My experience, as an American, in a Russian prison

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The door to mission work in the former Soviet Union began to open in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. In August 1991, communism was overthrown in the USSR, and the former Soviet republics became independent. The largest country of these, Russia (155 million), became a huge new mission field.

My name is Tom Ruhkala. I made contact with the formerly underground Baptist churches in Russia in the winter of 1992. We had lived in Tampere, Finland, since 1980, where my wife and I were Baptist missionaries with our three children. I am an evangelist and church planter. I made my first trip into St. Petersburg, Russia, in February 1992.

The Baptists were starving. They could only afford one or two small meals a day. And the winters are bitterly cold and long. We brought in humanitarian aid and Bibles and began working with those Baptist churches in western Russia. They were separate from the state Baptist churches, because they refused to follow the Soviet mandates controlling the teaching of children and did not let the KGB monitor their preaching services.

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During the next 10 years, I was able to preach hundreds of times in western Russia and as far north as the Arctic Ocean. I got to know the Russian people well and established a rapport with the Russian Baptist Christian community. We had an open door to preach the Gospel in the schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, community centers, everything from small house churches to large public buildings and outdoor tent meetings for evangelism in the summer.

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The Russian people were curious, even eager, to hear what we had to say. For 70 years, the Bible was banned, and Christians were persecuted. In order to understand the Russian prison system, you have to understand the cruelty of a godless nation and how they treat their religious minorities. 

Since the Bolsheviks took over in 1917, first under Lenin and later Stalin, the Soviet Union was officially an atheist state. All religion was carefully regulated and never allowed to grow. Our Russian Christian friends were unregistered with the state and, therefore, not allowed to attend university or learn a foreign language. Their pastors had all been arrested at one time or another, and many were sent to prison camps in Siberia. Many never returned. They were put in the regular prison population with hardened criminals. 

I talked with Pastor Dimitri Minyakov, who was sent to one of the most remote prisons in Siberia for preaching the Bible. He was a political prisoner like Alexei Navalny and considered the most dangerous foe to the Soviet state. He was subjected to harsh conditions of labor with a reduced food ration. He almost didn’t survive.

Rev. Tom Ruhkala with Russian Baptist Pastor Dimitri Minyakov (Courtesy Tom Ruhkala)

The system is intended to break you. Minyakov’s children had to bring him food and clothing from way across Russia. These Christians were the persecuted minority, because they wanted to raise their families according to the Word of God. If they were caught holding an unsanctioned religious meeting, they were considered criminals, and their Bibles were confiscated, and the men sent to prison. Sometimes the authorities would even take their furniture and personal belongings and leave families destitute. In grade school, teachers mocked their children before their peers for refusing to wear the Communist Young Pioneer pins. Times were hard for the unregistered Christians.

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Seventy years of atheism purged society of the knowledge of God. They learned to lie and cheat to get ahead, so much so, that corruption was the accepted norm in society. I remember my Russian brother telling me, "Never believe a Russian." They are accomplished liars and thieves. It is a hellish society where there is no fear of God, no ultimate accountability for one’s actions.

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The police were almost all corrupt and easily bought off. Women sold themselves for money. Families were destroyed through alcoholism, and there was little compassion for the children left on the street. I’d never seen drunken men before sleeping in the middle of the street with their little children trying to wake them up and pull them to the side of the road. In fact, sometimes it was the Mafia that created order in all this chaos as businesses paid them money for security.

I can remember preaching the Gospel of Jesus in a large circus tent where we held evangelistic meetings for two weeks in St. Petersburg. Older ladies came forward in tears crying, "Prosti minya!" "Forgive me! Forgive me!" They groaned in pain and cried out, saying they didn’t know. They had forgotten God. The gospel of Christ changed hardened hearts right before our eyes.

A certain Baptist pastor was sent to one of the Siberian prison camps for preaching the Gospel. He shared the Good News of Jesus, His death and resurrection, with his fellow inmates. One of the other prisoners, named Sergei, was a big, strong gang member. He was known to the prison guards for being extremely violent. 

Rev. Tom Ruhkala is a retired Baptist missionary. He served in Finland for 40 years. He made multiple trips to Russia and traveled extensively throughout Western Russia.  (Courtesy Tom Ruhkala)

One of those guards, named Andrei, was often tasked with keeping Sergei in a special cage. Then something strange happened. Sergei became quiet and obedient. He had heard the gospel from the Baptist pastor and had believed in Jesus. Andrei observed the change in behavior and thought it was Sergei’s new way to fool the guards. But Sergei’s good behavior continued, and he even began to share his testimony of God’s forgiveness through the blood of Christ. 

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This unexpected transformation made Andrei think that there might be some truth to this thing about Jesus. In the end, Andrei also accepted Christ as his Savior and was changed from the inside out. When I met them, they were Christian brothers and members of the same Baptist church in Volodarskaya, a suburb of St. Petersburg.

I was invited twice to the young men’s prison in Arkangelsk, the city in the far north on the White Sea of the Arctic Ocean. The prisoners were young men whose ages ranged from 14 to 22 years old. Warden Plakinov was the commandant and a major in the Red Army. The Russian prison system is run by the Red Army. These young men had committed every serious crime, from rape to murder. But there was hope that they would turn from their evil ways. 

Rev. Tom Ruhkala preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to young men in a Russian prison (Courtesy Tom Ruhkala)

When I spoke from the Bible about the Lord Jesus, I had a captive audience in more ways than one. They listened with great interest that the Son of God died for sinners like them. Later in the prison yard, many of them came up to me thanking me for coming and caring for their souls. The second time I visited this prison, they remembered me, and many had eagerly embraced the message of salvation.

Warden Plakinov was the commandant and a major in the Red Army. The Russian prison system is run by the Red Army. 

During those 10 years, I made over 35 ministry trips to Russia and Estonia. We always had to be careful about keeping our car in a secure compound called a "staianka" guarded by armed guards for the night. The streets were not safe. Once, when my wife and daughter came with me to St. Petersburg, they wanted to go outside for a walk. Our host pleaded with them not to go because it was very dangerous. We had to exercise caution at all times. People still managed to steal from us and swindle us and pass counterfeit bills to us. 

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America is becoming more of a godless society like Russia was in those days. Besides the Russian Christians that we worked with, we found that we were viewed as rich western targets to be exploited in every way. If the people appeared friendly, it was always to con us somehow. We learned that the average Russian on the street was an opportunist, willing to take advantage of anyone. 

In a society where there is no fear of God, there is cruelty and suffering on every hand. America is sadly heading in that direction.