These brief notes are based on memories shared with my brother and our parents, Mikhail Leontyevich and Elena Pavlovna Iotko. We also drew upon fragments of conversations with some contemporaries—witnesses to those events.
We studied materials from our father's criminal case from the declassified archives of Ukraine's Security Service. I was fortunate to communicate with officers who, in my view, possessed honor. They said that when reviewing the personal files of the repressed, each was carefully examined. And if there were no signs of criminal intent, only politics; if there was no "blood on their hands," then people were rehabilitated.
My brother and I read works by A. Solzhenitsyn and N. Khrapov, and heard many stories about the unbearable conditions of imprisonment that befell victims of political repression in the dungeons of northern camps. There, probably, things were different. Harder, more unbearable. I don't know. Those are other stories. But ours is powerful because it is ours. Because it is tangible and within reach.
In the extreme circumstances described here, our parents' character, decisiveness, and courage were forged. Their unwavering conviction on matters of principle was tempered; their spiritual firmness crystallized.
Whatever anyone says, however convincing the testimonies of what people saw and heard may seem, people remain people with their own subjective understandings of order and justice. Believers who read the testimonies described in this essay will see the hand of providence and the work of God's grace. They will discern, feel, and understand the cause-and-effect connections between faith, prayer, God, His will, trials, and blessings. And the unbelieving may say this is mysticism and fantasy. But that will be their understanding of what they've read. May God grant them wisdom too.
Each has their own truth, and each lives with it, defends it, and judges everything from its position. But truth—only God possesses it. And His objective understanding of this truth is the most true. God is just, and it is His right to examine and discern with each person!
Someone once, from a high platform of power, remembered dozens of heroes of our church. They were taken directly during worship. And that was all. All! Some were shot immediately, others later. Some died in captivity; some met martyrdom, torn apart by guard dogs. They did not return. And those who did return became different people. Even in memory, to look back at that place was unbearably painful. Our parents were no exception. My brother and I felt this and tried not to ask questions that troubled their souls.
For me, belonging to a somewhat freethinking, non-conservative, yet respectable generation of Baptists, unbound by traditions, restrictions, or norms, it is difficult to understand how our parents served the Lord, to agree with the upbringing they received in family and church. It is hard to imagine how justified those strict and uncompromising rules of worship were in times of total bans, persecutions, and oppression. But I know that precisely in those conditions there formed an absolute devotion to God and faithfulness to Christian principles. And I am certain that this can always happen when prayer becomes stronger than circumstances.
They say that a person breathes in and out regardless of his wishes, aesthetic principles, or inner convictions. Thus he was created by God. I think the Baptist generation of my parents belongs to the category of people who are unbreakable and steadfast, convinced and immovable. And blessed because their convictions became their life compass. If we speak of happiness, this is it.
When you read the words "Remember your leaders..." in Hebrews 13:7, you understand how true they are in the lives of our parents. For Mikhail Leontyevich, my father, and Elena Pavlovna, my mother, were for us not only beloved parents but also spiritual guides. And what follows in the verse: "...considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith," applies directly to us—their children, as well as our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
People speak of exemplary married couples: lived happily and died on the same day. Our parents' situation was not literally day for day, but in a certain way it was! Mother was exactly nine years younger than Father; their birthdays were close together, the 25th and 28th of the same month. She lived nine years after his death, and in autumn, with only a small difference from father's death date, departed into eternity.
My brother and I had parents who lived properly and departed into eternity quietly, without prolonged suffering, surrounded by loved ones. They preached God's Word and reverently carried the Good News. They kept the faith, fulfilled their service, and peacefully finished their race of life. A worthy example to follow!
