On Easter Sunday

For Easter 1953, the believers of the Nth Krasnoyarsk camp were preparing with special joy: in the small tenth barrack, the Orthodox priest Father German, who had recently arrived in prison, but had been imprisoned before the war, began to come to the “sectarians” for Sunday meetings. Other prisoners followed him, yearning for Christian fellowship. The entire small community, which now included about twelve people, immediately agreed not to touch upon issues dividing believers into different groups, leaving theological disputes until better times. They all had one Gospel, torn page by page in case of a search. Father Herman was entrusted with conducting the morning Easter service; for communion, in the evening, they prepared a piece of black bread from the prisoners' rations, and a mug of tea instead of a cup of wine. The Baptist evangelist Savely Dubinin was also scheduled to deliver the sermon. However, the camp authorities, who had recently turned a blind eye to the meetings of the “god-goers,” this time prepared an unpleasant surprise for them.

On Sunday morning, along with the first blow to the rail at the headquarters barracks, it was announced to the entire camp that it would be a working day. The plan, they say, is not being fully implemented, things need to be corrected, and therefore everything is a march to “Sunday Sunday”, to general work, to logging, and no concessions to anyone! The head of the camp, Major Zubov himself, in boots polished to a shine, in a warm overcoat that fit well on his broad and strong figure, accompanied by his two beloved German shepherds on long leashes, walked between the barracks and gloomily watched the leisurely formation for the divorce. The prisoners reluctantly got off their bunks, and although general discontent was evident, nothing foreshadowed a riot in the camp, and this was not what the prisoners saw and endured...

Immediately after the rise, several brothers gathered together and asked Savely (his camp number was D-184) and Herman (S-522) - what to do? The faces of the shepherds were alarmed; they had already managed to talk about something among themselves.

“Do as... your heart tells you,” Savely said, finding words with difficulty, “and Herman and I are going to the Easter service!”

When the entire population of the camp finally lined up to walk into the forest along their plots, five prisoners gathered in the small tenth barracks to celebrate Easter.

– Five refuseniks in the tenth! – they immediately reported to Zubov.

“Oh, that’s it,” the head of the camp grinned unkindly, “send the men to work, and I’ll deal with the dissatisfied ones myself...

Fifteen minutes later, Major Zubov with his dogs and three guards he called with machine guns entered the rebel tenth barracks. From the far corner came the words of an ancient chant: