“The judge declared that the Bible and the literature that had been confiscated from us were ‘anti-Soviet.’ I was pleased that not only had my husband and I been accused of being anti-Soviet but also our literature and even the Bible! We were asked where we had become acquainted with Jehovah’s Witnesses. When we said that it was in a labor camp in Vorkuta, the judge angrily shouted, ‘Look at what is going on in our camps!’ We were convicted, and both of us were sentenced to ten years in corrective labor camps.

“Pyotr was sent to a camp in Mordvinia, in central Russia. I was put in solitary confinement. In March 1958, I gave birth to our son. During these difficult times, Jehovah was my best friend and helper. My mother took in our son and cared for him. I was taken to Kemerovo, Siberia, where I was interned in a labor camp.

“After eight years, I was freed before I had served the full term of my sentence. I remember that in the barracks, the forewoman loudly announced that I had never made any ‘anti-Soviet’ remarks and that our literature was exclusively religious. I was baptized in 1966 after I gained freedom.”

Bibles and Bible literature were particularly precious in prisons and camps. In 1958 at a camp in Mordvinia, the brothers were holding meetings regularly. So that the camp foremen could not surprise them, several brothers were appointed to stand guard within calling distance while one group was studying The Watchtower. If a foreman appeared, the nearest brother would say “coming” to the next brother standing guard and so on until it was heard by the group meeting together. Everyone would scatter, and the magazine would be hidden. But often the foremen would appear out of nowhere.

Once when the brothers were caught off guard, Boris Kryltsov decided to distract the foremen and save the magazine. He grabbed a book and ran out of the barracks. The foremen chased after him for a long time, but when they finally caught up with him, they saw that the book in his hand was a volume of Lenin. Although he was given seven days in solitary confinement, he was happy that the magazine had been saved.

“I ended up in a maximum-security prison in the city of Vladimir. I was searched thoroughly, but to my surprise I was able to take into the camp four issues of The Watchtower, hand-copied on thin paper. It was clear that Jehovah had helped me. In my cell, I recopied all four issues. I knew that besides me, other Witnesses were there, and they had been without any spiritual food for seven years. I passed these magazines along through a sister who was in charge of mopping the stairwell.

“As it turned out, associating with the brothers was a tattler, who told the prison wardens that someone was passing along Bible literature. They immediately began to search everyone and take all the literature away. Soon they came to me and found literature in my mattress. I received 85 days in solitary confinement. Nevertheless, Jehovah continued to care for us as before.”

LECTURES HELPED SOME TO LEARN THE TRUTH

Lectures were used to wage ideological warfare against Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Soviet Union. Says Viktor Gutshmidt: “Our camp was regularly visited by speakers who gave lectures promoting atheism. The brothers always asked questions. Sometimes the lecturers were unable to answer the simplest questions. Usually the hall would be full, and everyone listened very attentively. People came voluntarily because they were curious about what Jehovah’s Witnesses would say at the conclusion of the lecture.

“Once, the camp was visited by a lecturer who was formerly a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church. Everyone knew that he had renounced his faith during his time in a camp and had become an atheist.

“‘Were you an atheist before you went to prison, or did you become one afterward?’ asked one of the brothers when the lecture concluded.

“‘Think about it,’ answered the lecturer. ‘A man went into space, but he didn’t see God there.’

“‘When you were a priest, did you really imagine that God would be watching people from a distance of a little more than 200 kilometers [120 miles] above the earth’s surface?’ asked the brother. The lecturer said nothing in reply. These exchanges gave many prisoners food for thought, and afterward, some began to study the Bible with us.

“At one of these lectures, a sister asked permission to say something. ‘Go ahead; you’re probably one of Jehovah’s Witnesses,’ said the lecturer.

“‘What would you call a person who stands in a field and yells, “I’ll kill you!” when there’s no one around?’ said the sister.

“‘Well, you could hardly call him smart,’ answered the lecturer.

“‘If God doesn’t exist, why fight against him? If he doesn’t exist, then there is no one to fight with.’ The audience broke into laughter.”

[Box/​Picture on page 124, 125]

Mordvinian Camp #1

Between 1959 and 1966, more than 450 brothers spent some time in this camp, which held a total of 600 inmates. One of 19 forced-labor camps in the Mordvinian area, this camp was ringed by a barbed-wire electric fence almost ten feet [3 m] high. This fence was encircled by 13 more barbed-wire fences. The soil around the camp territory was always freshly tilled so that anyone running away would leave tracks.

By completely isolating the Witnesses from the outside world, the authorities tried to subjugate them physically and psychologically. Nevertheless, the brothers were successful in organizing theocratic activities within the camp.

The camp itself became a circuit with its own circuit overseer. The circuit consisted of four congregations formed out of 28 book study groups. To help all stay spiritually strong, the brothers decided to hold seven meetings a week. At first there was only one Bible among them, so they made a schedule to read the Bible by congregation. At the first available opportunity, the brothers began to duplicate the Bible. Separate notebooks held individual books of the Bible copied by hand, and the original was carefully hidden in a secure place. In this way, the brothers could follow the scheduled Bible reading. The Watchtower Study was also organized. Sisters coming to visit their husbands brought miniature copies of the magazines into the camp, putting them in their mouths or in the heels of their shoes or braiding thin sheets of paper into their hair. Many brothers ended up in solitary confinement from one to 15 days for copying literature by hand.

This was a remote place isolated from other prisoners. Those in charge were careful to see that the Witnesses did not read anything while they were in there. Even so, other brothers thought of ways to provide them with spiritual food. A brother would climb to the roof of a building overlooking the yard where those in solitary confinement were taken for walks. He had small papers that were prepared beforehand with texts from the Bible and that were crumpled into little balls half an inch [1 cm] in diameter. Putting a ball into the end of a long pipe, he blew the ball in the direction of the Witness walking in the yard below. The Witness would bend down, ostensibly to tie his shoelaces, and pick up the spiritual food unnoticed.

For breakfast and dinner, the prisoners received gruel mixed with a small amount of cottonseed oil. Lunch consisted of watery borscht or other soup and a simple main dish. The bread that the prisoners ate looked like the felt used to make boots! Ivan Mikitkov recalls, “I spent seven years in this camp, and we almost always suffered sharp stomach pains.”

The brothers remained firm in the faith. Isolation could not upset the spiritual balance among God’s loyal servants, who continued to demonstrate faith and love toward God and their neighbor.​—Matt. 22:37-39.