Imprisoned for his Faith in an Estonian Labor Camp

At the age of three, Yuri Safronov watched as the NKVD, later known as the KGB, arrest and take his parents from him. Their crime? They believed in God. And for that, they were sentenced to five years in prison.

His parents were of the many arrested as part of the Soviet Union’s “Great Purge”—a political and religious repression campaign to rid the USSR of anyone who did not fit or embrace the communist ideals. If you were not an atheist, you were shot or sent to a Gulag.

After six and a half years of wondering what had happened to his parents, Yuri was finally reunited with his mother, whom authorities released from the labor camp after some political changes took effect. His dad ended up serving eighteen years in the labor camp.

The KGB appeared again in Yuri’s life when he was thirty years old. This time to arrest Yuri because of his faith in God. He was not afraid of them and told the authorities that they could not harm him.

Out of fear that he had higher connections, they released him.

Later, he was arrested again for the same reason and put on a two-week trial. The KGB convicted him for five years in prison under Article 58, which the Soviet Union created to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. He was sent to a labor camp. In his sentence, they wrote, "To perform only the hardest labor jobs."

He labored under extreme circumstances for the next three years. And yet his boldness and faith in God fostered many miracles:

On multiple occasions, when the criminals intended to harm him in a prison cell during his trial in Estonia, Yuri whispered to God, "Please do not allow this to happen." No harm happened to him.

While in the labor camp, he received only minimal daily rations, which caused him to be constantly hungry. So Yuri prayed for food. One afternoon, shortly after, he received a knock on his barrack’s door. An officer who hated him delivered a wrapped-up sack with bread in it.

"You better get rid of any evidence before 5:00 pm today. Do you hear me?" the officer said. That officer risked his life and unknowingly was an answer to Yuri's prayer.

Another time Yuri was freezing in the camp barracks. The camp officials issued a set amount of wood per barrack. Once the prisoners used the firewood, they did not renew their supply. Now without any wood or warmth, Yuri began to pray. Shortly after, a different officer knocked on his door, asking if he could help him start a fire in his quarters. The guard brought a pile of wood into his room.

“Do you have matches?” Yuri asked.

"Do you think I can't start a fire?" the guard said.

Puzzled, Yuri asked, "Then why did you call me here?"

"Because I want you to tell me about God."

Yuri was able to talk to him about God while being warmed by the fire.

During his time in the labor camp, the people who hated him saw that he was not evil like the government had programmed the society to believe about Christians. For instance, the communist media said that the people who believed in God sacrificed their children, stole money from the elderly, and did other horrific things. So, the guards were surprised when Yuri shared his bread with the four fellow prisoners in the barracks. Yuri's regard for others displayed love, which those men said they would never forget.

Yuri witnessed the power of prayer and what faith in God can do, which led him to continue living a bold life of spreading the gospel. Today, now living in the United States, Yuri is incredibly passionate about refurbishing old Bibles with a leather covering and giving them to people.

The first Bible my mother-in-law, had when she became a believer was from Yuri. He even asked me after my interview with him if I needed a Bible.

Yuri firmly believes that above all else, if you do not have love, everything else you do is in vain.