Mikhail came back to faith after he received a letter from his father who was in the Kolyma Camp at that time, and in the ‘40s, at the age of 24, he was incarcerated because he studied the Bible with other students and attended the Cathedral of Jelokhovskij. He spent sixteen years in prison, surviving to hard labor and punishments in the “ice cell”.
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Archpriest Mikhail Trukhanov: Faith overcomes all difficulties [2:35]
Witness: Trukhanov, Mikhail, ArchpriestBiographical note: Mikhail came back to faith after he received a letter from his father who was in the Kolyma Camp at that time, and in the ‘40s, at the age of 24, he was incarcerated because he studied the Bible with other students and attended the Cathedral of Jelokhovskij. He spent sixteen years in prison, surviving to hard labor and punishments in the “ice cell”.
Background: Once they had taken power in Russia, the Bolsheviks attempted to erase the concept of the Divine Creation from mass consciousness. By taking advantage of the ignorance of the people, the new authorities gave free reign to the darkest of human instincts, thus justifying theft and murder by means of “revolutionary awareness.” On May 1, 1919, Lenin sent to Dzerzhinsky, chief of the VCK, later called CK (acronym in Russian for All-Russian Extraordinary Commission Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage), the following secret order: "...we must put an end to priests and religions as soon as possible. Priests shall be arrested as counterrevolutionaries and saboteurs, and they shall be shot mercilessly, in all places and as many as possible. It is time to close down the Church.”Hundreds of thousands of believers from the territory of the former Soviet Union accepted their persecution with humility, courageously bore every burden and they were genuine witnesses and confessors of the Christian faith. In the years of persecution, the clergy took upon themselves the brunt of the attack of the horrible God-fighting force, but they did not betray their ministerial duties.
The interview: Archpriest Mikhail Trukhanov is an outstanding example of perseverance, faith, humility: he is the hero of one of Domus Patris documentaries – “Thy Will be done” –available also in the English edition. In this piece of interview, he tells us how one time it was possible for him to get the Mass and the Holy Communion, in prison, at risk of his life.
Produced by Domus Patris, Russian Federation.
