“YOU HAVE ‘HOLY WATER’”

The Witnesses were sent to penal camps for their preaching activities. Nikolai Kalibaba, who spent many years in such camps, recalls: “Four of us were sent to a penal camp in the village of Vikhorevka, Irkutsk Oblast, where there were about 70 brothers being held. There was no supply of drinking water; the only water pipe was connected to the sewage system, so it was dangerous to drink the water. The food was also unfit to be eaten, but Jehovah helped us. At this camp, no one but the Witnesses ever wanted to work. We were good workers. Soon the administration realized this, and we were sent to work assignments in other camp zones. We could bring back drinking water in buckets. Many prisoners came to us and said: ‘We heard that you have “holy water.” Give us half a glass, at least.’ Of course, we shared the water.

“Among the prisoners were people of good heart. Some of them were former thieves and other criminals. They learned the truth and became Jehovah’s Witnesses. Others seemed to be against the truth and openly opposed us. But once when a speaker came to our camp to give a lecture against Jehovah’s Witnesses, those people came to our defense and said that the lecture contained slander against the Witnesses.”

“WE WILL COME TO YOU IN GROUPS”

Asking Jehovah for wisdom, the brothers were always thinking of how they could use their circumstances to advance Kingdom interests. Nikolai continues: “We heard that we would soon be transferred to another camp, not far from Moscow, in Mordvinia. Before our departure, something interesting happened. To our surprise, certain officers and foremen who had guarded Jehovah’s Witnesses for several years came up to us and said: ‘We would like to ask you to sing your songs and tell us more about your beliefs. We will come to you in groups of 10 to 20 people, maybe more.’

“Afraid of what might happen to us and to them, they said that they would organize watchmen to stand guard over the place where we would meet. We said that since we had more experience with such matters, we would appoint our own watchmen as well. Their watchmen worked just like ours: Soldiers stood at intervals between the guardhouse and our meeting place. Can you picture this? A group of Witnesses sang songs to a group of officers and foremen, after which a brother gave a short talk on a Bible topic. It was just as if we were at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses! That is how we conducted several meetings with groups of interested ones. We saw how Jehovah cared not only for us but also for these sincere people.

“We carried many magazines out of this camp into the camp in Mordvinia,” says Nikolai. “Many Witnesses were held there. The brothers gave me a suitcase with double sides where literature could be put. Everything was done so that during a search, the suitcase would not attract undue attention from the foremen. At the Mordvinian camp, we were searched very carefully. One foreman took my suitcase and exclaimed: ‘How heavy this is! There must be treasure here!’ Unexpectedly, he put my suitcase and other things to the side and began to search through the belongings of others. After the search, another foreman said, ‘Take your things and go!’ My suitcase was not searched, so I took into the barracks a supply of fresh spiritual food, which was very much needed.

“Not only that, but more than once I carried handwritten tracts in my boots. Since I have big feet, there was always room in my boots for many sheets of paper. I packed them under the insole and liberally coated the boots with grease. This grease was very slippery and smelled terrible, so the foremen kept far away from my boots.”

“THE FOREMEN WATCHED US, AND I WATCHED THEM”

Nikolai continues: “In the Mordvinian camp, the brothers appointed me to oversee the duplication of Bible literature. One of my responsibilities was to observe the foremen so that those hand copying the literature could have time to hide everything. The foremen watched us, and I watched them. Some foremen, determined to catch us in the act, would enter the barracks suddenly and often. It was hardest of all to keep a watch on them. Others would come into the barracks once a day. These were more tolerant and did not give us trouble.

“During these times, we copied from the originals, which were kept hidden in secure places. Several originals were stored in the stove, even in the stove in the camp administrator’s office. The brothers who cleaned for him had constructed a special chamber in the stove, and we kept the precious originals of many Watchtower magazines there. No matter how carefully the foremen searched us, the originals were always safe in the administrator’s office.”

The brothers became skilled at hiding literature. A favorite place was a windowsill. The brothers even learned to hide literature in tubes of toothpaste. Only two or three brothers knew where the originals were kept. When the need arose, one of them retrieved the original and after making a handwritten duplicate put it back in its place. In this way, the originals always remained in a secure place. Most of the brothers considered it a privilege to work at duplication, despite the risk of being sent to solitary confinement for 15 days. Viktor Gutshmidt recalls: “Out of ten years in the camps, I spent about three of them in solitary confinement.”

SPIDERWEB WATCHTOWERS

It seemed to the brothers that the camp administration had developed a special system for searching and confiscating Bible literature from the Witnesses. Some officers were especially diligent about this. Ivan Klimko relates: “One time in Mordvinian Camp 19, soldiers with dogs led the brothers away from the camp territory and conducted a careful search. Each Witness was stripped, even down to the rags he was wearing on his feet. But the brothers had glued a few handwritten pages to the soles of their feet, which escaped detection. They had also made tiny booklets that they could fit between their fingers. When the guards ordered everyone to raise his hands, the booklets stayed between the fingers, and again, some of them were saved.”

There were other ways of protecting the spiritual food. Aleksey Nepochatov says: “Some brothers were able to produce what was called spiderweb handwriting. A pen point was sharpened very fine, and each ruled row in a grid-lined notebook could contain three or four lines. A matchbox could hold five or six copies of The Watchtower hand produced in this fine writing. To write with such a fine hand, one needed to have excellent eyesight and be capable of great exertion. After all the lights were out and everyone else went to sleep, these brothers would do their writing beneath a blanket. The only light available was from a barely functioning lightbulb at the entrance of the barracks. When continued over a few months, this work ruined one’s vision. Sometimes a guard noticed, and if he was favorably disposed toward us, he would say, ‘Still writing, writing​—when are you going to sleep?’”

Brother Klimko recalls: “On one occasion, we suffered the loss of a great deal of literature and even the Bible. All of it had been hidden in a brother’s artificial leg. After forcing the brother to remove the leg, the guards smashed it. They took photos of the scattered pages and published them in the camp newspaper. Still, this was useful in that it showed many once again that Jehovah’s Witnesses were engaged exclusively in religious activities. After this discovery, the gloating camp administrator said to the brothers, ‘There’s Armageddon for you!’ By the next day, however, someone reported to him that Jehovah’s Witnesses were meeting together, singing songs, and reading as usual.”

A CONVERSATION WITH THE PROSECUTOR GENERAL

In late 1961 the prosecutor general of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic came to the camp in Mordvinia for an inspection. Walking through the camp, he entered the barracks where the Witnesses lived. The prosecutor general allowed the brothers to ask a few questions. Viktor Gutshmidt recalls, “I asked, ‘Do you think that the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses is dangerous to Soviet society?’

“‘No, I don’t think that,’ said the prosecutor general. But later in the conversation, he unwittingly said, ‘In 1959 alone, Irkutsk Oblast was allotted a five-million-ruble budget to deal with the Witnesses.’

“By this he meant that the authorities well understood who we were, since five million rubles of State penal funds had been spent to clarify who Jehovah’s Witnesses were. This was an enormous sum of money. At that time, five thousand rubles could buy a nice car or a comfortable house. The authorities in Moscow must certainly have known that Jehovah’s Witnesses were not dangerous people.

“The prosecutor general continued, saying, ‘If we tell the Soviet people to do what they want with the Witnesses, they will wipe out all traces of you.’ He meant that Soviet society was negatively disposed toward the Witnesses. It could be seen from these words that millions of people had been influenced by atheistic and ideological propaganda.

“We then replied, ‘You will see the real state of things when the Witnesses are holding conventions from Moscow to Vladivostok.’

“‘Perhaps half a million people might come to be on your side, but the others will still be on ours,’ he said.

“Our conversation with the prosecutor general ended on that note. He was almost right. Today, more than 700,000 people attend the meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the territories of the countries of the former Soviet Union. There, people listen to the pure words of Bible truth instead of propaganda.”

“YOU’VE CREATED A RESORT FOR THE WITNESSES”

Viktor continues: “The camp administration showed the prosecutor general all the flowers and trees planted by the Witnesses as well as the packages they had received and kept in their barracks without anyone stealing them. He looked at everything with unconcealed amazement. However, we later learned that this man ordered the camp administration to destroy all the flowers and trees. He had told the camp administrator, ‘You’ve created a resort for the Witnesses instead of a labor camp.’ He also forbade the Witnesses to receive packages and closed the food kiosk where the Witnesses were allowed to buy additional food.

“To the joy of the brothers, though, the administrator did not carry out all the orders. For example, the sisters were still allowed to cultivate flowers as before. In the fall, they cut the flowers and made large bouquets that they presented to camp employees and their children. It was especially pleasant to see how the children would meet their parents at the gatehouse, pick up their flowers, and run off to school with happy faces. They loved the Witnesses.”

Viktor recalls: “One day at the beginning of 1964, a foreman whose brother worked for the KGB told us that a large State campaign against Jehovah’s Witnesses was being organized. But in the latter part of that year, Nikita Khrushchev was suddenly stripped of his duties as the head of State, and the wave of persecution abated.”

KINGDOM SONGS AT A MAXIMUM-SECURITY CAMP

In the 1960’s, one maximum-security camp in Mordvinia allowed its inmates to receive packages only once a year, and then it was only as a ‘special reward.’ Searches were constantly conducted. If anyone was caught with a Bible scripture on a piece of paper, he or she was sent to solitary confinement for ten days. Moreover, at this camp the inmates received less food than at other kinds of camps. The labor was also more demanding at maximum-security camps; the Witnesses had to dig up the stumps of enormous trees. Aleksey Nepochatov says: “Often, we were on the brink of complete physical exhaustion. But we maintained alertness and didn’t give up. One way the brothers kept their spirits up was by singing Kingdom songs. We made up a male chorus with multitoned voices that, even without female voices, was indescribably beautiful. These songs cheered not only the Witnesses but even the officers, who would ask the brothers to sing during working hours. Once while we were felling trees, the convoy overseer came up to us and said: ‘Sing a few songs. This request is from the divisional officer himself!’

“That officer had heard the brothers singing Kingdom songs many times. This was a very timely request, since we were on the verge of complete exhaustion. We joyfully began to glorify Jehovah with our voices. Usually when we sang in the camp, the officers’ wives came out of the neighboring houses, stood on the porches, and listened for a long time. They especially liked the words of song number 6, ‘Let the Earth Give Glory,’ from an old songbook. The song contained many fine words and had a wonderful melody.”

HE ARRIVED AT “ANOTHER COUNTRY”

Even in the most unexpected situations, it was evident what Jehovah’s Witnesses were really like. Viktor Gutshmidt recalls: “At the end of one workweek when we were sitting around in the garden, some expensive electrical appliances were brought into the camp where we were being held. The driver making the delivery was, not our spiritual brother, but a prisoner from our camp, and the purchasing manager accompanying him was from another camp. Since the storeroom was closed and the man in charge was on vacation, the Witnesses were asked to accept the delivery of the merchandise and unload it.

“We unloaded the appliances and stacked them next to the storeroom not far from the barracks where our brothers lived. The purchasing manager was very nervous about making this unofficial delivery without a signed confirmation of receipt from the storeroom manager. But the driver assured him: ‘Don’t be afraid. No one here will touch anything. You’ve arrived at “another country.” Forget what happens outside the territory of the camp. Here you can take your wristwatch off and leave it anywhere, and tomorrow you will find it in the same place.’ The purchasing manager insisted that because the merchandise was valued at half a million rubles, he could not just leave it unsigned for.

“Soon men from the camp administration arrived, demanding that the truck leave the camp. One of them told the purchasing manager to leave the delivery invoice and pick it up the next day. Reluctantly, he left. The next morning he returned and asked to enter the camp to get the invoice signed, but the guard handed it to him already signed.

“Later the guard told us that the purchasing manager could not bring himself to leave the camp. For half an hour, he stood and stared at the gate and at the documents, turned to leave, and then turned again and stared some more. It was probably the first time in his life that he had seen anything quite like it. The delivery of valuable merchandise had been completed and the invoice had been signed without him, and everything had been done honestly. But most interesting of all, this had occurred at a maximum-security labor camp where prisoners labeled ‘especially dangerous offenders’ were serving their time. Yes, no matter how propaganda was directed against the Witnesses, when similar incidents occurred, all observers could clearly understand what Jehovah’s Witnesses were really like.”

“NOW THEY ARE PREACHING AGAIN”

In 1960, a few days after the brothers in the Mordvinian camp found themselves together, more than a hundred Witnesses were chosen to be transferred to Camp 10, a special prison in the nearby village of Udarnyy. This was an “experimental” prison for reeducating Witnesses. The inmates there wore striped uniforms just like those of the inmates of Nazi concentration camps. In addition to other kinds of work, the Witnesses had to dig up enormous stumps in the forest. They had a daily minimum requirement of 11-12 stumps per person. But sometimes, even working together for the whole day, an entire work brigade of brothers would be unable to dig up a single, gigantic oak tree stump. Often they sang Kingdom songs to encourage one another. Upon hearing their songs, the camp administrator sometimes shouted: “You Witnesses will have no dinner today to make you stop singing. I’ll teach you to work!” One brother at this camp recalls: “But Jehovah supported us. Despite the difficult conditions, we were spiritually awake. We always cheered ourselves up with the positive thought that we had taken Jehovah’s side in the issue of universal sovereignty.”​—Prov. 27:11.

Along with several prison “educators,” each cell had its own educator, a military officer not lower in rank than a captain. The aim of these officers was to make the Witnesses renounce their faith. Anyone who would succumb, that is, renounce his faith, would be freed. Every month the educators would write up a character report on each Witness, signed by several prison employees. For each Witness, though, they always had to write, “Does not respond to reeducation measures; stays firm in his convictions.” Ivan Klimko said: “I spent six years out of a total of ten in this prison and was classified along with other brothers as ‘an especially dangerous repeat offender.’ As the officers told us, the authorities deliberately created exceptionally difficult conditions for the Witnesses in order to observe our behavior.”

Iov Andronic, who spent five years in this prison, once asked the camp commander, “How long will we be in this prison?” Pointing to the forest, the commander answered, “Until all of you are carried out there.” Iov relates: “We were kept isolated from others to prevent us from preaching. They watched us carefully. If even one of us needed to go to another area in the camp, we were always accompanied by a foreman. Several years later, when we were transferred to a minimum-security camp, some non-Witness prisoners told the camp administration: ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses won out. You kept them isolated, but now they are preaching again.’”

AN OFFICER RECOGNIZES HIS BIBLE

It was extremely difficult to bring literature into Camp 10, let alone a Bible. It appeared to the brothers that bringing God’s Word into the prison was almost impossible. One brother who was in this prison for a few years says: “For Jehovah, nothing is impossible. God heard our prayers. We asked for at least one Bible for a hundred Witnesses in this prison, and we ended up with two!” (Matt. 19:26) How did this happen?

A colonel was recruited to work as a prison educator. But how did a person without any Bible knowledge “educate” the Witnesses? He somehow managed to obtain a tattered Bible, and before he left on vacation, he asked an elderly Baptist prisoner to rebind it, after telling the foremen not to confiscate it from him. The Baptist boasted to the Witnesses that he had received a Bible, and he agreed to let them borrow it to take a look. When the brothers got their hands on this precious treasure, they quickly took it apart at the seams and distributed the pages to all the Witness prisoners for copying. Over the next few days, all of the Witnesses’ prison cells turned into a hand-copying workshop of sorts. Two handwritten copies were made of each page. One of the brothers recalls: “When all the pages were gathered together, there were now three Bibles! The colonel received his newly bound copy, and we got our two copies. One copy we used for reading, and the other was put into the ‘safe,’ a few ducts containing high-voltage cables. We made special places in these ducts. Since the foremen were afraid even to go near these, no one ever searched there. The high voltage was a reliable watchman for our library.”

However, during one search, the colonel found himself looking at a page of the hand-copied Bible. When he realized what had happened, he was bitterly disappointed and exclaimed, “This is part of the Bible that I myself brought into the camp!”

OBSERVING THE MEMORIAL

Each year, the brothers tried to observe the Memorial in the camps. In all the years that they spent in one camp in Mordvinia, none of the brothers missed this event. The camp administration, of course, tried to prevent the observance. They knew the date of the Memorial, and usually on that day, they would mobilize all the camp units to be on high alert. Toward evening, however, most guards got tired of watching the brothers closely, since no one knew the place or the exact time when the Memorial was going to be held.

The brothers always made efforts to obtain wine and unleavened bread. One time a surveillance guard unit discovered the emblems in a drawer on the day of the Memorial and confiscated them. Later, that unit was replaced by another guard unit, and a brother who cleaned the unit commander’s office was able to retrieve the emblems and pass them to the brothers without being seen. That evening the brothers observed the Memorial with the emblems during the third surveillance shift. The emblems were especially needed since one of the brothers was a partaker.

OBSERVING THE MEMORIAL AT A WOMEN’S CAMP

Other camps had similar problems. Valentina Garnovskaya remembers how extremely difficult it was to observe the Memorial at a women’s camp in Kemerovo. She says: “This camp held about 180 sisters. We were forbidden to meet together. In ten years we were only able to observe the Memorial twice. One time we decided to hold the Memorial in one of the offices that I was in charge of cleaning. The sisters secretly began to gather there, coming in gradually over a period of several hours before the Memorial was to begin. About 80 sisters made it. We placed unleavened bread and dry red wine on the desk.

“We decided to start without the song, so a sister gave the opening prayer, and everything began in a worthy and joyful manner. But then we heard unexpected noises and shouts and realized that the foremen were looking for us. Suddenly, we saw the unit commander himself looking through the window, although the window was high off the ground. Simultaneously, there was a loud banging at the door, and someone demanded that we open it. Bursting in, the foremen grabbed the sister giving the talk and led her away to solitary confinement. Another sister courageously took her place to continue the talk, but they grabbed her too. Right after her, a third sister tried to keep the talk going, so they herded all of us into another room, threatening us with solitary confinement. There we finished observing the Memorial by singing a song and closing with prayer.

“When we returned to the barracks, the other prisoners greeted us with these words, ‘When you all suddenly disappeared, we decided that Armageddon had come and that God had taken you up to heaven and left us here to be destroyed!’ These prisoners had already been with us for a few years without accepting the truth. But after this, some of them began to listen.”

“WE HUDDLED CLOSELY TOGETHER”

One camp in Vorkuta housed many Witnesses from Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics, and other republics of the Soviet Union. Ivan Klimko recalls: “It was the winter of 1948. Although we did not have Bible literature, we wrote down on small pieces of paper what we could remember from old magazines and hid them from the foremen. But they knew that we had such pieces of paper. Long, arduous searches were in store for us. During cold winter days, we were herded outside and made to stand in rows of five. Often we were counted over and over again. It seems that they expected us to hand over those papers rather than stand there in the freezing cold. While we were being counted again and again, we huddled closely together and discussed a Bible topic. Our minds were always occupied with spiritual matters. Jehovah helped us keep our integrity to him. Some time later, the brothers were even able to bring a Bible into the camp. We divided it up into several parts so that the whole Bible would not be confiscated during a search.

“Among the guards were those who understood that a prison camp was no place for Jehovah’s Witnesses. These kind people helped us in whatever way they could. Some of them simply ‘closed their eyes’ whenever one of us received a package. Usually, each package contained a hidden page or two of The Watchtower. These sheets, which weighed no more than a few ounces, were more valuable than pounds of food. Physically the Witnesses were always deprived in every camp, but spiritually we were very rich.”​—Isa. 65:13, 14.

“HE’LL DIVIDE IT INTO 50 PIECES!”

The brothers conducted Bible studies every week with those who displayed interest in the truth. Several prisoners​—even those not interested in the Bible—​learned that after 7:00 p.m., Bible studies were being held in the barracks, and they would try to be especially quiet. Iov Andronic recalls: “It was clear that Jehovah was caring for us and furthering his work. Furthermore, we tried to display Christian love to one another by applying Bible principles. For example, we shared with one another the food that we received in packages sent to us, which was an unusual practice in the camps.

“In one camp, Mykola Pyatokha was responsible for the distribution of food among the brothers. A KGB officer once said, ‘Give Mykola a piece of candy, and he’ll divide it into 50 pieces!’ That is how the brothers were. We shared everything that came into the camp, regardless of whether it was physical or spiritual food. It helped us and was a fine witness to sincere ones who could respond.”​—Matt. 28:19, 20; John 13:34, 35.

BONUSES FOR GOOD CONDUCT

Camp employees who worked directly with Jehovah’s Witnesses in one camp received a bonus of up to 30 percent of their salary. Why? Viktor Gutshmidt explains: “A former cashier in the camp told me about this. She said that in camps where many of our brothers were held, the camp employees were told not to lose their temper or swear and always to be tactful and polite. For this good conduct, they would receive an increased salary. It was done purposely to show everyone that Jehovah’s Witnesses were not the only ones who lived exemplary lives and that nothing differentiated them from others. So the employees were paid for their good conduct. There were many working in the camp​—medical personnel, workmen, accountants, foremen—​a total of about a hundred people. No one wanted to lose the chance to make extra money.

“One day a brother working outside the camp overheard a brigade overseer cursing loudly. The next day the brother met him inside the camp and said: ‘Someone in the guardhouse must have made you really angry. You were swearing so loudly!’ The man admitted: ‘No, it’s just that everything was building up inside of me during the course of the day. So I went outside the camp to let off steam.’ Really, it was a burden for people to conduct themselves in the same way that Jehovah’s Witnesses did.”

PREACHING BEHIND GLASS

The brothers took advantage of opportunities to witness to others, and at times their efforts were richly rewarded. Nikolai Gutsulyak recalls: “We often obtained food products from the camp food kiosk. Every time it was my turn to get food, I tried to say a few words on some Bible topic. The woman who handed out the food always listened carefully and once asked me to read something to her. Three days later, an officer called me to the gate. He told me and another Witness to install glass in a window of the camp commander’s home.

“Accompanied by soldiers, the brother and I went into the city. When we got to the house, the door was opened by the woman who worked at the food kiosk. She was the camp commander’s wife! One soldier stood inside, and two stood outside on the street next to the window. Treating us to some tea, the woman asked us to tell her more about the Bible. That day we put glass in her window and gave her a thorough witness. When our conversation ended, she said: ‘Don’t be afraid of me. My parents were God-fearing people, just like you.’ She read our literature in secret, without the knowledge of her husband, who hated the Witnesses.”

After the War, I Returned to Russia

ALEKSEY NEPOCHATOV

BORN 1921

BAPTIZED 1956

PROFILE He learned the truth in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1943 and spent 19 years imprisoned in Russia. He served as a regular pioneer for over 30 years, most of that time under ban.

AT THE age of 20, Aleksey was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Later, he was transferred to the Buchenwald camp, where he learned the truth. Shortly before his release, two anointed Witnesses said to him: “Aleksey, it would be good if after the war, you return to Russia. It is an enormous country where reapers are especially needed. The situation there is difficult, so be prepared to meet every kind of trial. We will be praying for you and for those who will listen.”

The British freed Aleksey in 1945. He returned to Russia, where he was promptly sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for refusing to vote. He writes: “At first, I was the only Witness in the prison. I asked Jehovah for direction in seeking out sheep, and soon there were 13 of us! During all this time, we had no Bible literature. We would copy scriptures from novels that we checked out from the prison library.”

Aleksey served out his ten-year sentence. Upon being released, he went to an area where he knew that many people believed in Jesus. He says: “The people were spiritually hungry. They came to me day and night; they came with children. Everything they heard, they checked in the Bible.”

Over the next few years, Aleksey helped more than 70 people to baptism. One of them was Maria, who became his wife. He recalls: “The KGB came after me. I was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. Then they arrested Maria. Before the trial, Maria spent seven months in solitary confinement. The investigator said that he would free her immediately if she would renounce Jehovah. Maria refused. The court sentenced her to seven years of imprisonment in labor camps. A spiritual sister took in our baby daughter and cared for her.”

Aleksey and Maria were freed before finishing their terms. They moved to Tver’ Oblast. There the authorities and local people were strongly opposed to them, and one neighbor set fire to their house. In the years that followed, they were forced to move many times; yet in each new place, they made new disciples.

Aleksey says: “During our years of imprisonment, we could not read God’s Word. Since then, we have set for ourselves the goal of reading the Bible every day. Maria and I have now read the Bible through more than 40 times. It is God’s Word that has given us strength and zeal in the ministry.”

In all, Aleksey spent 4 years in Nazi concentration camps and 19 years in Russian prisons and camps. During his 30 years in the pioneer service, he and his wife helped dozens to come to know and love Jehovah.

In 1949, I was arrested in L’viv, Ukraine, for preaching and was taken from my husband and two small daughters. The so-called troika, a closed court hearing consisting of three judges, sentenced me to death by firing squad. Reading the sentence, a woman, one of the three judges, added, “Since you have two children, we have decided to mitigate the death penalty to 25 years of imprisonment.”

I was taken to a prison cell where there were only men. They already knew that I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Upon hearing that I had received 25 years, they were amazed that I was so calm. When I was led out of the prison, a young soldier handed me a parcel of food and kindly said, “Don’t be afraid; everything will be just fine.”

Until 1953, I served my sentence in a camp in northern Russia. The camp contained many sisters from various republics of the Soviet Union. We loved one another like family.

Through our conduct, we sisters tried to give a good witness to others in hopes that it would motivate them to serve God. We had to work long and hard.