Dusya Chmil

 Dusya Chmil

“Dusya Chmill, a round faced, calm, and quiet illiterate old woman. The convoy guards called out to her: 'Chmill! What is your article?’ And she gently, good-naturedly replied: 'Why are you asking, my boy? It's all written down there. I can't remember them all.’ (She had a bouquet of sections under Article 58.) 'Your term!’ Dusya Chmil sighed. She wasn't giving such contradictory answer in order to annoy the convoy. In her own simplehearted way she pondered this question: Her term? Did they really think it was given to human beings to know their terms? '...'Till GOD forgives my sins..' ‘…But after two and a half years of her term had passed, even though she had sent no petitions- all of a sudden a piece of paper came: release!’”-(page 317)

Dusya Chmil was a woman that decided to keep being sincere and righteous and was taken to gulag for false accusations. We learn that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described stories of individuals that had done no wrong and yet were persecuted by the socialist Bolshevik Soviets. While there was persecution based on envy, some of these stories relate how there were also righteous individuals that did not corrupt themselves and remained loyal to the worship of GOD Almighty. We learned that while some were martyred and obtained eternal salvation, others kept persevering and were able to be freed from gulag.

The story of Dusya Chmil describes an older woman who had been falsely accused by the Soviet socialists and taken to gulag. Dusya Chmil did not really care for socialism and described everything in plain language describing that she was going to keep worshiping GOD Almighty and did not care about socialism. When Soviet soldiers asked about her article meaning the reason she was being sent to gulag, Dusya Chmil answered with honesty and was not trying to annoy. She described that she did not know anything about that and that it was all written down. When asked the term she was receiving, she answered with honesty describing that she was going to keep persevering worshiping GOD Almighty.

The story of Dusya Chmil is surprising because while being an older woman considered a “nun” by the Soviet socialists, she decided to persevere with her faith in GOD Almighty and was released in two and a half years. This is surprising because for each individual there were different circumstances. The most important part was not renouncing Christianity despite martyrdom, persecution, or envy. We learn that Dusya Chmill was able to persevere and was released early from gulag not having to serve the fifteen years described. This describes the manner that GOD Almighty helps the righteous persevere when they decide to be zealous for their faith and not practice idol worship and sin. Some may have been martyred yet obtained eternal salvation, yet others persevered being released early from gulag. Others served time in gulag like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, were freed, then exiled to another country, and never renounced their faith in King Jesus Christ.

Dusya Chmil describes the “nuns” that decided to worship GOD Almighty above everything with zeal. The Soviet Bolsheviks hated the “nuns” because they were stubborn in their belief and did not really care about idolatry. We learn that the “nuns” were older women that never renounced their faith in GOD Almighty yet remained skeptical about socialism and communism. In Orthodox Christianity, there were no nuns in the sense of the Catholic Church, yet there were zealous older women that were called "nuns" because of their zeal. There were older men and women that chose to be zealous in their faith that caused envy from the Soviets. We learn that the older generations were not looked upon favorably by the Soviet socialists because they did not care about idol worship that was socialism. We learn that not only were the older generations skeptical of socialism because there are numerous stories of younger individuals and adults that remained zealous for the worship of GOD Almighty. This describes how socialism does not care about men, women, the elderly, the young, and adults, and instead only cares about envy and temporary lies.