"SPECIAL SERVICES BROKE DOWN THE DOOR WHILE WE WERE DRINKING TEA"
How the Pskov F.S.B. fights with local Jehovah's Witnesses
by Liudmila Savitskaia
Gennady Shpakovsky is 60 years old. In 1995 he believed in the God Jehovah, and in 2012 he headed the Pskov religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses and soon faced persecutions. Unidentified persons tried to plant forbidden extremist literature on believers. And in June 2018 F.S.B. personnel in masks broke into the apartment where Witnesses with children and elderly relatives were peacefully drinking tea. A criminal case was opened against Gennady Shpakovsky, as the former leader of the religious organization, and all bank accounts to which pensions and salary were sent were blocked.
"Every believer recognizes his own religion as true"
"When excesses began in the 1990s in the country, my wife and I began to think about what will become of the state and of us. We sought logical answers to important questions and we found them in the teaching about Jehovah. Here everything was reasonable and without fanaticism," Shpakovsky says.
Gennady spent the greater part of his life in Snezhnogorsk, where he worked as an electro-gas welder. But the climate began having a bad effect on his health and in 2011 he and his spouse and daughter moved to Pskov. "We specifically selected a city where our fellow believers would live. We wanted to fellowship with like-minded persons," Gennady Valerianovich explains.
Just a year after the move to Pskov, the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" appointed him chairman of the local religious organization. As the leader, Shpakovsky provided communication of the organization with the central office, agreed on the supply of literature, the rent of the premises, and the like. At just this time problems with the authorities began for the organization: first they were ruled to be extremists and banned because of the distribution of the main magazines of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Watchtower and Awake. The list only grew with each month and soon more than 100 items were under prohibition.
"It became all the worse when in 2017 the authorities banned our Sacred Scripture in the New World Translation. Previously we used it during worship services and meetings. But the court decided that our Sacred Scripture is not the Bible," Shpakovsky explains. "So-called experts came to the conclusion that our literature contains calls for violence and extremism. Supposedly there are there sentences and ideas about the superiority of Jehovah's Witnesses over other religions. But in response to these claims I can raise the logical question to a representative of any other religious world: 'Do you recognize your faith as true?' and I am sure that everybody will answer in the affirmative," Gennady Valerianovich argues.
After the prohibition of the preaching literature, law enforcement agencies had new occasions for conversations with believers, but not of a religious nature by any means. Shpakovsky said that from 2009 to 2017, throughout Russia, people in epaulets tried to plant forbidden printed materials on Jehovah's Witnesses and to make this the basis for completely shutting down the organization. "They also tried it on us in Pskov. But everything worked out," the former head of the Pskov division of Witnesses explains.
Search on the tag "God"
Believers of the Pskov division followed the judicial sessions for a ban of the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses on-line. The regional Ministry of Justice dealt with the liquidation of their local association so that de jure the Pskov Jehovah's Witnesses do not exist any longer, Shpakovsky learned by telephone.
After this the believers lost the possibility of meeting in the Kingdom Halls, as they call the premises for divine services. "God will not tolerate people's excesses forever. The Kingdom of God is a heavenly organization, which solves problems that arose because of human disobedience. It does not have anything to do with earthly rulers," Gennady Valerianovich says.
Today believers can meet only in the apartments of one another, but such gatherings turn out to be dangerous. On 3 June 2018, when he was sitting at a table along with a group of believers and drinking tea, F.S.B. agents in masks and with weapons broke into the house. They broke down the entry door to the foyer and ordered everybody there not to move. "They broke in with shouts of either 'Stand!' or 'Don't move!.' And our 80-year-old grandmother was there and children, one a year and a half and another eleven, and other elderly women. They frightened everybody," Shpakovsky recalls.
The search was directed by a senior investigator for especially serious matters of the Russian F.S.B. directorate for Pskov oblast, Irina Pravdivtseva. Shpakovsky learned from her that a criminal case had been opened against him for arranging the activity of an extremist organization—part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the RF.
"Perhaps you yourself will reveal what we are looking for?" the people in masks suggested, but to the legitimate question of the Jehovah's Witnesses about the object of the searches, they could not answer. They demanded that those present independently open all electronic devices and show the screens. The law enforcement agents were especially interested in internet pages with a biblical topic. The word "God" on a smart phone screen proved to be a serious reason for confiscating the technology. Other things that were in trouble were tablets, e-books, computers, and notebooks.
"I am sure that they did not have in their possession a list of extremist materials and they acted by intuition," Shpakovsky thinks. "And we all were afraid. Our believers do not permit themselves to think of offending other people—but here, shouts, masks, weapons. . . . Everyone was in shock." The search lasted five hours and after it the F.S.B. agents drove over to the home of Shpakovsky himself, from which they also confiscated all electronic devices, several documents of the organization, and a stack of that same Sacred Scripture in the New World Translation. "We have moved from apartment to apartment and I had forgotten about them. But, frankly speaking, I would not throw it out. That is my personal affair. I have not distributed them nor suggested them to anybody; I keep them for personal use," Gennady insists.
At the next evening interrogation, investigators tried to get from Gennady Valerianovich an admission that the Pskov division of Jehovah's Witnesses is continuing its work, despite the judicial prohibition. Shpakovsky did not acknowledge guilt. "The legal organization ceased to exist and I ceased to be its chairman. We do not have special premises. At the same time, between friendly meetings with fellow believers and the past worship services is a fine line. Naturally, by virtue of friendship, we are accustomed to meet together and we have not ceased communicating. We like it. We love reading the Bible together and discussing it and praying," he says.
F.S.B. personnel refused to show him the evidence that the organization is working fully, citing the secrecy of the investigation. But Shpakovsky suspects that the issue is something else. "After conversation with investigators, I do not rule out that possibly there was a listening device in the neighboring apartment. I do not have equipment that would permit me to verify this. And that is not the point. I do not think that my fellow believers and I are doing something forbidden. I do not want to think that the special services have intruded into my apartment without my permission in order to install a listening device. Although practice has shown that something of the sort happens," Gennady Valerianovich says.
"I will never renounce my fellow believers"
Shpakovsky does not understand what is the reason for such intense attention by the special services to a peaceful (in his opinion) religion. Among Gennady's acquaintances there is the opinion that one of the reasons for governmental pressure may be the pronounced apolitical nature of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not participate in elections, they do not work in political structures, and they do not bow before earthly authorities. "They say, you must decide for sure: join "United Russia," "Yabloko," Navalny, or the LDPR. But I repeat that Jesus clearly wanted us to understand that we cannot join political structures; we have devoted our life to the service of God. Our life does not belong to a party and to man. I have never cursed authority, but I consider that the president of the state is an ordinary man just like I am. I treat him with respect and I understand his responsibility, but I never deify him because after all Jesus wanted us to understand that his kingdom is not of this world," Shpakovsky explains.
The investigation regarding him is continuing. Searches have been conducted in homes of other Pskov adherents of Jehovah's Witnesses, but they have not been charged and they are considered witnesses. Shpakovsky has given a signed promise not to depart and he is included in the federal list of extremists.
"My credit and debit cards have been blocked that receive my pension and salary. The bank responded to my inquiries that I am included in the list of extremists," the pensioner explains.
Besides the ban on departure from the city, investigators advised Shpakovsky not to read the Bible in the company of fellow believers any more, explaining that such gatherings are liable to a change in the measure of restriction. "But I will never renounce my fellow believers. Never! They are my friends; they are my brothers and sisters in faith. And if they are not afraid to visit my house, knowing that I am suspect, then that is their wish and their faith. I am not behind bars," Gennady Valerianovich says.
The maximum penalty on his article is incarceration for a term of from two to six years. "I am internally prepared for an indictment, but I cannot understand people who are trying to equate us with extremism or terrorism. I very much wish to hope and think that something that is happening in the Russian Federation with respect to Jehovah's Witnesses is a serious mistake. Who stands behind it? I cannot say; I do not have facts; and I do not have the right to blame indiscriminately. Russia says that it is a law-based state, but from my point of view, somewhere here the law is being violated," Gennady Shpakovsky thinks. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 September 2018)
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