Georgi Vins - Soviet Union

This testimony was originally published in our 1976 Door of Hope magazine. 

Georgi Vins shares his firsthand account of life and faith under the Soviet regime:

Communism is often thought of as a power without a name and without a face. But for the thousands of believers’ children born behind the Iron Curtain, the names and faces of secret police agents who take their parents away are all too real.

Among the first words that Georgi Vins spoke as a child were: “Jesus, bring Daddy back!” Three years later, Georgi’s father, Peter, was released from prison and then exiled to Biysk, a small town lost among the forests of the Altai Krai in southwestern Siberia.

Georgi recalls his excitement walking down the street with his father to a church meeting:

“It seemed as though everyone was looking at me: ‘See, I have a father, too!’ I loved to sit behind him at the meeting and sing about Jesus, who had heard my prayers and brought my daddy back.”

It wasn’t long, however, before his father’s work in spreading the Gospel drew the inevitable knock on the door.

“The owner of the house asked, ‘Who is it?’
‘Police, open up!’ came the answer.
It was the secret police. They demanded Father, producing a warrant for his arrest. They took a Bible, a Gospel, personal letters, and photographs. Father had a bag of dried crusts ready and waiting. He put on warm clothing. A last prayer together in the presence of the inspector, and then Father was once again taken away.

We could hear the car, parked slightly to one side of the house, honk as it moved off. I ran out into the yard behind the shed and wept. Terrible grief pierced my heart. I heard my mother calling, searching for me. ‘Mother, I don’t want to live any longer!’ I cried. My mother, weeping, led me away and soothed me.

After Father’s arrest, the owner refused us lodging. We faced long searches for a place to stay. Many believers turned us away, afraid for themselves.”

Georgi’s father was finally tried. The state’s witnesses reversed their testimonies, and he was unexpectedly freed.

“Nine months had passed since his arrest, but that day there was joy, tears, and embraces. I was dragged into the hall too (I had not been admitted during the trial). Father had grown thin, and his clothes smelled unpleasantly of prison, but I did not care. It was my daddy—my very own! He lifted me in his arms and said, ‘How big you are! Your legs reach right down to the ground!’ Carefully, he set me down.

I was full of joy to see Father at home, but I sensed it would only be for a short while.”

Late one evening, his father was taken away for the last time. Only years later did Georgi learn that his father had been convicted by a closed court—the infamous “troika”—to ten years in a labor camp without the right to correspondence.

Peter Vins, and many others like him, never returned from the Gulag Archipelago. “God alone knows where their ashes lie.”

Georgi’s own children became heirs to the same fate. He wrote from his first time in prison:

“A month ago, my younger daughter took her first step. I have also taken my first step—but into prison! My world has narrowed to four stone walls and a massive metal door.”

The four Vins children—Natasha, Petya, Liza, and Zhenya—along with thousands of other children across communist countries, prayed every day for the safe return of their fathers. Thankfully, Georgi did return to his family in 1979.

NOTE: Georgi Vins faced multiple imprisonments for his Christian ministry in the Soviet Union. His first arrest came in 1966, resulting in three years in a labor camp before his release in 1969. He was arrested again in March 1974 for leading the underground Baptist movement and, in January 1975, was sentenced to five years in a labor camp followed by five years of internal exile. While still serving this sentence, Vins was unexpectedly expelled from the USSR in April 1979 and sent to the United States in a diplomatic exchange for two Soviet spies. After continuing ministry work abroad, his Soviet citizenship was formally restored in 1990, and he remained active in advocacy until his death in Elkhart, Indiana, on 11 January 1998.