorcery because both are then results of ignorance and the erring

of man.

In Tsarist Russia, when the Orthodox Church, through its

beliefs and teachings served the absolutism and dominated the

minds of people, the sorcery flourished. At that time, e.g. they

maintained that malaria was the deed of the twelve bad daughters

of King Herod. Even its name likhoradka apparently originated

from Likhbi (the bad one) as the evil spirit was called.

The sorcerers assumed that, if the sick person suffered from

shivering, it was the virgins Ledea and Triasea that got hold of

him. If fever started in the sick person, it was the virgin Ognea;

if his bones were aching or he felt pressure, the virgins Lomea

and Gnetea were responsible. [Translator's note: the names of

the virgins have roots which convey the meaning of the particular

afflictions in Russian.] Accordingly, the 'proper' treatment was

prescribed.

In our country, best conditions for the fight against illnesses

have been created. The multitude of hospitals, free medical

154 THE SOVIET SAINTS

assistance, etc., have considerably undermined the influence of

religion and, consequently, of sorcery. However, even in our times

sorcerers can be found. They use the backwardness of the people

and their belief in God and in supernatural forces.

The church leaders and sectarians also use smartly the super-

stitions and prejudices. Relying on them, they seek to increase the

number of their flock and to raise their authority. Here is what

the former church servant, E. Doluman, tells us :

'Once, during the Holy Communion, one of the women in the

church started to holler in a low voice :

' "Oh, oh ! Don't do that, I am going to leave her ! Oooh ! "

' "She is possessed, possessed," people whispered.

'Two strong men came up to the woman and tried to hold her.

The woman struggled. Finally, she calmed down and said in a

quiet voice :

' "I do want to receive Holy Communion ... It is the evil spirit

inside me that cries..."

"Then she hollered again at the top of her voice. The possessed

was given Communion by force and only then she quieted

down.

'The happening with the possessed woman strengthened my

belief in the power of the Holy Communion. However, when

three weeks later, the same woman appeared in the church, again

in die company of the same two strong men, I decided to test her.

I approached the woman and said firmly :

' "If the evil spirit starts shouting again, I am going to call the

ambulance to take you to the madhouse."

'"You Antichrist," the "possessed" woman replied angrily.

"And a seminarian at that! After all, I am shouting for the glory

of God. Don't you understand?" '

In one of the religious sects, unexpectedly 'brother' Anton

Gotelaka fell sick. Rumours spread that he was crushed by a tree

cut in the woods. The sectarian leaders would tell the people :

'The poor man suffered an open fracture of both legs. Physicians

could not help him. He has been bedridden for several months

now. He might even pass away to go to the Kingdom of Heaven.'

The sectarians decided to ask God to perform a miracle and to

heal the sick man. And, sure enough, the 'miracle' happened : as

soon as they started the public prayers, Gotelaka got up from his

bed and started walking in his room, without even limping.

'A miracle, a miracle ! ' the believers shouted.

Only later on, Gotelaka admitted that he was not sick at all. It

THEY RECEIVED WHAT THEY DESERVED 155

was the sectarian leaders who suggested that he help to perform

the 'miracle'.

Religious superstitions and prejudices are very harmful. They

keep the sick ones from getting legitimate treatment. The

sorcerers indoctrinate people by implanting in their minds the

idea that they are completely dependent on the heavenly power,

which, as we know, does not exist. Sick persons do not get

medical aid in time and the sickness continues to develop, be-

comes chronic and brings about complications. Being caught in

the dragnets of the sorcerers, the sick ones allow their illness to

become incurable.

Not only physicians should fight against religion and sorcery

but also masses of the population, including the workers of

kindergartens. People who avoid medical aid, should be

instructed that it is only medicine that can ease their suffering.

II. Okunev

Source : Pravda Ukraini, July 12th 1966, p. 4

32

They Received What They Deserved

From the Courtroom:

In the House of Culture of Shipbuilders at Sadovaia Street, a

trial against the organizers of the sect of the Piatidesiatniki was in

progress.

P. I. Zaichenko, V. I. Borbunevich and A. A. Iakimenko, who

call themselves Christians of Evangelical Faith, were brought

before the Court.

Their admissions and the testimony of witnesses depicted a

gloomy picture of a truly wild fanaticism of the style of the

Middle Ages.

The basic objective of the Piatidesiatniki is to keep Soviet

people away from community life. These three defendants

preached to old, young and quite minor people: 'Do not read

newspapers, do not attend movies or theatres, do not watch tele-

156 THE SOVIET SAINTS

vision programs, do not listen to the radio broadcast!' They

harmed their 'brothers' and 'sisters', stupefied them, and brought

upon them physical and moral trauma.

It was not by accident that one of the members of the sect, A.

Reznichenko, after being 'baptized by the Spirit' and after 'talk-

ing in tongues' [glossolalia] was driven to a complete stupefac-

tion and fell seriously ill. The fanatic [Mrs.] Ioanna Sinko

exaggerated in praying to such an extent that she now suffers

from epileptic seizures. In [Mrs.] Nina Halushchak, physicians

found the symptoms of a serious affection of her central nervous

system. During their praying sessions, the sectarians drove the

girl—pupil Liuda Ploshnik and the children Ira Pushkareva, Olef

Lebedev and Vasia Ploshnik to a psychological derangement and

a state of dead faint.

These and many other victims burden the conscience of the

leaders of the sect of the Piatidesiatniki at Nikolaev. They

destroyed the family of V. Voznenko, and brought to the brink of

break-up the family of I. Sinko.

During all Court days the hall of the House of Culture of the

Shipbuilders was filled to capacity. Representatives of the collec-

tives of the Kirov tailoring plant and of the Street-car Manage-

ment appeared before the Court' They demanded strict punish-

ment of the wild fanatics. Also the workers of other enterprises,

schools and agencies sent letters to the Court, expressing the same

sentiments.

The Court passed a judgement which was met by the whole

community of the city with sincere approval: Zaichenko, Bor-

bunevich and Iakimenko were sentenced to five years in prison

each.

Nikolaev

A. Magin

Source : Sovetskaia Latviia, February 9th (no year given)

33

Is Stepanov a Lost Man?

The meeting at the Repair and Construction Department of

the Moscow Region of Riga was fully attended. It lasted about

three and one-half hours. Many were not able to find seats and

had to stand. Even those who usually keep quiet spoke

up.

But let us tell the story from the beginning. At the Repair and

Construction Department there is employed as a foreman Nikolai

Stepanov. He enjoys a good reputation. His brigade fulfils its

quota, receives premiums so that, it would seem, the managers

should not wish anything else.

Nobody really knew who Stepanov was. Some time in the past,

he was a preacher in the Russian Baptist Congregation at Riga.

Then he was removed from this position. Having lost his com-

fortable position, Stepanov formed his own Baptist group which

often gathered in the apartments of the believers. In violation of

the existing Laws concerning religious cults, Stepanov several

times conducted religious services.

But this was not all. He visited several Baptist communities in

the Republic and appeared before the believers. Stepanov visited

Sigulda and Iaunelgava, Tukuma and Liepaia.

Now, talking about the improper deeds of this man, one would

like to ask the Presbyters of the Baptist Congregations, Egle,

Pelchers, Strelis and others, on what basis they placed their

pulpits at the disposal of die preacher who had no right to

preach?

But this is not yet all, Stepanov distributed among the be-

lievers booklets which contained crude lies about our way of life.

In these booklets, which are bombastically called 'Protest', Stepa-

nov's fellow-believers maintain that the believers in our country

are subject to persecutions.

I can easily imagine how these 'documents' are compiled.

Some place, two Baptist preachers must have met secretly, put a

map on the wall and got to work. One, closing his eyes, pointed

his finger at the map and, in such way, found the names of the

localities : the other one decided what to write.

157

158 THE SOVIET SAINTS

For example, the finger hit a place somewhere in Siberia.

'Tiumen,' the Baptist calls.

'Well, all right,' the other continues. 'Let's write that there was

a trial against the believers at Tiumen. Go on.'

'Kurgan.' - "

'Fine. Let's say that the Baptist Congregation was liquidated

at Kurgan. Proceed ! '

'Dnepropetrovsk.'

'We'll announce that there the believers were deprived of their

living quarters.'

In such a way, looking alternately at the map and at the ceil-

ing, they continued in their 'work'. They included in the 'Protest'

a dozen or so of all kinds of Soviet towns. Who does not believe,

let him go to Tiumen, Kurgan or another place to check. Surely,

you would not go.

The authors of the 'Protest' count on this fact. It is a known

fact that, basically, people of little education, and politically un-

informed constitute the vast majority of the believers. Some of

them, reading such a 'document' which, at that, they received

from a former preacher, may in fact accept it as true.

In addition to all this, Stepanov attempted to forward this lie

abroad.

When the improper dealings of the former Baptist preacher

became known, the Workers gathered together in order to judge

the behaviour of the member of their collective.

Stepanov is given the floor. His speech is flowery, full of

ambiguities, hints and obscure statements. He begins with refer-

ences to Lenin, asserts his proletarian descent, assures that he

never served in Hitler's Army, did not fire a single shot. Then he

attempts to repudiate some facts. He is then asked questions. His

answers are, e.g. like this :

Question : 'Is it a fact that you went to Liepaia and distributed

the "Protests" to the believers?'

Answer: 'Yes, I went there. But I know nothing about the

distribution of "Protests".'

Question: 'But when you went to Liepaia, were these papers

with you?'

Answer: 'Yes, they were.'

Question: 'Where did you deliver them?'

Answer : 'I do not remember.'

This is how the discussion goes on.

As we can see, the former 'divine' father does not show a

IS STEPANOV A LOST MAN? 159

simple human sincerity in front of his fellow-workers. Those

gathered, asked him to mention at least one fact concerning per-

secution of the believers in our country, But Stepanov does not

know of any such facts.

'Here, too, we do not judge you because you are a believer, but

because you violate Soviet laws,' the economist, A. Rabiner says.

'The considerable majority of our people are atheists. But we do

not consider the believers to be our enemies, because they are the

same Soviet citizens as we are, and enjoy the same rights as us.

AU we require is, that the priests fulfil the provisions of Law.'

'You quoted Lenin,' another says. 'Well, it is then only fair to

say, that Lenin himself was an ardent fighter against religious

foolishness. It is Lenin who is credited with the slogan: "Re-

ligion is a sort of spiritual raw brandy." '

In the room applause is heard.

Stepanov was forced to hear many bitter but just words that

evening. The workers, A. Kozlov, A. Tarasenko, and V. Kirilenko,

retired people and former employees of the management, V.

Tarabarin, V. Denisov and others, all said that our people would

not allow anybody to violate Laws. And still, the fellow-workers

expressed the hope that Stepanov was not yet a completely lost

man, that he still might come to senses and change. The collective

of the Department offers him such a chance.

When you think of this incident you involuntarily recall what

L. F. Il'ichev said in his speech at the June Plenary Session of

the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet

Union : 'It happens often in our midst, that a man works nicely in

his enterprise, but at home violates the rules of socialistic com-

munity life. Most of the time nobody cares about such a double

life. This is why, at home, the survivals of the past, including

religious prejudices, are particularly strong.'

The incident at the Repair and Construction Department again

proves this statement to be true. It discloses that, in its ideo-

logical work among the collective, the Party organization of the

management does not reach every person.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet

Union suggested that all local Party organizations, together with

the Labour Unions and the Komsomol, should investigate the

religious status in each collective. The Party organization of the

Repair and Construction Department has a great deal to do in

this respect. It is obvious that the comrades lack fighting spirit

and the knowledge of how to oppose the ideological foe.

160 THE SOVIET SAINTS

When Stepanov was given the floor, he took a lot of time trying

to confuse those present and make foolish statements. And what

happened? The Communists sat there and showed kindness to the

demagogue who was in the possession of the rostrum. And only

then a man stood up and said :

'Comrades, what is going on here? How long are we going to

listen to all this jabber?'

For a long time Stepanov had one face at the enterprise where

he worked and another one at his home. Now the former Baptist

preacher showed to the collective (of his fellow-workers) his true

face.

Will he be able to learn a lesson from all that was said at the

meeting?

Only time will tell.

(Signature illegible)

Source : Izvestia, June 5th 1966, p. 6; (complete text)

34

Prophets and Victims

Assignment at Readers' Request: 1966

At the very edge of Mtsensk, where the quiet little street called

Sadovaya comes to an end, stands a shabby white house. Through

.its long-unwashed windows it peers ominously out of the shining,

noisy traffic on the Moscow-Simferopol Highway. A crowd of

enraged people can be seen beside that house nearly every day

now. If the militia were not here, the incensed people probably

would have torn that house from the face of the earth, so shaken

were the minds and hearts of people by the tragedy recently

played out in the house. Here a frenzied fanatic slaughtered her

neighbour's child in broad daylight. Before the eyes of his father

and mother.

Little Valéry Mitichkin would have been three years old. The

whole street knew this fair-haired boy. Everyone had long known

his murderess, too, the sect member Maria Rykova. The neigh-

PROPHETS AND VICTIMS 161

bours had known and quarrelled with her for many years. The

wave of pain, anger and rage set off by the murder shook the

whole of Sadovaya and then spread concentrically through all

Mtsensk.

Izvestia sent me to Mtsensk at the request of the readers. I

spoke to dozens of people, read the case records and visited the

murderess in the Orel prison. The event is horrible, of course,

and quite extraordinary. That is why we must tell about it now,

without waiting for the investigation to be completed and for all

the dark and gruesome aspects of the affair to come to light.

A wave of popular indignation shakes Mtsensk today.

Wherever you go, people talk only about the tragedy on Sado-

vaya. The reports are swelled with all sorts of conjectures and

fantastic surmises. Even in Tula and Orel I had heard utterly

exaggerated versions of the tragedy. Rumours had even seeped in

about sect terrorism.

Unfortunately, no one but the militia did any explanatory work

in Mtsensk at the time, so the militia has had to combat rumours

as well as protect Mtsensk sect members from spontaneous vio-

lence.

No sooner had I appeared at the ill-starred house than two

women approached me, then two more, then several men, and

soon the street was filled with an enraged crowd. People out-

shouted one another :

'We wrote about that Rykova hornets' nest three years ago ! '

'Maria wouldn't leave us alone ! '

'She kept frightening our children.'

'She kept trying to get everyone into her sect.'

'The law should have been turned on these parasites long ago ! '

'They eat Soviet bread, but trample on Soviet laws!'

I never thought I would ever have to act as a defender of

Baptists. But this is just what I had to do. As I parried a storm of

reproaches, angry questions and quick-tempered appeals for rash

actions, I regretted that Comrade Parkhomenko, the Secretary of

the Mtsensk Party Committee, was not in my place. No doubt he

could have given a fuller answer to the chief and alas just ac-

cusation : Why hadn't the municipal organizations listened to the

voice of the public in time?

The angry people around me were not vicious people. I

answered their questions, objected, agreed and argued—and our

talk, which had begun stormily, ended on a calm note.

Why had the people's wrath descended not only on the mur-

162 THE SOVIET SAINTS

deress and her kin but also on all sect members? Why did the in-

dignant people so persistently link Maria Rykova's crime with her

faith?

The murderess was in prison when I saw her. She was a strong,

broad-shouldered woman with powerful arms and with coarse

features set in a dull, stubborn expression. She answered my

questions willingly, remembering perfectly well all the details,

names and events. She spoke calmly of her crime.

Here is how Maria Rykova came to be religious. She grew up

with her grandmother, who sedulously instilled in her a faith in

God (I'm teaching her to be good, not bad'). Then Auntie Katya

turned up; she convinced the girl that the faith of the Church was

not the 'true' one and led her off to the Jehovah's Witnesses. But

Maria did not like the Witnesses, for some reason, and did not

belong to any sect for a while. Unfortunately there was at that

time no wise and experienced person at her side. Instead, Auntie

Tanya turned up and drew her into a community of Evangelical

Christian Baptists. But the seeds planted by the Jehovah's Wit-

nesses evidently had struck root. No sooner did dissenters appear

in the Baptist community than Maria joined them.

The residents of the street where the child was brutally mur-

dered did not know about all these sects and the distinctions

between them. They saw only that the tragedy had occurred on

religious grounds and knew that the murder had been attended by

features resembling some sort of ritual. For instance, Rykova had

dressed the boy in a clean, specially prepared baby's vest before

killing him. They knew that the murderess was a Baptist and they

blamed all sect members indiscriminately.

It goes against my grain to defend the Baptists. Poisoning

human souls with religious opiates is always fraught with

dangerous consequences, no matter how innocuously this is done!

Frequently the Baptists plough the souls of their brethren in

Christ, and others—barbarously fanatical sects—sow this well-

prepared soil.

None the less, one must be objective. Ritual murder is alien to

the convictions and faith of Baptists; otherwise this sect would

have been forbidden by law. Only lack of information on the

subject and the poor organization of explanatory work in Mtsensk

can account for the panicky rumours sweeping the city from end

to end : 'The Baptists will slaughter our children', and hence the

conclusion: 'Drive out the Baptists!'

Still, there are people walking about who deserve the full fury

PROPHETS AND VICTIMS 163

of that wrath. They are not many, only a few. Hiding from the

Law and the people, they do their shady work in secret. Their

tentacles reached out even to this place, to the edge of Mtsensk.

For some time now, certain petitioners have been turning up in

the waiting-rooms of offices in the provinces, the republics and

even the capital. They call themselves Baptists, but hasten to

stress that the present Baptist Church 'does not conform to the

teachings of Christ' and that they have dissented with it.

These petitioners behave defiantly, at times clearly provoking

rows. The petitions they present to the officials contain illegal

demands (not requests, but demands ! ) formulated in two points :

First: That their so-called 'organizational committee' be

charged with convoking an all-Union Baptists' congress that

would remove the present leadership of the community and put in

its place the leadership of the organizational committee. Second :

'That interference by school and State in the upbringing of the

believers' children be discontinued.'

Such was the petition which they addressed to the Council forw

Religious Affairs and other official agencies. Everywhere, it was

patiently explained to them that convoking a congress of believers

was an internal affair of the religious community itself, since the

Church is separate from the State in our country. If State bodies

were to tell the present leadership of the Union of Evangelical

Christian Baptists to convoke a congress, they would be breaking

the law; and instructions on which leaders to remove and whom

to replace them with would be all the more unlawful.

It was also explained to them that we have a law on universal

education and that every child must receive a secular education,

regardless of his parents' convictions.

When the more literate of the petitioners are asked why they

are dissatisfied with the leadership of the Baptist community,

they reply approximately as follows : 'We recognize only divine

law, while the present leadership of the Baptist Church recog-

nizes earthly laws as well.'

So this turns out to be the essence of the matter. The people

behind the petitioners do not want to recognize the Laws of the

Soviet State, nor to reckon with the fact that the sect members

are not only believers but also Soviet citizens. Our laws protect

the rights of believers and their religious liberty. The laws,

however, oblige believers, as well as atheists, to do their civic

duty as defined by the U.S.S.R. Constitution and to obey Soviet

Laws. The leaders of the 'organizational committee' are essen-

164 THE SOVIET SAINTS

tially opposed to the law. There are some laws which they accept,

however: they draw their pensions punctually, and they willingly

avail themselves of paid vacations and other benefits of our

society, die established order of which they oppose.

They admonish their petitioners to pursue their illegal de-

mands by all conceivable means, even by raising an uproar. They

instil in them the idea that this means 'fighting for the true faith',

for the petitioners as a rule have only a feeble understanding of

the subtleties in the petitions. They are simply drilled to 'stand up

for the faith' to 'suffer' for it. And it is for this that they come to

the province centres and the capital.

Recently I had occasion to talk to two such petitioners. What is

it that they are advocating so tenaciously?

Anna Fyodorovna Istratova, fifty-two years old and single, is a

charwoman at a Tula factory. Obeying an order from her sect

leaders, she dropped her job and set off with a petition. She had

only the vaguest notion of the contents of the petition. 'I am

petitioning so that the other, the registered Baptists won't per-

secute us, for there is no truth in them.'

Akim Ivanovich Bobylev (sixty-two years old, he collects a

respectable pension) came from Bryansk Province (presumably to

Moscow) fully convinced that he was soliciting permission to

register his congregation with the representative of the Council

for Religious Affairs. He was very surprised when it turned out

that he was soliciting exactly the opposite—the abrogation of the

legal status of sects.

Behind the backs of these generally backward and unscrupu-

lously deceived people stands the adventurist group of the so-

called 'organizational committee', driving headlong for power

over the Baptist community and its treasury. The group is headed

by Gennady Kryuchkov and Georgy Vins; it is they who fit out

the petitioners and direct them from hideouts, urging them to

stand up almost 'in the name of the people'. Actually, they have

no right to speak even on behalf of the Baptist community, for

they have been able to deceive and carry with them less than a

twentieth of all the Baptists.

Defeated inside the community, the 'organizational committee'

promoted seething underground activity. It recruited adherents

through deception and incited them to ever more brazen and

provocative acts. Now it needs 'victims of persecution' and

'martyrs of the faith' to rekindle the believers' cooling interest.

It was with such Baptists that Maria Rykova was associated for

PROPHETS AND VICTIMS 165

the past two or three years. It was they who taught her to disobey

secular Laws. It was they who fanned her fanaticism and her

readiness to 'defend the faith of Christ' by any conceivable

means.

A marked change in Rykova's behaviour coincided with the

period of intensive activity by the 'organizational committee'

adherents. Until then she had prayed fervently at the secret meet-

ings of her sect, openly advocated her views and proselytized

whoever she could for the sect. She even promised a cow to little

Valery's mother, Nina Mitichkina.

All this attracted no particular attention from the general

public. Her neighbours, true enough, had demanded that local

organizations look into what was going on in her family and find

out at the same time what they lived on. It was a big family with

a small income, yet they had bought a motor-cycle, then a motor-

scooter and now were trying to buy a car. But these warning

signals went unheeded.

Then came March. The sect intensified its propaganda to resist

Soviet Laws, and Maria received underground literature calling

for a struggle against 'secular Laws' and for obedience to 'divine

law'. Found in her home during the search that followed the

murder were several issues of the illegal 'Brethren's Leaflet' (the

latest was the April issue) and the notorious 'Address to All

Mothers in Registered and Unregistered Congregations of the

Evangelical Baptist Faith in the U.S.S.R.'. This contained the

summons : 'Unite our efforts in prayer to God to dedicate to his

service our children's lives from the cradle.' It also carried the

appeal : 'Save our children from the influences of the world.'

We do not know how these documents were interpreted to

Maria Rykova, by her secret spiritual father, a certain Zamaruyev,

and by visiting 'spreaders of the faith'. One can guess, however,

that they were not sparing of appeals to action.

When Maria's oldest son, Vanya, was admitted to the Young

Pioneers in April, Maria tore off his kerchief and forbade Lyuba,

who was in the first grade, to wear the star of the Young

Octobrists (an organization of children younger than the

Pioneers). Then she went to school and declared that her children

were believers and were not to be admitted to the Young Pioneers

and Young Octobrists.

Maria's mother, Anastasia Vasilyevna, was troubled about her

grandchildren's lives; she brought Vanya another kerchief and

urged her daughter not to cripple the children's souls. Maria did

166 THE SOVIET SAINTS

not give in, and repulsed her mother. Thereupon Anastasia

Vasilyevna began to petition to have her daughter deprived of

maternal rights and her children taken from her! This warning

signal too was ignored.

On Sunday, May 22nd, Maria's husband took her to a secret

prayer meeting by motor-cycle. When she returned she was

excited. We do not know what was said at that meeting. Only one

document bearing that date has been preserved, Rykova's draft of

a statement that her son was allegedly being persecuted at school

for his religion. On the same day Maria learned from her husband

that he had taken their neighbours by motor-cycle to pick a cow

for purchase, and that the neighbours had already received a 300-

rouble loan from the State (for the purchase of the cow). This

meant that they had decided to do without her draft.

Early on the morning of May 23rd Maria called Nina from her

house and told her that unless she returned the loan at once, she

would pay dearly for it. She also warned her that there was a

great secret behind her words. Nina and her husband thought it

over and decided that perhaps a monetary reform was in the

offing. Her husband took the money and went to work at the

factory. His wife left the house an hour later. On her way out she

was stopped by Rykova at the gate : 'Why take little Valéry along

with you? Leave him with us.' The mother left him in Rykova's

care, as she had done many times before. At the factory Nina

learned that Maria had already been there to ask the bookkeeper

whether the loan had been returned. The mother hastened back.

Maria refused to open the door to her, and said through the

window that she would not return the son until she received a

certificate saying that the money had been returned. Maria now

ran to her husband, who came rushing home to demand his son.

The house was carefully locked from the inside. Maria's own

children had been sent away somewhere. Through the window

Rykova showed him a knife and declared that unless he brought

the certificate little Valéry would live only until two o'clock.

Little Valery's terrified parents ran for the militia. In a few

minutes a militia car arrived on the scene, having picked up

Rykova's husband on the way. The husband's negotiations with

his wife came to nothing. Nina looked through the window and

went into hysterics. Maria had the weeping child, dressed in a

pink vest, squeezed between her knees. She held a knife in her

hand.

PROPHETS AND VICTIMS 167

All hurled themselves against the window and door and broke

into.the house. But it was too late.

It is hard to imagine that a person of sound mind would resort

to such a terrible act. But even if Rykova suffered a mental

breakdown, isn't the cause obvious?

Whatever the experts may say and whatever the Court may

decide, the death of Valéry Mitichkin is on your consciences,

Gennady Kryuchkov and Georgy Vins ! It was you in your hide-

outs who kindled the evil passions in your followers' souls, you

who sent the petitioners you had duped to 'suffer for the faith',

though you yourselves prefer to hide behind their backs.

Prophets of evil, you sow nothing but evil, though you hold

forth about kindliness and love of one's neighbour. In what a

sinister light your basic thesis suddenly appears, the thesis you

have been drumming into your flock : 'Do not submit to earthly

law, submit to God's laws!' Who can foresee what monstrous

shape this thesis may take in the inflamed mind of some semi-

literate fanatic or other, now leafing through Holy Writ to get

God's guidance on how he can best 'champion' the faith.

Before I left Mtsensk, Aleksandr Petrovich Buzanov, Party

organizer of a shop at the Nonferrous Metals Recovery Plant,

looked me up at my hotel. He had come to ask me to deliver a

talk in the shop and explain what it was all about.

'All I hear people say is: "Why don't you suppress the

Baptists? Why don't you exile them?" And I'm not in the

know '

I could not deliver that talk, but I put the assiduous Party

organizer 'in the know' to the best of my ability. After that, all

the way back to Moscow, I pondered the question eternally asked

by newspapers on such occasions: 'Citizens, where were you?'

The Mtsensk tragedy highlighted a strange and unforgettable

inertia on the part of local organizations and the public. No con-

clusions were drawn, no lessons learned. Even the agitators were

not called together in time, were not told about what had hap-

pened, were not assigned to where passions now are seething. And

the Deputies to the City Soviet have not gone into their con-

stituencies to carry to the voters the message that is needed at this

moment.

A strange serenity. And dangerous.

Mtsensk

N. Shtanko

1967

Source : Sovetskaia Belorussiia, August 15th 1967

35

Extract from

1'The Brutal Hypocrites'

A group of ignorant fanatics from the Utevsk Baptist Evan-

gelical Christian Church have woven their nest in the area. The

praying hypocrites recognize only their 'holy books', which are

printed in America and England. These overseas businessmen are

not wasting their efforts; their aims are obvious. By taking ad-

vantage of our religious freedom, they are bringing into our

country the germs of their rotten imperialist ideology.

The most insolent of the Baptist pastors, in an outburst

of disapproval of the Soviet Laws, declared themselves dis-

senters.

They are determined to convert the population and to establish

the rule of the 'evangelical ideology^3 over the land; to introduce

religious instruction of the children and the abolishment of anti-

religious propaganda. They begin to frighten the believers with

fear of the 'Great Judgement of God', urging all, 'each per-

sonally', to earn their salvation by active recruitment and winning

others to Christ.

The believers from Utevsk were the first to join the dissenters'

movement. Their pastor, F. Kopenkov, initiated the move. The

hypocrites from Utevsk refused to recognize revolutionary holi-

days, attend movies or watch television. They also refused to

read 'worldly' books, magazines and newspapers. Their radio

receivers were always tuned to foreign 'soul saving^3 radio broad-

casts.

Pastor F. Kopenkov, in his sermons, urged his fellow-believers,

whose mind were saturated with religious deception, to educate

their children in religion; to invite members of their families and

friends to join the church. Because of these illegal activities,

Pastor F. Kopenkov was fined. This resentful fanatic then or-

ganized public processions of believers. They sang psalms, almost

driving themselves into a frenzy. Then the pastor urged the

fanatics^3 parents to undertake new efforts to infect their children

170

EXTRACT FROM fTHE BRUTAL HYPOCRITES* 171

with religion and to draw them away from tlie influence of the

schools. This was to prepare them for joining the Church. For

this flagrant violation of the laws, Pastor F. Kopenkov was im-

prisoned.

Source: Sovetskaia Rossiia (Soviet Russia), Moscow, January

13th 1968, p. 4

36

Once Upon a Time There Was a

Little Girl...

A letter received by the editor cannot be read dispassionately.

'... I strongly request that a thorough examination be made of

my situation and the fate of my daughter Tanya ... I ask for help

in blocking her path into religion and in condemning her grand-

mother and everyone who is helping to cripple the life of the

child...

Vladimir Ovchinnikov

Khabarovsk

... There once was a little girl named Tanya. A short girl.

With light-coloured hair. Tanya had a mama and a papa. They

had married before Papa's term of service in the army. And when

Papa came back home he no longer lived with Tanya's mama...

'I get the picture/ thinks the reader. 'A family drama ...

Unfortunate children...'

Don't rush to the conclusion, Comrade. Everything here is

vastly more involved. In addition, don't rush to condemn

Tanya's father harshly, and by the way, Tanya's mother. The

mother because she is no longer with us. She caught a cold. She

took ill. In March this year she died. As for Papa ...

I have purposely skipped over the middle of this sad story and

have begun at the end. Now Tanya is eight. She is in the second

grade of one of the Khabarovsk schools and is under the observa-

tion of a neuropathologist and a therapist. The little girl has a

serious nervous affliction. Weakened cardiac activity. Incipient

rheumocarditis.

And all this, I repeat, at eight years of age.

Yes, a family mess, and the mother's death of course could not

but affect the health of little Tanya. But fairly recently, a much

more weighty cause was uncovered, in fact, in a Court trial. And

right here we must turn back to the deliberately skipped middle

of the story.

174

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL .. . 175

Even during the lifetime of the mother, who, following a

divorce, received money from her ex-husband for child support,

Tanya was handed over for upbringing to the home of a grand-

mother living in the settlement of Sita, seventy kilometres from

Khabarovsk.

Once, the grandmother, Evdokiya Afanas'yevna Zabavina,

dressed the girl in her best clothes and took her somewhere. It

was on a Sunday. Autumn was still competing with the onset of

winter. The chill tweaked Tanya's cheeks. Grandmother led her

to the home of the Baptist Chernolevskiy, where many people had

already come together. And then it began !

People sang, went through strange motions and entered into

ecstasy that was meaningless and strange to the little girl. The

people, including her own blood-related grandmother, became

puzzling creatures for the girl, whose actions drove her into a

state of dread. Now there was not the accustomed autumn chill

but the icy atmosphere of fear that penetrated little Tanya's

heart.

Weeks and months went by. On each or almost each Sunday

the Baptist heresy was dinned into the little girl's mind. Tanya

grew used to the sensation of fear. She watched when adults

washed each other's feet for some reason, and a look of puzzle-

ment came over her face. She noticed how they paid lip-service in

denouncing drunkenness, but at home, among guests they

caroused. When she was just about to ask a question, granny

carefully forestalled it with a tender word :

'Everything's from God, honey.'

Rumours about the abnormal way of life led by his daughter

reached Tanya's father, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, foreman at the

Khabarovsk Machine Tool-Building Plant. And that Tanya's

mother was not opposing it. When his ex-wife died, he visited the

grandmother and demanded Tanya.

'After the death of my daughter,' rasped Evdokiya Afa-

nas'yevna in an ominous voice, 'all that's hers—is mine ! Under-

stand?'

Vladimir understood : Tanya had become a thing. And then he

decided to battle it out with the Baptist grandmother, and to

snatch his daughter out of her grasp. He sent off a declaration to

the People's Court of the Rayon imeni (named after) Lazo and

asked that Tanya be given to him for upbringing. The grand-

mother joined the battle and immediately switched over to the

176 THE SOVIET SAINTS

attack. She began to instil strongly into the grandchild that they

wanted to 'steal her, Tanya, and cut her up'.

'Tanya, you have no papa. And this uncle who calls you his

daughter is an Antichrist. He's thirsty for your blood...'

When Vladimir Ovchinnikov arrived for a visit, Tanya fled

from him as from the plague. She screamed:

'I'm scared, scared, scared ! ' and begged for someone to hide

her.

Meanwhile the Court hearing dragged on. It was now this

document that was not enough, now another ... Ovchinnikov sent

off a letter to the editor. He mailed another to the Supreme

Court.

Soon after this the trial was held. The People's Court,

although delayed, did pass the correct decision : transfer Tanya

to be brought up in her father's family.

It would appear that air points have been resolved. The little

girl was wrenched out of the clutches of the Baptists. She is in

school. She is under treatment. But I would like to continue the

account.

Tanya has been enrolled in the Sita Primary School. Her

teacher is Vera Petrovna Sinel'nikova, and she had been selected

as part of the commission, preparing on request of the People's

Court, the document of examination of the material status of

E. A. Zabavina. The commission also included the former Rayon

Inspector V. E. Bogoroditskaya and A. P. Nigey, deputy to the

Sita Village Council.

Specifying in the document the farmstead.plot of the Zaba-

vinyye family, the home, and the size of the pensions, and re-

calling that E. A. Zabavina herself is a Baptist, the document

compilers drew a strange conclusion, to put it mildly: 'The

school and the neighbours are against giving the child to her

father. The girl must stay with her grandmother.'

In the trial, schoolteacher V. P. Sinel'nikova was a witness and

spoke in defence of the interests of the Baptist grandmother. This

became the grounds for a particular finding by the Court in which

it was stated that anti-religious propaganda is poorly provided for

in the Sita school.

I have not been able to meet with V. P. SineFnikova. She has

worked in schools for à quarter of a century, mostly in Sita. She

is no novice in teaching children. She has a good record in the

public education division. And suddenly—this. Why?

'They (these Baptists),' explained Vera Petrovna, 'are good

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL .. . 177

people. They are against drunkenness. For friendliness ... And

that's why I tended to favour the grandmother. Also, I had heard

many bad things about Tanya's father from her. I checked them.

I see now that I made a mistake...'

I met with teachers of the Sita Secondary School. Young,

perky, uncompromising. But a peaceful co-existence, so to speak,

with the Baptists prevailed also in their case. 'They don't seem to

bother us.'

'They don't bother us ...' Really! Sectarians work on the sly,

and the Sita congregation, incidentally, has never been registered.

Grief strikes a family. And here already someone of the 'brother

or sisters in Christ' has gone to the unfortunate one with their

unctuous words, and picked ofï a victim. That is how it was with

Sita resident, Istomina, a woman who was drawn into the sect

They know about this at the school. But none of the teachers

waged a battle for the fate of a person.

We met with presbyter Chernolevskiy and with Zabavina.

'Don't deceive your dear ones, is our first teaching,' drawls one in

a sing-song voice, and the grandmother seconds him. And she

does deceive : 'I did not lead the girl to the prayer meetings and

she did not go there herself.' Hemmed in by irrefutable evidence,

the grandmother was compelled to tell the truth to the Court. But

then she remarked to me : 'What a fool I was, a fool. I should

have taught the girl not to tell about this in the courtroom.' 'Does

this mean teaching to deceive your dear ones?' I ask Zabavina.

She is silent as the grave.

And one more fact compelled me to continue this conversation.

Above I had referred to a particular finding of the Court. Un-

fortunately, it dealt only with case No. 2-624. The determination

was not directed to the Rayon Public Education Division, nor to

the Rayon Executive Committee.

... They say that a sacred place is never empty. Where the

school and our ideology are not at work, others are. At times

against us. Then what kind of peaceful co-existence with the

Baptists are we talking about?

Sita-Khabarovsk

I. Grebtsov,

Our correspondent

EPILOGUE

Now that we have read these documents from the Soviet Press

itself, what shall we say? We have read of Christians being sent

to prison, and of children being taken from their parents. How

should we react? Should we answer hatred with hatred?

Surely so ! Hatred can be overcome by hatred only. Hatred is

one of the Christian virtues. The first 'gospel'—that given to

Adam and Eve in the garden—talks of hatred when we read:

'The Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done

this, thou art cursed ... I will put enmity between thee and the

woman' (Gen. 3:14,15).

Jesus said, in the course of the Sermon on the Mount: 'No

man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one and

love the other ...' (Matt. 6:24). Clearly Jesus considered hatred

to be a necessary corollary to true love.

In the book of Revelation, our Master praises the Christians of

Ephesus because they hated 'the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which

I also hate' (Rev. 2:6, my italics).

To the hatred of the Communists we must answer with a still

greater hate. But this hatred is not to be directed towards the men

who do wrong. We must not hate the man, rather it is their hatred

that we wish to hate and overcome. For the men themselves the

fire we reserve must be the fire of love. They are but brothers in

error who can and must be healed.

Once there was a great fire that broke out in a town. A man

went to a burning house that was at the centre of the blaze with a

cup of water which he threw at the flames. Nothing happened; so

he came back and said that water does not quench fire. Foolish

man ! A cup of water does not put out a fire, but rivers of water

do.

The little love which we have cannot extinguish the fire of

Communist hatred, but the rivers of living water that should flow

from the heart of every Christian—these great streams can over-

come hatred.

With about thirty other Christians I remember being in a

prison cell in Rumania. One day the door was opened and a new

prisoner was pushed in. It took us a little time to recognize him in

the half-darkness of the cell. When we did recognize him we were

180

EPILOGUE 181

amazed to see not a fellow-Christian but a well-known Captain of

the Secret Police who had arrested and tortured many of us. We

asked him how he had come to be a fellow-prisoner.

He told us that one day a soldier on duty had reported that a

twelve-year-old boy, carrying a pot of flowers, was asking to see

him. The Captain was curious and allowed the boy to enter.

When the boy entered he was very shy. 'Comrade Captain,' he

said. 'You are the one who arrested my father and mother, and

today is my mother's birthday. It has always been my habit to

buy her a pot of flowers on her birthday—but now, because of

you, I have no mother to make happy.'

'My mother is a Christian and she taught me that we must love

our enemies and reward evil with good. As I no longer have a

mother, I thought these flowers might make the mother of your

children happy. Could you please give them to your wife?'

The Communist torturer is also a man. There is a chord in his

heart that still vibrates at the word of truth and burning love. The

Captain took the boy's flowers and embraced him with tears in his

eyes. A process of remorse and conversion began. In his heart he

could no longer bear to arrest innocent men. He could no longer

inflict torture. In the end he had arrived with us in prison because

he had become a defender of Christians.

Communists have killed our brethren and sisters, and continue

to kill them. In Red China the churches have been closed and

priests who persistently refused to deny Christ have been buried

alive. Tens of thousands of Russian Christians have been arrested

and Soviet prisons or asylums are full of them, even now.

Christians are tortured and held to ridicule before the public.

They are shown as fanatics, obscurantists, illiterates, thieves and

so on, but these charges reveal more about the characters of the

accusers than of the accused. We who believe must surely feel

compassion for men who can become so warped.

I hate this Communist hatred with all my heart; but I wish to

overcome it by love.

From Church history we learn that, far from having resent-

ment or bitterness, those who came out from Roman prisons in

the first centuries were examples of understanding, love and

tenderness. Tertullian, a Christian writer of the third century,

says that those who endured tortures or imprisonment for their

faith were considered to be so filled with the Spirit that they

could absolve sins. More than that—they were prepared to for-

give the gravest sins that no other Christian pastor of the day was

182 THE SOVIET SAINTS

prepared to overlook. The result was that the Bishops were forced

into opposing the 'confessors' (as they were called) in this practice

of absolution.

After the Decian persecution (250) thousands who had lapsed

under pressure sought for restoration in the Church when the

storm had subsided. Again it was those who had endured tortures

for the sake of Christ who were the first to support a policy of

forgiveness for the backsliders. One of the leading opponents of

such a policy, Novatian, was a man who had never suffered

himself and yet knew no forgiveness for those who had suffered

and broken under the strain.

Christians come out from suffering more loving than they were

before. They love their weaker brethren who could not suffer.

They love even their torturers.

I cannot unite with what is called the 'anti-Communist' fight in

the vulgar sense of the word. Firstly because Communists are not

the only persecutors of Christians. Our brethren are killed by

Moslems in Nigeria and Sudan. I love these martyrs as much as

the victims of Communism. Secondly, because I have learned

from men of true wisdom that you can render a great service to

mankind by remaining above the battle.

If I had lived in the times of the Reformation I think that I

would have sided with Erasmus rather than with Luther. The

latter asked for fire and a sword to uproot what was evil in the

Roman Catholic Church. The result is that now, on the Continent

at least, we have a Lutheran Church where many of its pastors

believe in the Bible—so dear to Luther's heart—less than the

Catholics of his day.

I prefer the battle to be in the sphere of ideas. Mankind goes

towards physical suicide if it sets out to fight with nuclear

weapons. Rather must error be fought by truth, and wrong

opposed by righteousness. Without wanting to exclude violence in

the self-defence of the Christian civilization, my answer is .love.

Would it be merely madness if thousands of Christians in

London, Washington and the capitals of other nations were to

take flowers to the Soviet Embassies and Consulates saying : 'We

love you even though you arrest, oppress, torture and kill our

brothers. For the tears you bring us we bring you flowers'?

When the Russians entered Rumania they came looting, killing

and raping. A Catholic priest in Galatz, a friend of mine, went to

meet them with a plate of bread and salt, which was the tradi-

tional way of welcoming guests in a Rumanian home. He spoke

EPILOGUE 183

the Russian language and approached them with words of love,

and those words went home to their hearts. Many Rumanian

Christians welcomed Russians to their homes. They were prayed

for and many were secretly given gospels. We tried to be good to

them, and many found Christ.

How would it be if, instead of answering the menace of Com-

munism with the menace of nuclear war, we were to place our

reliance on the word of truth and on deeds of love? Would this be

madness? Christ was thought by some to be mad. So was St.

Paul ! Perhaps this sort of madness might prove to be the only

remedy to the madness of Communist hatred. At least it would be

a cheaper policy. The killing of every Vietcong costs £2,000, plus

casualties, to the Americans. A gospel for him and a little food

would cost much less.

These documents which I present will leave no room for doubt

about the existence of a secret Underground Church in Russia.

The same thing is* true about other Communist countries. Why,

then, are they not represented in the World Council of Churches

or at the big Christian international conferences and conventions?

Why do we in the West know nothing of their experiences?

Love, courage and heroism are contagious just as vice is con-

tagious. As one man can learn drug addiction, alcoholism and

other similarly wicked things from others, so we could learn much

from these Soviet Saints! They sing a song we should learn.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the Christian Church lives again in the

heroic days of the first centuries.

It is said that during the Diocletian persecution in Rome (303)

idols were placed throughout the city. Men had to worship them

or die. The Bishop of Rome at the time recommended Christians

to leave the city if they felt too weak to face martyrdom, rather

than to stay in the city and commit idolatry. Among the Chris-

tians was a fifteen-year-old young aristocrat called Tiburtius. He

went to the Bishop and said : 'Is it not the first fruits that God

asked from the Israelites? If some older folk take your advice and

leave Rome, I will stay and offer God the flower of my youth.'

Tiburtius stayed in Rome, and he got the martyr's crown.

These documents have shown that in Russia today there are

young people who are of the same breed as Tiburtius. These are

youths prepared to resist openly the Communists, sacrificing their

parental home, their careers, their liberties and their lives.

The Communists mock young Christians for spreading secret

leaflets and singing hymns. St. Augustine said that whoever sang

184 THE SOVIET SAINTS

a hymn praised God twice because he praised God with the words

and also in the music. Sometimes these young Soviet Christians

have praised God three times. Their third form of praise has

been their agonized cries under torture.

We are more powerful than the Communists. Greater courage

and power is needed to face a whipping with a smile, than to do

the whipping! Let them hate us; but we will love them. Love is a '

weapon that blesses the one who displays it and the other towards

whom it is displayed. But this love should be balanced. Love

obliges sometimes to violence towards those who endanger the

triumph of love, as is the case with traitors in the Underground

Church.

In the Communist camp, millions of our brethren have been

killed, and continue to be killed and tortured. If these Christians

had only thought about the immediate future they would have

given up, but like Moses they considered the shame of the people

of God to be of greater worth than the throne of Pharaoh. They

looked to generations to come, and they kept the torch of Chris-

tianity burning in order to hand it to those who followed.

Jacob worked for Rachel for fourteen years and it seemed to

him a little time because of his love for her. There is such

comfort in the love which God has put in our little hearts, and

more comfort still in the knowledge of His love for us. This

comfort helps us to see the sufferings of this age to be of little

importance. We read of one Tachenko saying 'one night he heard

a divine song from Heaven' (Article 19, p. 96). It might well

have been—as the newspaper report suggested—a song that he

had heard before. But this time it came from above.

I know from my own prison experiences, and from those of

other Christians, that on sad Christmas Eves when we have

suffered from the cold and hunger, and longed for our loved ones

even more than usual, that we have been comforted by hearing

the choirs of Heaven ! We have known that the Angels were sur-

rounding us just as certainly as when they appeared to the

shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. When you hear angelic

songs, the brutal cries of the Communists don't count for so

much.

We have tried to be fair and present reports not only of the*

Saints but also of the traitors who, for personal reasons, denied

their Saviour.

The Roman historian, Suetonius, tells the story of the emperor

Caligula who began to rule his empire with high principles, but

EPILOGUE 185

later abandoned them. After describing some of the good works of

the early days, Suetonius wrote: 'Thus are the deeds of the

Prince among men; henceforth those of a veritable monster.' We

could say the same about our traitors. The prophet, Ezekiel,

warned that if a man abandoned his righteous ways and began to

sin—his former righteousness would be forgotten. These traitors

have done us very great harm. In the matter of ruthlessness, they

even surpassed the Communists on occasions.

But we continue to love them also, and we succeed to win some

of them back to Christ. Others who cannot be regained must, I

fear, receive their deserved punishment.

I have said, several times, that the Situation in Russia and the

Communists countries closely resembles that of the first centuries

of Christian history. There is another side to this resemblance

that I have not so far mentioned. Jewish Christians are playing a

prominent role!

The first Christians were Jews. Jewish Apostles brought the

Gospel to the other nations. 'Has God rejected his people?' asked

Paul the Apostle. 'By no means' (Rom. 11:1, R.S.V.). The

Apostle prophesied the return to Christ of a remnant of the Jews

before the return of our Lord. And he was sure that this would

mean great riches for the Gentiles.

Great personalities of the Jewish race in the West have de-

clared themselves to be believers in Jesus—Albert Einstein,

Henri Bergson, Nyils Bohr, Piccard, Franz Werfel, Shalom Ash

and Martin Buber. In Russia and Rumania, Jewish believers play

a most important role in the leadership of the Underground

Church, and they number among the martyrs as in times of old.

In the documents presented in this book we have come across the

names of Grunvald, Hartfeld and others. These are-Protestants.

The Orthodox elements of the Underground movement are led

entirely by elements of the Jewish race, among them the priests,

Eshliman and Yakunin, and the professor, Levitin. They were the

first ones who had the courage to protest against the collaboration

of traitors like the Patriarch Alexei and the Archbishop Niko-

deme with the Communists.

In Rumania a Protestant pastor of Jewish origin, Milan Haimo-

vici was one of the most respected sufferers for Christ. He spent

many years in prison and under torture—but he was not broken!

One-third of the world's Jewry lives in the Communist camp.

This should therefore form one-third of the concern, efforts and

gifts of the Missions to the Jews. I study the magazines of many

186 THE SOVIET SAINTS

of these societies and happily, some have understood this to be

their duty. It could not be otherwise.

Not to work towards winning these Jews for Christ means that

evangelistic efforts in other parts of the world are very severely

prejudiced. What would you think of a pastoral visit where one-

third of the family were sick and the pastor did not even inquire

about their health? American and British Jews have plenty of

opportunities to hear the Gospel—Russian Jews have practically

no such opportunities. Surely it is to these Jews hi Communist

lands that the missions must concentrate.

But if some Western missions to the Jews have failed, the

Underground Church has not. It has won Jews for Christ, and

these have become a great blessing for the Churches. They are

very often the leaders. So God fulfils His ancient promise that

Japheth (the European nations) will dwell in the tents of Shem

(Gen. 9:27). Russians and Rumanians sit at the feet of Shem—of

Hebrew Christians, and learn from them the word of God.

You see in this book the documents from the unknown world of

the Underground Church—a Church of suffering, of fight and

victory. Yes—of victory! Fifty years after the triumph of the

Communist revolution in Russia Komsomolskaia Pravda writes :

'In Krasnoiarsk, a city of half a million inhabitants, there is only

one more or less active group of Komsomol members—atheists,

consisting of fifteen students' (Article 13, p. 79).

Fifteen out of half a million after fifty years of intensive effort!

That is their triumph! Those fifteen may terrorize. They may

put Christians into prison. But they are still no more than fifteen !

May the readers of this book ask themselves how they can join

hands with the Soviet Saints of the Underground Church. We

have read of Garbuzov being sentenced because he listened to

'libellous programs from abroad' by means of radio (Article 9,

p. 74). The Gospel, broadcast from the West, can be heard in

Russia. The article entitled 'Such things are not forgiven' deals

with a girl who copied by hand pages from a Bible of Tsarist

times. These Soviet Christians have practically no Bibles. You

can send them ! The Bibles sent in secretly do arrive. So do films,

literature and tape recordings.

The hunger after the Word of God is great. On August 11th

1966 a hundred thousand copies of a selection of Old Testament

stories were published under a name that disguised the contents.

The publication was made possible through the combined efforts

of members of the Underground Church who had attained high

EPILOGUE 187

places in the State Publishing House at Moscow, and a Christian

among the Communist censors. The news of the publication

spread like fire and all the copies were sold in a matter of hours.

In 1967 a well-known denomination in Great Britain con-

demned in its annual report the activities of the European

Christian Mission which brings Bibles secretly into Communist

countries. There was, on the other hand, no condemnation or

even mention of the killing of Christians in China, or the closing

of Churches and callous imprisonment of believers in Communist

countries. When British Christians protested at this and pointed

out that Tyndale in Reformation times smuggled Bibles into

Britain from the Netherlands, they got the answer that Tyndale

had a right to do this because he was bringing them into his own

country !

If that principle is to be taken seriously we may well ask if the

Apostles were in the wrong! What right had they, as Jews, to

bring the Gospel to Romans and Greeks? What right had the

British to take the Bible to China and India? Why, then, should

British people support the Bible Society which spreads the Word

of God in 1,300 languages?

You do not ask the Devil if he permits the work of God ! The

Soviet Government forbids the spread of God's Word as the

documents presented in this book make only too clear. Again

foreigners are prohibited from bringing Bibles and Christian

literature into the country. But why should we feel ourselves

bound by the laws of an atheistic State?

Some of the most influential church leaders in England

wrote to those who had inquired about these matters and said that

it was the duty of Christians in Communist countries 'to render to

Caesar the things that are Caesar's'. I disagree totally with this

position. God is to be obeyed universally and unlimitedly upon

the bare sight of His will. The laws of men, therefore, must be

examined by the laws of God. If there is a clash between human

and divine laws then we 'ought to obey God rather than man'

(Acts 5:29).

I appeal then to Western Christians—send Bibles and Chris-

tian literature to Communist countries. Keep broadcasting the

Gospel in the languages of the Communist countries. And send

practical aid to the families of Christian martyrs. All this, I

know, will cost money, but then those who give their blood for the

glory of God have a right to ask for money.

They have a right also to your concern and your love and your

188 THE SOVIET SAINTS

prayers. To give for this cause and be concerned may seem

foolish to some, but just as the persecuted Christians in Russia

look the most beautiful when they are mocked and put in their

'dunce's caps' so perhaps the foolishness of Western Christians

will reflect something of the same beauty in God's eyes.

A last question—what are the prospects for the immediate

future? Will Communism mellow? Will it become softer on

religion? Will the dunces' caps be taken off the heads of the

Soviet Saints?

The answer is 'No!' We see in Chinese and Albanian Com-

munism the purest form of the creed. Other forms of Com-

munism are likely to evolve in that direction, even if the paths

taken by some of the countries may zigzag on the way. In Red

China and Albania all the Churches have been closed. In China

Christian prisoners have been .terribly tortured.

We can be sure that this sort of development is likely, from the

Bible. In the book of Revelation, chapter thirteen, we read that

the beast will have power to overcome the saints. In the twelfth

chapter of Daniel we read that 'the power of the holy people' will

be scattered.

Again common sense tells us not to trust in changes from

people like the Communist rulers. In King Lear we read : 'He's

mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf ... or a whore's oath.'

Communists will not mellow but they do much to give this im-

pression, and sadly some Christian leaders have forgotten Our

Lord's warning to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Today

we see this only too clearly. On the one hand the killing and

torturing of Christians goes on at the hands of the Communists,

and on the other hand they invite Christians of the West to

friendly dialogue. They speak of friendly co-existence between

the two ideologies but they do not practise it.

I once asked an important Communist leader what he under-

stood by 'friendly co-existence'. In a moment of frankness he

answered with a joke. 'A hunter was about to kill a bear when the

bear asked him why he wanted to do it. The hunter replied that

he wanted the bear's fur. The bear replied: "You must not take

my life just for that! I'm ready to trade my fur for your rifle!"

The hunter gave the rifle to the bear, and what followed is easy to

guess.'

The Church in Russia still survives by adapting herself to the

necessities of Underground work. She even makes very encourag-

ing progress. But the whole power of the State belongs to the

EPILOGUE 189

Communists. At any time a new madman like Stalin could rise to

kill millions of Christians and other innocent people. We have

seen it in Red China.

We have to fight for the freedom of the Church behind the Iron

Curtain. The inscription on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in

Westminster Abbey reads :

'He died for the freedom of the world'

If Christians in the West do not immediately come to the defence

of their Russian brethren, then their fate will be similar to that of

the Chinese and Albanian Churches.

But God does not sleep. In the end Communism will be con-

quered, although, I fear, much suffering lies ahead. How much,

and how intense it will be, depends in great part upon the

solidarity of the Western Christians with their persecuted

brethren.

Some of the gloomy predictions of the Bible must not make us

resign ourselves fatalistically to the extinction of the Churches in

Communist countries. The book of Jonah shows with the re-

pentance of Nineveh there exists also the possibility of God

repenting of the evil He thought to do. If God changed His mind

about destroying Nineveh, how much more can we hope for Him

to change His mind when the fate of His faithful Church is at

stake?

My book is finished. I have come through fourteen years of

prison, hunger and doping. I write in what is a foreign language

to me, and cannot express really what I think and feel. But I have

done the best I can in this book to show the beauty of the Soviet

Saints—the beauty of the bride of Christ adorned, by the Com-

munists, with a dunce's cap.

Enquiries and gifts %may be sent to

The Mission to the Communist World

P.O. Box 19, Chislehurst, Kent, England

BR7 5AA

Also by Richard Wurmbrand

Today's Martyr Church

TORTURED FOR CHRIST

an account of the suffering and testimony of the Underground

Church in countries behind the Iron Curtain

'A modern-day John the Baptist, a voice crying in a "free" West,

Pastor Wurmbrand speaks on behalf of the underground church

which exists behind the Iron Curtain, but whose voice is seldom

heard.' The Christian

'Wurmbrand is, to many, a symbol of courage and Christ. He is

a man who never compromised, but was obedient through

sufferings . . . Wurmbrand is, today, the greatest menace for

communist philosophy.'

A western underground missionary worker behind the Iron Curtain

'No one could read Mr Wurmbrand's simple but hopeful account

of the courage shown by so many workers in the underground

church of Eastern Europe without being filled with admiration

for their heroism . . . His well documented book is a cry from

the heart to Christians in the west to help the underground church

in the east.' Scotsman

'Pastor Wurmbrand has suffered physically for his faith to an

extent which will shock the complacency of anyone who picks up

Tortured for Christ, Yet his faith sustained him. Truly there is

hardly a Christian in the west who should not be ashamed of his

Laodicean tepidness when it is measured against the quality of

the living gospel as it can be seen in this man.'

Michael Bordeaux in the Church Times

'His message to the churches of the west deserves the widest

possible attention. It is countersigned in blood.'

Expository Times

'One of the most moving, inspiring and challenging books I have

read . . . Read it and you will be horrified, moved and humbled.'

Elim Evangel

'One thinks immediately of the persecution of the Early Church,

but this book is not history. It deals with the struggle of countless

faithful Christians to maintain a witness under Communist rule.'

Vanguard

'This book should be preached about and recommended from

every pulpit. . . Does the west care?'

John Pollock in the Church of England Newspaper

'A testimony written in blood and glowing with faith.'

. Methodist Recorder

TORTURED FOR CHRIST is a Hodder and Stoughton

Christian Paperback

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

Richard Wurmbrand survived

fourteen years of Communist

imprisonment to become a new

John the Baptist, a voice crying

in the wilderness on behalf of

the Underground Church in

Eastern Europe. Here he

presents reports from the Soviet

Press about Christians in the

Soviet Union today.

'Here is Christ's mystical body,

the real Church, which is ready

to suffer as her Master for the

glory of God and the good of

mankind.'

Cover photo; Russian Christians

meet secretly in wood.

SBN 340 04385 7

Table of Contents

The Soviet Saints