With God in Russia

Rating:
Summary: From Russia, With Love
Review: ". . . it isn't often one gets the chance to be around when a man comes back from the dead" (From the Introduction).

This is Father Ciszek's odyssey from class bully to rough- hewn, intrepid minister inside and out of the best accommodations the Soviet Union had to offer for their political prisoners: the best KGB interrogators, the best watered-down soup, the best concrete bunks, the best mix of sociopathic criminals mixed in with the prisoners of conscience, the best conditions guaranteed to reduce the expense of maintaining an extensive number of prisoners who, however inadvertantly, irritated the authorities.

There are few spiritual insights--this isn't a letter from Saint Paul, nor Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn--but his experiences speak for themselves. Fr. Ciszek endured the rigors of intense interrogations followed by five years of imprisonment in cells, both isolated and crowded, within Moscow. He endured another ten years in worker camps inside the Arctic Circle.

In spite of the hardships, he managed to minister to a captive audience supplied by the Russian authorities. He heard confessions and said Mass with provisions supplied by the prisoners themselves, such as fermented raisins for sacramental wine, and a paten made of nickel.

There were some minor disappointments. He had his picture snapped at Lenin's tomb days before he was airlifted from the national prison Lenin founded. For all the suffering he endured out of love for the people of the Soviet Union, I overlooked his touristy affectation. Besides, he DOES offer a prayer for Lenin's soul: "He was a man, after all, . . . and he may be in need of more prayers than he's getting here."

Also, I would have appreciated a few pages relating how he readjusted to life back home.

This memoir should sit next to other prison crucibles, such as "The Gulag Archipilago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, "When Hell Was In Session" by Jeremiah Denton and "Against All Hope" by Armando Valladares.

Rating:
Summary: From Russia, With Love
Review: ". . . it isn't often one gets the chance to be around when a man comes back from the dead" (From the Introduction).

This is Father Ciszek's odyssey from class bully to rough- hewn, intrepid minister inside and out of the best accommodations the Soviet Union had to offer for their political prisoners: the best KGB interrogators, the best watered-down soup, the best concrete bunks, the best mix of sociopathic criminals mixed in with the prisoners of conscience, the best conditions guaranteed to reduce the expense of maintaining an extensive number of prisoners who, however inadvertantly, irritated the authorities.

There are few spiritual insights--this isn't a letter from Saint Paul, nor Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn--but his experiences speak for themselves. Fr. Ciszek endured the rigors of intense interrogations followed by five years of imprisonment in cells, both isolated and crowded, within Moscow. He endured another ten years in worker camps inside the Arctic Circle.

In spite of the hardships, he managed to minister to a captive audience supplied by the Russian authorities. He heard confessions and said Mass with provisions supplied by the prisoners themselves, such as fermented raisins for sacramental wine, and a paten made of nickel.

There were some minor disappointments. He had his picture snapped at Lenin's tomb days before he was airlifted from the national prison Lenin founded. For all the suffering he endured out of love for the people of the Soviet Union, I overlooked his touristy affectation. Besides, he DOES offer a prayer for Lenin's soul: "He was a man, after all, . . . and he may be in need of more prayers than he's getting here."

Also, I would have appreciated a few pages relating how he readjusted to life back home.

This memoir should sit next to other prison crucibles, such as "The Gulag Archipilago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, "When Hell Was In Session" by Jeremiah Denton and "Against All Hope" by Armando Valladares.

Rating:
Summary: Tough ministry for a tough guy
Review: Born in Pennsylvania and growing up as a tough guy on the street, Father Ciszek surely blundered into one of the toughest ministries ever. He had the worst case of historical myopia this reviewer has ever seen, but such a trait may have been required to lead him to his prison ministry. He gets a fixed idea that he must minister in Russia. In seminary in Poland when the Russians overrun it, he decides on his own to enter Russia, obtaining reluctant approval at the last minute. When does he enter? You guessed it - after the Germans invade Russia. He picks a Polish pseudonym and heads for the front! Naturally, the NKVD arrests him for espionage, but after thorough investigation are totally stymied by the good father. They offer him a ministry at the front, but he turns it down, at a time when 40 million people are dying and the Russians are fighting for the right to exist at all. So, he goes to the camps. There he keeps the flicker of faith alive among the hopeless. Miraculously, at the end of his working ministry, he gets to be repatriated and retire in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring journey towards acceptance of God's Will
Review: Father Ciszek portrays the nightmare disruption the Nazis and Communist caused in the lives of Catholics, Christians and Jews. A convicted "Vatican Spy", Father Ciszek spent the majority of his adult life abused, demeaned and nearly killed in Soviet labor camps. Despite these hardships, the book is uplifting, heartwarming and exceedingly inspirational. This book will help anyone facing the hardships of life. The companion book "He Leadeth Me" is a must read to understand the grace and strength Father Ciszek received from his Catholic religion.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Life Story
Review: I read this book back in 1987 while a patient in a local Veteran's Hospital. A priest had stopped in to visit and offered it to me for something to pass the time. It was one of those books that once you started to read it, you couldn't put it down. I read the book in a week, and it really touched me as to the testament of a person's faith in a time of struggle. I regard it as an honor to of been afforded the opportunity to of been given this book to read in a time of need.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Life Story
Review: I read this book back in 1987 while a patient in a local Veteran's Hospital. A priest had stopped in to visit and offered it to me for something to pass the time. It was one of those books that once you started to read it, you couldn't put it down. I read the book in a week, and it really touched me as to the testament of a person's faith in a time of struggle. I regard it as an honor to of been afforded the opportunity to of been given this book to read in a time of need.