Priest Irakly

 Priest Irakly

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described in another story about a priest who was hidden in different apartments by faithful Christian believers. In this story, the priest had gone to another region to preach to faithful believers. We learn that when the priest was preaching in another region, the Soviet Bolshevik socialists had attempted to arrest the priest by going to his apartment late at night. When the socialists did not find the priest in his apartment, they insisted and returned two other times to arrest the priest.

While the priest was returning to his city, the faithful believers told the priest about how there were Bolsheviks who went to his apartment searching for him. The faithful believers took the priest and hid him from the Bolshevik Soviets. The priest was able to live eight years in freedom by being hidden in other believer's apartments. This story describes the genuine empathy of righteous Christians of caring about others. While the Soviet Union attempted to make people think that everyone betrays and everyone is disloyal, we learn that in the Soviet Union there were righteous and loyal individuals who never betrayed and never falsely accused. Righteous Christians instead cared for others and seen in this story, they did not betray the priest. In fact, it was the priest who did not want to hide any longer.

This is an interesting story because the righteous Christians did not allow the priest to return to his apartment knowing that the Soviets were looking for him to take him to gulag. The priest lived with autonomy for multiple years being safeguarded by the faithful believers. We learn that the priest was eventually taken to gulag and even then was singing hymns of worship to GOD Almighty having to no longer hide himself from the Soviet Bolsheviks.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was surprised by how righteous individuals did not have fear and instead persevered with courage and valor. The priest actually did not like being hidden and instead was ready to persevere despite persecution. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was amazed by the strength and courage of righteous Christians to persevere with boldness despite opposition and envy. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described how there were multiple individuals that persevered not fearing and having serenity to keep preaching and speaking truth. Another older woman also did not betray a priest (called a metropolitan) and never told the Soviet Bolsheviks the place where the priest had taken refuge outside of the Soviet Union. She did not betray nor give any information about the priest who fled to another region.