Title: I Found God in Soviet Russia
Author: John Noble
Publisher: St Martin’s
Date: 1959
ISBN: none
Length: 192 pages
John Noble, a German-American living in Germany, had trouble getting back to the United States when the war broke out. When the Russian army invaded, he and his father were arrested, apparently for having tried to leave Germany. Such official excuses were made, he tells us, when either of the two cash-strapped governments coveted someone’s wealth—his father had a thriving camera factory, which, unfortunately, had been damaged in the war.
Believing that God had allowed this to happen to them because they had not been practicing their Christian faith, father and son resolved to pray and testify in prison. The eventual result was this story of ecumenical Christian services in a Soviet labor camp. “Inspiring”? Maybe, but when Noble finally got back to the States, he expressed no interest in going back.
In addition to their persistence in prayer, this book gives a sketch of the cultural diversity the Soviets tried to flatten out. We meet people from several different ethnic groups and religious traditions. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, we learn little more about them, but this memoir does affirm that good (and bad) people are found in all ethnic groups.
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