7

AN INTERVIEW WITH AIDA

(ANONYMOUS, WRITTEN BY A WESTERN FRIEND IN 1971)

People in different parts of the world have shown concern for what has happened to the young Christian girl in the USSR, Aida Mikhailovna Skripnikova. She has been in prison twice for confessing the name of Jesus. The first time she was sentenced to one year's imprisonment from 1965-66. The second term of punishment was three years, 1968-71.

   Now Aida is free again. The heavy gates of the labor camp opened for her on 12 April 1971. The long days have passed, for the time being.

   How is Aida? What does she look like? She is young, about 30 years old. Aida is a brown-eyed Russian girl of slender build. Her eyes express joy and peacefulness. Her prisonmates trusted and loved her. Aida does not talk about the difficulties and tribulation she experienced, but about God's wonderful protection, peace, and joy.

   "I was released from the labor camp on 12 April. We were not set free directly from the camp, but were transferred at first to another place. There we lived for two weeks. There they told me that I was a person who had learned nothing from her punishment. Therefore they didn't give me a passport, as they did the other prisoners. I received only a paper, which indicated that I had been

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released from prison after serving my complete sentence. The place where I have to live is quite a large town, east of Moscow. Only when I go there will I get my passport. I'm not allowed to be outside after nine o'clock in the evening. Twice a week I have to report to the local police to show I'm in town. I can't travel outside the town without permission from the police. This rule is in force for six months. If I don't mend my ways after that time, the same rules will remain in force for another six months. Then, after that, I don't know what will happen. If I don't obey the rules imposed on me, they can arrest me again at any time. Usually such hard rules are imposed only on criminals, murderers, and hooligans. It appears that I'm counted among such people."

   When she left the camp, Aida was told that she had not been reformed, nor had she altered her views. "I asked them what kind of improvement they wished to see in me. The man then read the thoughts which I had written down in a notebook confiscated by them. He asked me: "Don't you realize that those who bring Bibles to the Soviet Union are only trying to harm us?" I told him that if we had Bibles in Russia and there were no Bibles in Sweden, I'd be prepared to be the first one to take Bibles there."

   When asking Aida what she felt was the most difficult aspect of life in prison, she hesitated for a little while. It was a hard question to answer, as could be seen from her face. Finally she answered with a smile.

   "Firstly, it was very difficult to be separated from one's friends. Secondly, it was hard being cut off from the world; you couldn't go anywhere. However, the hardest thing was to live without the Gospel. After having spent some time in prison, I asked for a Bible, but they wouldn't give me one. A sister brought me the Gospel of St. Mark. The guards, when they learned that I had a gospel, were frightened. A search of the camp was organized. Twice

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they arranged a thorough search for the gospel, and the second time they found it. For that I got ten days and nights in solitary confinement, in the cold detention cell of the prison.

   "A couple of weeks after this incident I succeeded in getting the whole New Testament into my prison. I managed to keep the book almost till the day of my release. Many times the guards organized searches. The Lord helped me every time: I was able to discover in advance when there was to be a search and hide this precious book. Many of my prisonmates helped to hide it, although they were not Christians. Just before my release they took away from me all the notes I'd written during my time there. Nothing that I'd written during those three years was left.

   "Although prison conditions were very hard," said Aida, "hope remained with me. I experienced no sorrow, my spirit was not depressed by fear. I was able to live through those three years with the words from St. Matthew, chapter 11, verse 30, before my eyes: 'For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.' Though these words from the Bible were very familiar to me before my arrest, only now do I understand how true and correct they are. Christ's burden is indeed light to bear. I experienced this in a deep way in prison many times. During my time there I had a wonderful friend, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I experienced in prison the same as did a Christian sister, who wrote from her cell that Christ gives His grace and presence to those in prison, so that one is able to endure what lies ahead. We're never alone or rejected, not even in prison."

   Aida is only one of those who have suffered for Christ's sake. She is known all over the world. When Aida was told that a postcard had been printed with her picture and distributed in different parts of the world in thousands of copies, she was confused. She said she was happy

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that people had remembered her. "However, this is how I understand why people have remembered me: they remember me as a representative of all suffering Christians, and when remembering me they are remembering all the Lord's witnesses who suffer in different parts of the world for the sake of their Master.

   "In prison I received many greeting cards and parcels. Once I was told that I'd received ten parcels from Norway, but they refused to give them to me because I hadn't altered my convictions. I don't know who sent these parcels, but I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who prayed both for me and my brothers and sisters who share the same fate as I. Once, when I was shown a package and told that it contained chocolate and other good things, I found that I didn't need the contents. I gained much greater blessing from the fact that my friends cared for me.

   "All this concern for me I looked upon as meant for all of us, and not just for me. The most marvelous thing is that nothing can separate believers from each other. All those who belong to the Lord are one body, wherever they be and in whatever conditions. Some people think that Christians based in closed countries are cut off from contact with the rest of the Lord's family. Therefore, it is a great joy for us to experience concrete, visible spiritual communion with Christians living in different parts of the world. From this we receive hope in prison. I would like to send an expression of love from us all to those who have cared for us and prayed for us.

   "The task of prayer doesn't end when a person is released from prison. We continually need prayer. My wish is that all Christians should unite to pray for each other. We ought to pray that our faith will remain unbroken, whatever the external conditions of our lives."

   Aida's own person assures us of the trustworthiness of her words. She had lost her life and found it, found her

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life in Christ, who is almighty and who is already victorious now. The Lord has given no man power over another person's soul. They can destroy the body, but that is nothing to be afraid of. Fear Him who has power to decide the eternal fate of man. Before Him every knee shall bow; even they who have denied Him will kneel.

Chapter Eight  ||  Table of Contents