In Russia during the communist era, every family was affected by the godless tyranny. Practically every extended family had at least one person who was the victim of arrest, imprisonment, and/or death.
Right after the communist revolution in Russia, the migr press abounded with firsthand accounts of communist oppression. However, due to political fear, and the support in the West of socialist aspirations, most of the texts were soon hidden. Within enslaved Russia, all attempts to record the lives of the heroes of Orthodox confession were vicariously suppressed, and thus their stories remained alive only in the hearts of the faithful, who awaited a more favorable time to tell their God-inspired stories and the truth to the world.
Now these accounts are being brought to light together with information from newly opened KGB files, and Fr. Damascene's volumes are among the most important fruits of these efforts. His gigantic labor of collecting and publishing whatever has been miraculously preserved in Russia, and of verifying it with already existing information, is now presented in the English language.
The many eyewitness accounts draw the reader into personal contact with these righteous confessors, and brings a view of this confessive era into sharp focus. Their stories are unearthed as a vast wealth of inspiration and strength to endure trials for Christ's sake, and thereby to achieve union with God
