Puffs

As you know, I’ve used statements from books I’ve read that somehow relate to our current living conditions. I’m currently coming to the end of a good book called “The Universe Behind Barbed Wire.” The book is the memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet dissident and written before the current Russian-Ukraine war. The author, Myroslav Marynovych, was a Ukraine citizen but lived in the late 1970s through the 1980s in a Russian prison because the Soviet Communist considered him to be a threat to the Russian government.

I am not through reading the book yet, but I just finished reading a part I though interesting enough to pass along on its own merits.

Now, I lived in the time the book relates, the 1970s and the 1980s and had no idea of how the Russians controlled all the people in the vast empire of the USSR. In reading this book I got a better idea of how they did it.

The author, and many others like him were often arrested and imprisoned for many things we take for granted here in the USA. The author spoke out about “civil right” issues and suspected that sooner or later he would be arrested.

He was arrested and much of the book is about his experiences in the Russian jail camps. (If prisoners here in the US had to experience what they did, we would probably not hear as many complains as we do.)

He wrote about the methods the prisoners used to get around the strict rules of the Russians and he talked about the importance of “religion” in the jail camps.

A part I just read involved a friend of the author who was being released from the jail. The author and this soon to be released man connived a plan to have the man about to be released make copies of several religious prayers (The Creed, the “Hail Mary” and the Lord’s Prayer, often called ‘The Our Father’ prayer.)

The person freed from the prison camps fulfilled his promise and sent written copies of the prayers. However, the prison camp officials intercepted the message (as they did with all in-coming and out-going mail).

The camp commander was feeling real good when he informed the prisoner he found out his secret and exposed it.

The camp commander confirmed that ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ was a “suspicious text.”

I don’t know a thing about the camp commander, but as a Communist, born and raised in Russia, I’m guessing he had no religious education. The Lord’s Prayer probably was suspicious to him. I wonder just how long he took to try to understand what he was reading, if he ever did.

Remember . . . the next time you pray ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ you are reciting a “suspicious text” according to some Russian camp commander.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I got a good laugh when I read that portion of the book.

A couple of pages later the author was explaining how the prison inmates used their religious heritage to form a bond against the Russian jailers.

Most all of the inmates were Christian, just not all from the same religious background or identity. However, they used that common bond to survive the experience. In fact, because different religions celebrated Christmas on different dates, they celebrated Christmas twice each year to use the Holy Day as an example of their independence from the Russians.

A O

The examples of “Good and Bad” were real clear in the book as the author was trying to demonstrate just what the culture was like, not only in the prison camps, but also in the culture in general.

I don’t try to tie everything I read to our cultural experience in the United States today. However, this book helps me to put things in perspective today.

To me, the 1970s and 1980s was not so long ago even though today, many current residents were not born yet.

The book explained many things that happened back then and I can see how many of them are happening today here in the U. S.

I see what many of the liberal practices are doing today and can easily compare them to what was happening back then.

Are they exactly the same?

No, but they are not all that much apart either.

A big difference is in the religious practices. In the Russian prisons, the inmates used their religion to survive and fight back against the Communist.

In America, religion is slowly being “set aside” as being ‘un-important.’ It seems that if a person isn’t happy for some reason with his religion, he simply either starts his own, or finds a different type of religion.

In the Russian jails, they found a way to unite and use their common background in religion to survive. In America, we have to find a way to bond together to combat the liberal influences that often not only want to get rid of religion, but use our differences to divide and conquer.

With 2024 being an election year, I urge you to use your religion to fight against those liberal practices being fostered on the American public.

And . . . Happy New Year to all.

A O