In the third volume of his
book, Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn tells the story of an evangelist
whose name “seems to have been Alexander Sisoiev.” He never published volumes
of sermons, was never on television, had no mass rallies. Just as the creed
says nothing about the sermons of Jesus but only that He suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified and buried, so history says about Sisoiev only that he
was an evangelist and that he was shot in the Kengir concentration camp, after
spending many years in prison in quiet communion with His Lord. At that time,
shooting of the innocent was an everyday occurrence. But this man
who “seems to have been Alexander Sisoiev” had been a man apart. Those who looked
at him “took knowledge that
he had been with Jesus,” though he was “unlearned and ignorant” like Peter and
John (Acts 4:13)
The Camp inmates were
resigned to the beating and shooting of other prisoners, but when this saint –
whose name is not even known for sure – was shot, the whole camp of 2,500
prisoners – among whom were murderers, burglars, thieves, and 500 political
prisoners – rebelled. They refused to
work and attacked the guards. Their
supreme request was that the person responsible for the shooting be punished.
In the end, the Communists
quenched the revolt after killing about 700 political prisoners and criminals,
who died showing their love and solidarity for a man about we know nothing
except that he knew how to maintain his privacy, how to commune in quietness
with God, and had an inner prayer closet even in a common prison cell.
Perhaps instead of having
conferences about modern evangelization methods it is more important for us to
be like the one who “seems to have been Alexander Sisoiev.”