By Gillian Bethel
Nickolai Panchuk stood in front of the warden’s office for the second time since his arrival at a Russian prison camp. In their introductory interview earlier that week, he’d told the warden he would cooperate with his orders. Afterwards, he realized he’d forgotten to mention something important that might be a problem.
It was a problem. On Saturday, because he didn’t go to work, he was beaten heavily by the guard in charge of his barracks—a man named Yuri. But still he didn’t go, so the guard took him to the steely-eyed warden. “It’s God’s holy day. I cannot work on the seventh-day Sabbath,” Nickolai explained.
The warden had no sympathy with religious convictions. “The consequences will be severe,” he replied icily.
After a violent whipping by the warden, Nickolai dragged himself back to his barracks. All week, he worried and prayed
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Gillian Bethel is the associate editor of Last Generation magazine.