JOURNEYS Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalins Russia, John B. Toews, 1998

n 1934 to buy machines for his factory here. He bought a pair of shoes for his wife and wrapped them in the first thing that came to hand. It was the Menshevik newspaper Forward published by Russian emigres. Back home friends and colleagues came to greet him and admire the presents he brought. Someone found the newspaper and sent it to the NKVD. Now, two years later, he was arrested as a Trotskyite. Later in passing he indicated that he received a ten-year sentence. Since it was getting warmer outside one of the double win¬ dows was removed. Now we tried to find out who our neighbors were. I learned that my former teacher Pavel Petrovich Friesen was also imprisoned here, but out of fear he never came to the window [to talk]. The night ceremonial ran as follows. The ‘eye” of the door opened and the guard asked: “Whose name begins with B?” When I identified myself as Berg he told me to get ready. I dressed, the door opened and I was in the corridor. Another guard took over and led me to the interrogator. We walked through many corri¬ dors and various floors. A deathly silence reigned everywhere. My investigating judge was a Jew, tall and well-proportioned. He spoke a perfect German .... I stood and waited, sometimes for an hour or two, which proved very difficult. Your feet begin to feel like lead and you shift from one foot to the other. Sometimes he allowed me to sit. There were no objects on the desk. They had been removed after an inmate took a heavy inkwell and threw it at the investigating judge rendering him unconscious. He then jumped to his death through a sixth storey window. Something Paul Janzen had said was the only charge against me. Ostensibly I was systematically collecting weapons and hid¬ ing them - a charge I categorically denied. I only admitted to one action. Towards the end of 1929 I gave Paul some Turkish to¬ bacco and he gave me a pistol without bullets. In 1930 I threw it down a toilet hole. My sister Lena later explained to me how it resurfaced. I was not beaten or tortured — that only happened during the second half of 1937 — but the interrogations impacted the very core of ones being. In mid April 1936, the investigating judge gave me the min¬ utes of my interrogation and, since my case was finished, asked me to sign. I was charged under the following paragraphs of the criminal code: 106 JOURNEYS Section 58:2 - Preparation for armed insurrection Section 58:10 - Counter revolutionary agitation Section 58:11 — Member of a conspiratorial organization The case was closed. The investigating judge said I could count on at least a five year sentence. Strangely enough I felt quite calm. Through a small breach between us and cell number seven, we learned that a massive judicial process was to begin in May. There was a long list of names and I recognized many acquaintances. Apparently each prisoner could review his complete file before trial. I immediately drafted a comp