Jehovah's Witnesses were one of the most persecuted religious groups in the Soviet Union. Members were arrested or deported; some were put in soviet concentration camps. Witnesses in Moldavian SSR were deported to Tomsk Oblast; members from other regions of Soviet Union were deported to Irkutsk Oblast.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov proposed the deportation of the Jehovah's Witnesses to Stalin in October 1950. A resolution was voted by the Council of Minister and an order was issued by the Ministry for State Security in March 1951. The Moldavian SSR passed a decree "On the confiscation and selling of the property of individuals banished from the territory of the Moldavian SSR", which included the Jehovah's Witnesses.
In April 1951, over 9,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were deported to Siberia under the plan called "Operation North".
Importation of Jehovah's Witnesses' literature into the Soviet Union was strictly forbidden, and Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses received their religious literature from Brooklyn illegally. Literature from Brooklyn arrived regularly, in good condition and in large quantities through unofficial and well-organized channels, not only in many cities, but also in Siberia, and even in the penal camps of Potma.
In September 1965, a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers cancelled the "special settlement" restriction of Jehovah's Witnesses, though the decree, signed by Anastas Mikoyan, stated that there would be no compensation for confiscated property. While released, Jehovah's Witnesses remained the subject of state persecution due to their ideology classified as anti-Soviet.
On December 8, 2009 it was announced that the Supreme Court of Russia had upheld the ruling of the lower courts which pronounced 34 pieces of Jehovah's Witness literature extremist, including their magazine The Watchtower, in the Russian language, and even including the book for children, My Book of Bible Stories. Jehovah's Witnesses claim that this ruling affirms a misapplication of the Federal Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity to Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ruling upheld the confiscation of property of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog (Rostov Region) in Russia, and might set a precedent for similar cases in other areas of Russia, as well as placing literature of Jehovah's Witnesses on list of literature unacceptable in Russia througout the whole country.
The Chairman of the Presiding Committee of the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, Vasily Kalin, said: “I am very concerned that this decision will open a new era of opposition against Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose right to meet in peace, to access religious literature and to share the Christian hope contained in the Gospels, is more and more limited.” Mr. Kalin can speak from personal experience. “When I was young I was sent to Siberia for being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and because my parents were reading The Watchtower, the same journal being unjustly declared ‘extremist’ in these proceedings.”
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved December 12, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses#Soviet_Union
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Russian Supreme Court rules against Jehovah’s Witnesses and religious freedom
Page created December 12, 2009