Arrested and Imprisoned

In 1953 my plaster cast was removed. But, in the meantime, despite trying to be careful, my spiritual activity, including reproducing Bible literature, had come to the attention of the KGB. As a result, along with other Witnesses, I was eventually sentenced to 12 years in a prison camp. During the trial, however, we were all able to give a fine witness regarding our God, Jehovah, and his loving purposes for mankind.

We prisoners were eventually sent to various camps near Irkutsk, hundreds of miles farther east. These camps had been established as places of punishment for those who were deemed enemies of the Soviet State. From April 8, 1954, until early 1960, I served time in 12 of such labor camps. Afterward, I was moved more than 2,000 miles [3,000 km] west to the huge Mordovian complex of prison camps about 250 miles [400 km] southeast of Moscow. There I had the privilege of being in the company of faithful Witnesses from many parts of the Soviet Union.

The Soviets realized that when the Witnesses were allowed to mix freely with non-Witness prisoners, some of these also became Witnesses. So in the Mordovian prison complex, which was made up of many work camps that stretched for some 20 miles [30 km] or more, an attempt was made to isolate us from close association with other prisoners. Over 400 Witnesses were put together in our camp. A few miles away, a hundred or so Christian sisters were in another camp of the prison complex.

In our camp I was very active in helping organize Christian meetings as well as copying Bible literature, which had been smuggled into the camp. This activity evidently came to the attention of camp officials. Shortly afterward, in August 1961, I was sentenced for one year to the infamous, czarist-era Vladimir Prison, about 120 miles [200 km] northeast of Moscow. The U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers, who had been shot down on May 1, 1960, while flying a spy plane over Russia, was also a prisoner there until February 1962.

While I was in Vladimir Prison, I was provided with only enough food to keep me alive. I coped well with starvation, since I had experienced this in youth, but the extreme cold of the 1961/62 winter was hard for me to endure. The heating pipes broke, and the temperature in my cell fell well below freezing. A doctor saw my sorry state and arranged for my transfer to a less harsh prison cell for the worst weeks of that cold spell.

Sustained to Meet the Challenge

Negative thoughts can discourage one after months of confinement, which is what prison authorities hope for. However, I prayed constantly and was strengthened by Jehovah’s spirit and by scriptures that I called to mind.

Especially while I was in Vladimir Prison did I identify with the apostle Paul’s words about being “pressed in every way, but not cramped beyond movement,” and “perplexed, but not absolutely with no way out.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) After one year, I was returned to the Mordovian camp complex. In these camps, I completed my 12-year sentence on April 8, 1966. Upon release, I was given the character description “impossible to reform.” To me, that was official proof that I had stayed faithful to Jehovah.

Often I have been asked how we received and then duplicated Bible literature while in Soviet camps and prisons despite efforts to prevent us from doing so. It is a secret few have ever learned, as noted by a Latvian political prisoner who spent four years in the women’s Potma camp. “Witnesses somehow kept getting literature in quantity,” she wrote after her release in 1966. “It was as if angels at night flew over and dropped it,” she concluded. Indeed, only with God’s help was our activity accomplished!

Then, in 1983, when Lidia was ten, I was betrayed to the KGB by a former Witness. By then I had served nearly ten years as a traveling overseer throughout eastern Ukraine. Opposers to our Christian activity were able to get people to provide false testimony at the trial, and I was given a five-year sentence.

In prison I was kept isolated from other Witnesses. Despite years of such isolation, though, no human agency could block my access to Jehovah, and he always sustained me. In addition, I found opportunities to witness to other prisoners. Finally, after serving four years of my sentence, I was released and reunited with my wife and daughter, who had both remained faithful to Jehovah.