Later, two other zealous brothers, Stanislav Burak and Petro Tokar, were assigned to help him. Living secretly in the house of a Christian sister in Lvov, they printed literature so that spiritual food could be supplied to the entire U.S.S.R. It was with great risk that literature was brought in from Poland for further translating and printing in Lvov.

Persecution Again

In June 1947 while a brother was carrying printed literature to deliver to the brothers, he was stopped on the street in Lvov and arrested. The security services offered to register our organization legally if he would provide addresses of the Witnesses to whom he regularly delivered printed literature. The brother trustfully gave them the addresses of nearly 30 brothers, including Brother Burak, the country servant at that time. Later, all of them were arrested. This same brother sincerely repented and acknowledged that he had placed unwarranted trust in the security services.

The arrested brothers were taken to a prison in Kiev for further inquest and court hearings. Shortly afterward, Brother Burak died in prison. Before his arrest, Brother Burak managed to contact the district servant, Mykola Tsyba, from the Volyn’ area and pass on to him the oversight of the work in Ukraine and the rest of the Soviet Union.

It was the first time that in one sweep the Soviet security services arrested so many responsible brothers as well as workers in the underground printeries. Officials in the U.S.S.R. considered our literature to be anti-Soviet. Witnesses were falsely accused of activity that undermined the order of the country, and many were sentenced to death. However, the death sentences were commuted to 25 years in prison camps.