Chapter 6
Chapter 6
How Christianity Is Defeating Communism
I have told of our own experience in spreading Christ’s message secretly in the Soviet army as well as in Communist Romania. I have appealed to you to help preach Christ to the Communists and to the people oppressed by them. Is my challenge “visionary” and “unworkable”? Is it realistic?
Does the Underground Church exist now in Communist Asia and other captive nations? Is underground work still possible there now?
To these questions we can answer with very good news.
The Communists celebrated well over half a century of Communist rule. But their victory was a defeat. Christianity has won—not communism. The Russian press, which our organization researched thoroughly, was full of negative propaganda about the Underground Church. The Russian Underground Church had become so strong that it worked even semi-publicly, frightening the Communists. And now the present leadership of the former Soviet Union confirms the reports of the Communist press.
Remember, the Underground Church around the world today is like an iceberg. It is mostly below the surface, but often a small part operates in the open.
In the following pages I have preserved a short compilation of some of their victorious work in the twentieth century.
The Tip of the Iceberg
On November 7, 1966, in Suhumi (Caucasus), the Underground Church held a great meeting under the open skies. Many believers came from other cities to attend this meeting. After the altar call, forty-seven young people accepted Christ and were baptized on the spot in the Black Sea, just as in biblical times.
After decades of Communist dictatorship, having no Bibles, other Christian books, or seminaries, the ministers of the Underground Church are not trained theologians. But neither was Philip, the deacon. Yet a eunuch, with whom he had spoken for perhaps only an hour, asked him, “‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’ Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’...And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him” (Acts 8:36-38).
There is enough water in the Black Sea, so the Underground Church reinstated the practices of the biblical time. Today, although the Communist Party no longer rules in Russia, Christians in several of the former Soviet republics face persecution.
Uchitelskaia Gazeta (The Teacher’s Magazine) of August 23, 1966, states that a demonstration was organized in the streets of Rostov-on-Don by Baptists who refused to register their congregation and to obey their so-called “leaders” appointed by the Communists.
This occurred on the first of May. As Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath days to defy his Pharisaic opponents, the Underground Church sometimes chose Communist celebration days for defying the Communist laws. The first of May is a feast on which the Communists always have their great demonstrations, which everyone is compelled to attend. But on this day, the second big force in Russia—the Underground Church—also appeared on the streets.
Fifteen hundred believers came. What compelled them was the love of God. They knew that they risked their liberty, and that in prison starvation and torture awaited them.
Every believer in Russia knew the “Secret Manifesto” printed by the Evangelical Christians in Barnaul, which describes how sister Hmara, of the village of Kulunda, received the news that her husband had died in prison. She was left a widow with four small children. When she received the corpse of her husband, she could see the prints of manacles on his hands. The hands, fingers, and the bottom of his feet were horribly burned. The lower part of his stomach had knife marks on it. The right foot was swollen. On both feet were signs of beating. The whole body was full of wounds from horrible torture.
Every believer who attended the public demonstration in Rostov-on-Don knew this could be his fate, too. Still they came.
But they also knew that this martyr, who had given his life for God only three months after his conversion, was buried before a great crowd of believers who had placards with these inscriptions:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).
“I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God” (Revelation 6:9).
The example of this martyr inspired those in Rostov-on-Don. They crowded around a little house. People were everywhere—some on nearby roofs, others in the trees, like Zacchaeus. Eighty people were converted, mostly young people. Out of this number, twenty-three were former Komsomols (members of the Communist Youth Organization)!
The Christians crossed the entire city walking toward the river Don, where the new believers were baptized.
Automobiles loaded with Communist police soon arrived. The police surrounded the believers on the bank of the river, wanting to arrest the brethren in charge. (They couldn’t arrest all fifteen hundred!) The believers immediately fell to their knees and, in a fervent prayer, asked God to defend His people and permit them to have their service for that day. Then the brothers and sisters—standing shoulder to shoulder—surrounded the brethren leading the service, hoping to prevent the police from arresting them. The situation became very tense.
Uchitelskaia Gazeta reported that the “illegal” Baptist organization in Rostov had an underground printing press. (In Russia, the word “Baptist” included Evangelicals and Pentecostals.) In these underground publications, youth were called to stand for their faith, and Christian parents were asked to do what I also think is a very good thing: “to take their children to attend burials in order to learn not to worry about transitory things.” Parents were also encouraged to give a Christian education to their children as an antidote against the atheism with which they were poisoned in Communist schools.
Uchitelskaia Gazeta finished the article by asking, “Why do teachers mix so timidly in the life of families in which children are idiotized [by religion]?”
This “Teacher’s Magazine” also described what happened at the trial of the underground workers who had baptized secretly: “The youthful believers called as witnesses were defiant and contemptuous of the Communist court. They behaved angrily and fanatically. Young women spectators gazed with admiration at the defendants and with disapproval at the atheistic public.”
Members of the Underground Church have risked beatings and imprisonment to appeal for more freedom, in front of the Communist Party headquarters in Russia.
We possess a document that had been smuggled to the West through secret channels. This document is from the “illegal” Committee of the Evangelical Baptist Churches of the Soviet Union (as opposed to the Communist-controlled “Baptist Union” led by the traitor Karev, who praised the humanity of the Communist mass-killers of Christians and magnified the “liberty” reigning there).
In this secret document, we are told about another heroic public demonstration, this time in Moscow itself.
I translate from this manifesto:
Urgent communication.
Beloved Brethren and Sisters, Blessings to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We hasten to tell you that the delegates of the churches of Evangelical Baptist Christians, numbering five hundred, who traveled to Moscow on May 16, 1966, for intervention with the central organs of power, went to the building of the Central Committee for the Communist Party of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, with the request to be received and heard.
We delivered a petition addressed to the general secretary, Brezhnev.
The manifesto further stated that these five hundred men stood the entire day before the building. It was the first public demonstration in Moscow against communism. And it was made by the delegation of the Underground Church. At the end of the day they delivered a second petition addressed to Brezhnev, in which they complained that a certain “comrade” Stroganov refused to transmit their request to Brezhnev and threatened them.
The five hundred delegates remained on the streets throughout the night in spite of rain. Although they were verbally insulted and had mud splashed on them by passing cars, they remained until morning in front of the building of the Communist Party!
On the next day it was proposed that the five hundred brethren should enter a building to meet some minor Communist officials. But “knowing that believers who had visited the authorities were often beaten when they entered a building where there were no witnesses, these believers refused unanimously and continued to wait to be received by Brezhnev.”
Then the inevitable happened.
At 1:45 p.m., twenty-eight buses came and the brutal revenge against the believers began. “We formed a ring and, holding each other’s hand, we sang the hymn, ‘The best days of our life are the days when we can bear a cross.’ The men of the secret police began to beat us, the young and old ones. They took men out of the row and beat them on the face and head, then threw them on the asphalt. They dragged some of the brethren to the buses by their hair. When some tried to leave, they were beaten until they lost consciousness. After filling the buses with believers, the police took them to an unknown place. The songs of our brethren and sisters were heard from the secret police buses. All this happened in the sight of a multitude of men.”
And now something more beautiful follows. After the five hundred were arrested and surely tortured, Brother G. Vins and another leading brother, named Horev (the real shepherds of Christ’s flock), still had the courage to go to the same Central Committee of the Communist Party—just as after the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus began His public preaching in the same place and with the same words for which John the Baptist suffered: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
Vins and Horev asked where the arrested delegation was and demanded their release. These two courageous brethren simply disappeared. Afterward, news was received that they were put in Leftorovskaia prison.
Were these Christians of the Underground Church afraid? No! Others immediately risked their liberty again, publishing the manifesto that we have before us, telling the story of what happened, saying that to them, “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29). They exhorted the brethren “that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this” (1 Thessalonians 3:3). They also quoted Hebrews 12:2 and called the believers to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”
The Underground Church openly opposed the atheistic poisoning of youth in Rostov and Moscow—and all across Russia. They fought against the Communist poison and against the treacherous leaders of the official church, about which they write in one of their secret manifestos: “In our day, Satan dictates and ‘the church’ accepts all the decisions which are contrary to the commandments of God” (quoted in Pravda Ukraini of October 4, 1966).
Pravda Vostoka published the trial proceedings against the brethren Alexei Neverov, Boris Garmashov, and Axen Zubov, who organized groups to listen to gospel broadcasts from America. They recorded these messages on tapes, which they circulated afterward.
They were also accused of having organized secret gospel meetings under the forms of “excursions” and “artistic circles.” Thus the Underground Church works just as the Early Church worked in the catacombs of Rome.
Sovietskaia Moldavia of September 15, 1966, wrote that the Underground Church mimeographed booklets. They gathered in public places, although this was forbidden by law, and went from place to place to witness for Christ.
This same newspaper recounts that on the train from Reni to Chisinau, three young boys and four girls sang a Christian hymn, “Let us dedicate our youth to Christ.” The reporter professed himself revolted, because these believers preach “on the streets, in stations, in trains, buses, and even in state institutions.” Again this was the Underground Church at work in Russia during the Communist era.
When at the trial of these Christians the sentence was announced for the crime of singing Christian hymns in public, the condemned fell on their knees and said, “We surrender ourselves into the hands of God. We thank thee, Lord, that Thou hast allowed us to suffer for this faith.” Then the audience, led by the “fanatic” Madan, sang in the courtroom the hymn for which their brethren had just been sentenced to prison and torture.
On the first of May, the Christians of the villages Copceag and Zaharovka, having no churches, organized a secret service in the forest. They also organized meetings under the pretense of having a birthday party. (Many Christian families with four or five members had thirty-five “birthdays” a year as a cover for secret meetings.)
Neither prison nor torture can frighten the Christians of the Underground Church. Just as in the Early Church, persecution only deepens their dedication.
Pravda Ukraini of October 4, 1966, said about Brother Prokofiev—one of the leaders of the Russian Underground Church—that he had already been in prison three times, but as soon as he was released, he began to organize secret Sunday schools again and was re-arrested. He wrote in a secret manifesto: “Submitting to the human regulations [the Communist laws], the official church has deprived itself of the blessing of God.”
And never imagine a prison as in the West when you hear about a sentenced brother in a restricted nation. Prison there means starvation, torture, and brainwashing.
Nauka i Religia (Science and Religion) No. 9 of 1966 reported that the Christians spread gospel literature inside the covers of Ogoniok—a periodical like Look or Time. They also handed out books that had the cover of Anna Karenina (a novel by Leo Tolstoy), but inside had a portion of the Bible.
In addition, the believers sang Christian songs in public. To the tune of “The Communist International,” they sang words praising Christ (Kazakstanskaia Pravda, June 30, 1966).
In a secret letter published in Kulunda (Siberia), Christians say that the official “Baptist” leadership, “has destroyed the church and its true servants in the world, in the same way as the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees betrayed Jesus Christ to Pilate.” But the faithful Underground Church works on!
The Bride of Christ continues to serve Him. The Communists themselves admitted that the Underground Church won Communists for Christ. They can be won!
Bakinskii Rabochi (The Worker of Baku) of April 27, 1966, reproduced a letter from Tania Ciugunova (a member of the Communist Youth Organization) who was won to Christ. This letter was seized by the Communist authorities:
Dear Aunt Nadia, I send you blessings from our beloved Lord. Aunt Nadia, how much He loves me! We are nothing before Him. Aunt Nadia, I believe that you understand these words: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you.”
Once this letter was seized, Peter Serebrennikov, the brother who brought her and many other young Communists to Christ, was sent to prison. The Communist newspaper quoted from one of his sermons: “We must believe our Savior as the first Christians did. For us the principal law is the Bible. We recognize nothing else. We must hurry to save men from sin, especially the youth.” He stated that the Soviet law forbids telling youth about Christ, adding: “For us the only law is the Bible”—a very normal answer where a cruel atheistic dictatorship rules the country.
The Communist newspaper then described a “savage” picture: “Young boys and girls sing spiritual hymns. They receive the ritual baptism and keep the evil, treacherous teaching of love toward the enemy.” The article also stated that many young boys and girls who carry membership in the Communist Youth Organization are in reality Christians! It concluded with the words: “How powerless must be the Communist school, how boresome and deprived of light...that the pastors are able to snatch away its disciples from under the nose of their indifferent educators.”
In Kazakstanskaia Pravda of June 30, 1966, Communists expressed horror upon discovering that the pupil with the best grades was a Christian boy!
Kirgizskaia Pravda of January 17, 1966, quoted an underground Christian leaflet to mothers: “Let us join our efforts and prayers to dedicate to God the lives of our children from the time they are in the cradle!...Let us save our children from the influence of the world.”
These efforts have been successful. The Communist newspapers bear witness to the fact that Christianity advanced among the youth!
A newspaper from Celiabinsk, Russia, described how a Young Communist Organization girl, Nina, became a Christian by entering a secret Christian gathering.
Sovietskaia Justitia No. 9 of 1966 describes such an underground meeting. “It is held at midnight. Hidden, wary even of their own shadow, men came from different parts. The brethren filled the dark room, which has a very low ceiling. They were so many that there was no place to kneel. Because of the lack of air, the light in the primitive gas-lamp went out. Sweat ran from the faces of those present. On the street, one of the servants of the Lord was watching for policemen.” Nina said that in such an assembly she was received with embraces, warmth, and care. “They had, as I have now, a great and enlightening faith—a faith in God. He takes us under His protection. Let the Komsomols who know me pass near me without greeting me! Let them look at me with despite and call me, as if slapping me, ‘Baptist!’ Let them do so! I don’t need them.”
So many other young Communists, like her, have made the decision to serve Christ to the end.
Kazakstanskaia Pravda of August 18, 1967, described the trial of the brethren Klassen, Bondar, and Teleghin. We are not told what sentence was given to them, but their crime was proclaimed: they had taught children about Christ.
Sovietskaia Kirghizia of June 15, 1967, complained that Christians “provoke the application of administrative measures against themselves.” So the innocent Communist authorities, being continually provoked to arrest Christians by these obstinate Christians themselves who are not content to remain free, have arrested another group. Their crime was having an illegal printing press, with fifteen hectographs and six bookbinding machines, on which Christian literature was printed.
Pravda of February 21, 1968, reported that thousands of women and girls were discovered wearing belts and ribbons on which Bible verses and prayers were printed. The authorities researched and found that the person who had launched this new fashion, which I could recommend also to the West, was none other than a Christian member of the Communist police, Brother Stasiuk of Liubertz. The newspaper announced his arrest.
The answers Christians of the Underground Church give, when brought before Communist courts, are divinely inspired. One judge demanded, “Why did you attract people to your forbidden sect?” A Christian sister answered, “Our aim is to win the whole world for Christ.”
“Your religion is anti-scientific,” the judge taunted at another trial, to which the accused girl—a student—answered, “Do you know more science than Einstein? Than Newton? They were believers. Our universe bears Einstein’s name. I have learned in high school that its name is the Einsteinian universe. Einstein writes: ‘If we cleanse the Judaism of the prophets and Christianity as Jesus has taught it from what came afterwards, especially from priestcraft, we have a religion which can save the world from all social evils. It is the holy duty of every man to do his utmost to bring this religion to triumph.’ And remember our great physiologist Pavlov! Do not our books say that he was a Christian? Even Marx, in his preface to Das Kapital, said that ‘Christianity, especially in its Protestant form, is the ideal religion for remaking characters destroyed by sin.’ I had a character destroyed by sin. Marx has taught me to become a Christian in order to remake it. How can you, Marxists, judge me for this?”
It is easy to understand why the judge remained speechless.
To the same accusation of having an anti-scientific religion, a Christian answered before the court: “I am sure, Mr. Judge, that you are not such a great scientist as Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform and many other medicines. When asked which he considered to be his greatest discovery, he answered: ‘It was not chloroform. My greatest discovery has been to know that I am a sinner and that I could be saved by the grace of God.’”
The life, the self-sacrifice, the blood that believers are ready to shed for their faith, is the greatest argument for Christianity presented by the Underground Church. It forms what the renowned missionary in Africa, Albert Schweitzer, called “the sacred fellowship of those who have the mark of pain”—the fellowship to which Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, belonged. The Underground Church is united by a bond of love toward its Savior. The same bond unites the members of the church with each other. No one in the world can defeat them.
In a letter smuggled out secretly, the Underground Church said, “We don’t pray to be better Christians, but that we may be the only kind of Christians God means us to be: Christlike Christians, that is, Christians who bear willingly the cross for God’s glory.”
With the wisdom of serpents, according to the teaching of Jesus, the Christians always refused to identify their leaders when questioned before the court.
Pravda Vostoka (The Truth of the East) of January 15, 1966, told how defendant Maria Sevciuk responded when asked who had brought her to Christ: “God attracted me in His congregation.” Another, when asked, “Who is your leader?” responded, “We have no human leader.”
Christian children were asked, “Who has taught you to leave the Pioneers and to take off the red necktie?” They answered, “We have done it out of our free will. No one taught us.”
Although in some places the tip of the “iceberg” showed, in other places, Christians practiced self-baptism to prevent the arrest of their leaders. Sometimes baptisms took place in a river, with the baptizer and the baptized both wearing masks so that no one could identify them in photographs.
Uchitelskaia Gazeta of January 30, 1964, told of an atheistic lecture in the village Voronin, of the district Volnecino-Korskii. As soon as the lecturer finished, “The believers began to publicly attack the atheistic teaching through questions,” which the atheistic lecturer could not answer. They asked, “Where do you Communists get the moral principles you proclaim, but do not obey—such as ‘don’t steal’ and ‘don’t kill’?” The Christians showed the lecturer that every such principle came from the Bible against which the Communists fight. The lecturer was entirely confused and the lecture finished with a victory for the believers!
Persecution of the Underground Church Grows
Christians in some of the former Soviet Republics are still persecuted today. In restricted nations worldwide, the Christians of the Underground Church are suffering today more than ever before. It is estimated that approximately 160,000 Christians were martyred in 1997. For Christians it is heartbreaking to know about the oppression of Jews in Communist countries. But the principal target of persecution is the Underground Church. Years ago, the Soviet press reported a wave of mass arrests and trials. In one place, eighty-two Christians were placed in an asylum for madmen. Twenty-four died after a few days because of “prolonged prayer”! Since when does lengthy prayer kill? Can you imagine what they went through?
The worst suffering imposed upon them was that, if it was discovered that they taught their children about Christ, their children were taken away from them for life—with no visitation rights.
During the Communist era, the Soviet Union signed the United Nations declaration “against discrimination in the sphere of education,” which stipulated: “Parents must have the right to assure the religious and moral education of the children according to their own convictions.” In one article, traitor Karev, who was the leader of the official Baptist Union of the Soviet Union, assured that this right was a reality in Russia—and fools believed him! Now, listen to what the Soviet press said.
In its June 4, 1963, issue, Sowjetskaia Russia recounted how a Baptist woman named Makrinkowa had her six children taken away from her, because she shared with them the Christian faith and forbade them to wear the Pioneer necktie.
When she heard the sentence, she said only, “I suffer for the faith.” She had to pay for the boarding of her children who were taken away from her, so they could be poisoned with atheism. Christian mothers, think of her agony!
Uchitelskaia Gazeta reported that the same thing happened to Ignatii Mullin and his wife. The judge demanded that they leave their faith: “Choose between God and your daughter. Do you choose God?” The father answered, “I will not give up my faith.”
Paul says, “All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). I have seen such children who were raised as Christians and taken from their parents and put in Communist schools. Instead of being poisoned by atheism, the faith they had learned at home was spread to the other children!
The Bible says that “he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). These words have meaning in captive nations.
Try to live a week without seeing your children! Then you will know the sufferings of our brethren in restricted nations. According to the March 29, 1967, issue of Znamia Iunosti, Mrs. Sitsh’s son, Vsetsheslav, was taken away simply because she brought him up in the fear of the Lord. Mrs. Zabavina of Habarovsk was deprived of her orphaned granddaughter Tania because she had given her an “unnatural [Christian] education” (Sovietskaia Rossia of January 13, 1968). Depriving Christians of parental rights continues even today in restricted nations.
It would be unfair to speak only about the Protestant Underground Church.
The Orthodox Christians in Russia were completely changed. Millions of them have passed through prisons, where they had no beads, no crucifixes, no holy images, no incense, and no candles. The laymen were in prison without an ordained priest. The priests had no robes, no wheat bread, no wine to consecrate, no holy oils, no books with prepared prayers to be read. And they discovered that they could get by without all these things, by going to God directly in prayer. They began to pray and God began to pour forth His Spirit upon them. A genuine spiritual awakening, very similar to fundamental Christianity, took place among the Orthodox in Russia under communism.
So it happened that in Russia, as well as in the satellite countries, there existed an Orthodox Underground, which was in reality evangelical, fundamental, and very close to God. It kept, only by the power of habit, a very little of the Orthodox ritual. This Orthodox Underground has also given great martyrs. Who could say what happened to the aged Archbishop Yermogen of Kaluga? He dared to protest against the treacherous collaboration between the Patriarchy and the godless Communist government.
During seven decades of Communist rule until the end of the Soviet Union in the early ’90s, the Russian press was full of the triumph of the Underground Church. It passed through unspeakable hardships but remained faithful...and grew!
We in Romania sowed the seed by our secret work in the Russian army. So had others in Russia and in other countries invaded by the Russians. That seed has borne much fruit.
Communist Asia and other captive nations can be won for Christ. Our adversaries can become Christians! So can those oppressed by them, if only we will help them.
The proof that I am right is that the Underground Church flourished under communism in the Soviet Union, is flourishing in Communist Asia, and is growing in the Middle East today.
To show the beauty of our fellow Christians under terrible circumstances, I give below a few letters from Russian girls, the last two written in Russian prisons.
How a Communist Girl Found Christ
Following are three letters from Maria, a Christian girl who led Varia, a member of the Communist Youth Organization, to Christ.
First letter
...I continue to live here. I am very beloved. I am beloved also by a member of the cell of the Komsomol [the Communist Youth Organization]. She told me, “I cannot understand what a being you are. Here many insult and hurt you and yet you love all.” I answered that God has taught us to love all, not only friends, but also enemies. Before, this girl did much harm to me, but I prayed for her with special concern. When she asked me if I can love her, too, I embraced her and we both began to weep. Now, we pray together.
Please, pray for her. Her name is Varia.
When you listen to those who loudly deny God, it seems that they really mean it. But life shows that many of them, although they curse God with their lips, in their hearts have a great longing. And you hear the groaning of the heart...They seek something and wish to cover their inner emptiness with their godlessness.
Your sister in Christ, Maria
Second letter
In my former letter I wrote you about the atheist girl, Varia. Now I hurry to tell you, my beloved ones, about our great joy: Varia has received Christ as her personal Savior, witnessing openly to everyone about this.
When she believed in Christ and knew the gladness of salvation, she, at the same time, felt very unhappy. She was unhappy, because before she had propagated that there is no God. Now she has decided to atone for her guilt.
We went together to the assembly of the godless. Although I warned her to be reserved, it was useless. Varia went and I went with her to see what would happen. After the common singing of the Communist hymn (singing in which Varia did not participate), she came forward before the whole assembly. Courageously and with much feeling, she witnessed to those gathered about Christ as her Savior and asked her former comrades for forgiveness that she had had her spiritual eyes closed until then and had not seen that she herself was going to perdition and leading others toward it. She implored all to give up the way of sin and to come to Christ.
All became silent and no one interrupted her. When she finished speaking, she sang with her splendid voice the whole Christian hymn: “I am not ashamed to proclaim the Christ who died to defend His commandments and the power of His cross.”
And afterwards...afterwards they took away our Varia.
Today it is the ninth of May. We know nothing about her. But God is powerful to save her. Pray!
Your Maria
Third letter
Yesterday, the second of August, I had a talk in prison with our beloved Varia. My heart bleeds when I think about her. In fact she is still a child. She is only nineteen years of age. As a believer in the Lord, she is also a spiritual babe. But she loves the Lord with all her heart and went at once on the difficult way. The poor girl is so hungry. When we knew that she was in prison, we began to send her parcels. But she received only little of what was sent to her.
When I saw her yesterday, she was thin, pale, beaten. Only the eyes shone with the peace of God and with an unearthly joy.
Yes, my dear ones, those who have not experienced the wonderful peace of Christ cannot understand it...But how happy are those who have this peace...For us who are in Christ no sufferings and frustrations should stop us...
I asked through the iron bars: “Varia, don’t you regret what you did?” “No,” she answered. “And if they would free me, I would go again and would tell them about the great love of Christ. Don’t think that I suffer. I am very glad that the Lord loves me so much and gives me the joy to endure for His name.”
I beg that you pray for her. She will probably be sent to Siberia. They have taken away her clothes and all of her things. She has remained without anything, except what is on her. She has no relatives and we must collect for the most necessary things. I have put apart the last sum which you sent me. If Varia is deported, I will hand it to her. I believe that God will strengthen her and will give her power to endure in the future, too. May God keep her!
Your Maria
Fourth letter
Dear Maria, at last I am able to write you. We arrived well at [location omitted]. Our camp is ten miles from town. I cannot describe our life. You know it. I wish to write only a little about me. I thank God that He gives me health and that I can work physically. Sister X and I were put to work in a workshop where we work at machines. The work is difficult and Sister X’s health is bad. I must work for both her and me. I finish my work first and then I help my sister. We work twelve to thirteen hours a day. Our food is just as yours, very scarce. But it is not about this that I wished to write to you.
My heart praises and thanks God that, through you, He showed me the way to salvation. Now, being on this way, my life has a purpose and I know where to go and for whom I suffer. I feel the desire to tell and to witness to everybody about the great joy of salvation that I have in my heart. Who can separate us from the love of God in Christ? Nobody and nothing. Neither prison nor suffering. The sufferings that God sends us only strengthen us more and more in the faith in Him. My heart is so full that the grace of God overflows. At work, they curse and punish me, giving me extra work because I cannot be silent. I must tell everyone what the Lord has done for me. He has made me a new being, a new creation, of me who was on the way of perdition. Can I be silent after this? No, never! As long as my lips can speak, I will witness to every one about His great love.
On the way to the camp, we met with many brethren and sisters in Christ. How amazing it is that you feel through the Spirit that they are children of God when you first see the brethren and the sisters. It is useless to speak. From the first look you feel and know who they are.
While we were on the way to the camp, at one railway station, a woman came, gave us food and said only two words: “God lives.”
The first evening when we arrived here (it was late), we were taken to underground barracks. We greeted those present with the words, “Peace with you.” To our great joy, from all corners we heard the answer, “We receive you with peace.” And from the first evening we felt that we are in a family.
Yes, it was really so. Here there are many who believe in Christ as their personal Savior. More than half of the prisoners are believers. We have among us great singers and good preachers of the gospel. In the evening, when we all gather after heavy work, how wonderful it is to pass at least some time together in prayer at the feet of our Savior. With Christ there is freedom everywhere. I learned here many beautiful hymns and every day God gives me more and more of His Word. At the age of nineteen, I celebrated the birthday of Christ for the first time. Never will I forget this wonderful day! We had to work the whole day long. But some of our brethren were able to go to the river nearby. There they broke the ice and prepared the place where, during the night—according to the Word of God—seven brethren and I were baptized. Oh, how happy I am and how I would like that you, Maria, should be with me, too, that I may atone at least a little bit, through my love toward you for the wrong I committed in times past against you. But God puts every one of us in His place and we must stand firm where God has put us.
Give greetings to the whole family of God’s children. God will richly bless your common work, as He blessed me, too. Read Hebrews 12:1-3.
All our brethren greet you and are glad that your faith in God is so powerful and that you praise Him in your sufferings unceasingly. If you write to others, tell them our greetings.
Yours, Varia
Fifth letter
Dear Maria, at last I have found the opportunity to write you a few lines. I can tell you, my dear one, that, by the grace of God, Sister X and I are healthy and feel well. We are now in [location omitted].
I thank you for your motherly care for me. We received all you have prepared for us. I thank you for the most valuable thing, the Bible. Thanks to all. When you write to them, send my greetings and thanks for what they have done for me.
Since the Lord revealed to me the deep mystery of His holy love, I consider myself to be the happiest in the world. The persecutions that I have to endure I consider as a special grace. I am glad that the Lord gave me from the first days of my faith the great happiness to suffer for Him. Pray for me that I may remain faithful to the Lord to the end.
May the Lord keep you all and strengthen you for the holy battle!
Sister X and I kiss you all. When we are sent to [location omitted] perhaps we will have the opportunity to write to you again. Don’t worry about us. We are glad and joyful, because our reward in heaven is great (Matthew 5:11-12).
Your Varia
This is the last letter from Varia—the young Communist girl who found Christ, witnessed about Him, and was sentenced to slave labor. She was never heard from again, but her beautiful love and witness for Christ shows the spiritual beauty of the suffering, faithful Underground Church.