463 gulag letters discovered

Every seat at Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford was filled for the premiere of the documentary film, “Through the Red Gate: Voices from Stalin’s Gulag,” February 23.

Although it’s perhaps the darkest story in Russian Mennonite history, the world knows little of the catastrophic events of the 1930s, when entire families were sentenced to prison in Stalin’s gulag – a vast network of slave labour camps in Siberia. The survival rate was often one winter. It is said 20 million perished under Stalin.

Writing letters to the West during Stalin’s “Reign of Terror” was labelled a crime, yet 463 letters from the gulag written by Russian Mennonites arrived in a tiny town in the Canadian prairies from 1930–1937. Discovered in an attic in a Campbell’s soup box and translated by Peter and Anna Bargen, they help verify one of the most horrific eras in human history.

Dr. Ruth Derksen Siemens researched the letters, eventually producing the documentary (along with Moyra Rodger of “Out-To-See” Entertainment). The film includes interviews with some of the letter writers and gulag survivors, as well as the story of the Bargen family’s miraculous escape in 1929.

Ruth’s book, “Remember Us: Letters from Stalin’s Gulag,” was presented to Neil Bargen, son of Anna and Peter, at the launch.

Art displays by Hilda Janzen Goertzen, Edith Krause, and Shireen Cotterall integrated images of the letters as well as photographs of the period into their art.

The Mennonite Historical Society of B.C., sponsor of the event, was asked to keep the evening “secular and academic,” but when cellist Joel Stobbe began to play “Wehrlos und Verlassen” (In the Rifted Rock I’m Resting) at the conclusion of the evening, a faint humming was heard that eventually blossomed into full four part harmony by all present. The air was electric with deep emotion. Surely this is how our faith was sustained during dark and subversive times.

“Remember us as we remember you” was the plea from a father in the gulag to his family. This film and book will help us and future generations do the same.

For more information see gulagletters.com.

Helen Rose Pauls is a member of Sardis Community Church, Chilliwack, B.C.