on his behalf to the Soviet Ambassador. She had made a point of praying for him every day and told him it was a miracle that he was now there in her city. Ogorodnikov's time in prison was not wasted. Not only did he survive his captivity, he emerged a toughened man with infinite inner strength on which to call. His association with Sakharov8 and other Jewish dissidents, his clandestine sharing of the eucharist with a Lithuanian Catholic priest, his contacts with Ukrainians and other national groups broadened his outlook and shaped his thinking. Prison was also where he learnt his English. By speaking through a sewer pipe he was able to talk with an imprisoned professor from Leningrad. The academic taught Ogorodnikov English, Ogorodnikov taught him theology. The professor became a Christian. Like Adenauer and de Gasperi in the pre-war German and Italian prisons, Ogorodnikov used his prison years to plan for the future.
Living and Surviving
Tatiana Goricheva in her book Cry of the Spirit - Christian Testimonies from the Soviet Union eloquently details how the suffering and privations of Ogorodnikov and others lends new credence to Tertullian's famous declaration that 'the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church'. Many in Britain have been inspired by the extraordinary example of Irina Ratushinskaya, a young Christian poet sentenced in 1983 to seven years' hard labour, and five years' internal exile. Her crime: writing poetry. In her book No, I'm Not Afraid,9 there is a stark account compiled by Amnesty International of conditions in the Mordovian corrective labour colony where Irina was kept:
The worst feature is intense cold. The cell has a wooden floor with gaps between its boards, and underneath, a layer of solid cement, said to be 40-50 centimeters thick. The window has bars but often no glass. The prisoners receive food rations only on alternate days. On the 'empty' day, they are just given bread and a hot drink three times. Light bedding is handed out to them at night, and taken away again in the morning, so there is nothing they can use to keep warm.
While detained in this camp, Irina wrote her poem 'I will Live and Survive',10