I Found God in Soviet Russia

by John H. Noble

I Found God in Soviet Russia , first published in 1959, is a profoundly moving account of author John Noble's religious epiphany while confined in a brutal Soviet prison following World War II. The book also recounts Noble's harrowing survival of the massive Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, where he and his family took shelter in the cellar of their home (which was partially destroyed during the raid). Following World War II, Noble, along with his father, were arrested in East Germany and held in several prison camps in Germany including the infamous Nazi-era Buchenwald. Noble is eventually transferred to Vorkuta in far northern Russia where he works in a coal mine. Sustained by his faith and devotion to God, Noble recounts his experiences, stories of his captors and fellow inmates, and the deep faith shown by many of the other prisoners. Of special note is a chapter devoted to three nuns who, as punishment for refusing to work, were placed outdoors in sub-zero weather in only lightweight-clothing. Miraculously, the nuns came through the ordeal without frostbite and were thereafter excused from work details. Following an imprisonment of nearly 10 years, Noble was eventually released to the West, and would go on to lecture about his experiences for the remainder of his life. I Found God in Soviet Russia complements the author's other book entitled I Was a Slave in Russia , which details the day-to-day life in the Soviet gulag.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Biography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Helmuth Noble was an American citizen that was imprisoned in the Soviet-Union.

Noble was the son of a German-born former missionary and owner of a photo-finishing plant.

The family moved to Germany when Noble's father traded his company for a German photo company.

Noble witnessed the firebombing of Dresden.

After the war the Noble's photo company was disowned by the Soviet authorities and Noble and his father were arrested and detained at former camp Buchenwald.

His father was released in 1952. Noble was sentenced to 15 years and was send to the Vorkutlag.

Reviews

[Khari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I didn't really like this book.

I thought it had some weird stuff in it that I profoundly disagreed with. There were parts of the book that were very moving, but others that just seemed...over the top.

It's like the difference between Chronicles of Narnia and the Elsie Dinsmore series. The Chronicles of Narnia teaches you truths about the Christian life and belief by making them integral parts of the story. The lessons are implicit. Elsie Dinsmore is preachy and annoying and hits you upside the head with explicit lectures thinly veiled as a story. This book fell more on the Dinsmore spectrum. It's not fiction though so the analogy doesn't quite hold.

Also, he had some interesting priorities. At one point he was talking about how the Muslims in prison were his brothers because they worshiped the same God and at another point he was bemoaning the Russians as sinners because of how much they swore. Now. I understand the point that God sees all sin as equal, so in God's eyes the swearing Russians and the Allah-worshiping Muslims are the same. Then why is the author praising the one over the other? The only thing I can think of is that he didn't know much about Islam. That or Islam was a different beast in the 1940s. I'm going to go with he just didn't know much about it.

Then he has a point about the ecumenical movement and how we are all Christ-worshipers and maybe we shouldn't exclude other believers so much on small theological points, but then he takes it too far and says that Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses are just other denominations. No. They aren't. They have significant differences in what they believe. Some call them cults, I would go so far as to call them a completely separate religion, but regardless, only someone who has no idea what they are about could just brush aside the differences as 'minor theological points.'

And weirdly enough, I thought this book was too forcedly hopeful. I mean, yes, he got out of Soviet prison and God supported him through that, but he seemed almost glad to be there. I couldn't wrap my head around that. I read Solzhenitsyn and he was also changed for the better by those camps, but he never stopped railing about them. Maybe this man just didn't experience as much of the torture as the others I've read so he didn't see the absolute horrors. God protected him I guess.

Or maybe it's just the fact that this was written so long after the fact that it lost some of the horror for him. I don't know. I just didn't really like it.

Ah. I figured out what was bothering me. It seemed like the message of this book was "The Russians weren't really that bad". They were atheists, they swore, and they were lewd. And the lewdness was because they were atheists. That really bothered me. No, that was not what made the Soviet Union bad. What made the Soviet Union terrible beyond words was that they tortured fellow human beings, they slaughtered them by the millions, they raped and murdered and abused and ripped away the human dignity of millions of people. But that was never really mentioned! Or only mentioned in passing, as though all of this suffering and abuse was inevitable. It irked me. It's like, all this mayhem and destruction of human life and you are focusing on the questionable morality of Russia's women!?? I think you are focusing on the wrong thing!

[Michael Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book on not only how bad things can get in this world but how God works to help people in communist prisons. Faith become more alive for the author in his story and for others who labored in a Soviet Gulag during the years following WWII.

Perhaps the church today in America struggles to keep the faith because we have had it too easy and good for too long.
Inspiring.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, there's a funny meld of two books (they probably share an ISBN number) - this book has nothing to do with St. Patrick.

The book is a memoir of a young man who is arrested in East Germany after the Second World War, and ultimately ends up in the Soviet Gulag (as a note, he actually doesn't get to the Soviet Union until about page 100.) Very detailed, and interesting, set of stories about his faith, the people he meets, the presence of God in the camps, and about the Gulag itself. Written in the late 1950s, it's an excellent picture of the Soviet state at that time. Please note, if you are Orthodox (or Catholic) this book is definitely from a Protestant perspective, and is written to exhort people to go and convert the heathen Russians from not only their state-sponsored atheism, but also their Orthodox heritage.

On a side note, my inner 12 year old answered "He was behind the couch" in my head every time I read the title. Blush.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring and humbling account of one man's time in post WWII Russian concentration camps with a focus on his conversion and living out of his Christian faith in extreme circumstances. He felt through it all that he would one day be free so he could share his story and the story of other people of faith in those dire conditions including working in the coal mines of Siberia. He and other believers were light in the midst of darkness. His release followed much prayer by believers in the free world.

[Apryl Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books I just 'happened to' pick up at the right time...13 february...as we remembered living in the outskirts of Dresden 1998-2000. I had babies at then, and I still regret not bundling them enough to venture into the Altstadt for the evening memorial services. At other times, there was occasional mention of the horrific bombing and rarely did anyone bring up the Russian invasion. It was an extremely dark period, followed by the numbness of people wanting to forget a painful past. My time there was one of celebration in watching "the Stone Bell" rise from the ashes, and beauty coming out of struggle.

Noble's Dresden period is followed by similar human rights abuses in other prisons—Concentration camps under new management, really—as he was moved further east. It's basically a retelling of "I Was a Slave in Russia" with the assumption of a more Christian audience.

God bless the torchbearers—those who record what happened—for better and worse. We are, each and every one of us, capable of destruction and reconstruction. Lest we forget.

[Arne Teigland · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Noble's account of his years of imprisonment in Russia is not outstanding because of his description of the Soviet system for treating any religious person as an enemy of the state, but rather in his description of God's abundant mercy in answer to prayer. Noble gives testimony of literally gaining physical strength while being starved through willing submission to God's will and through prayer. I heard him speak when I was in elementary school, and although I remember next to nothing of his speech I was gripped with the small glimpse my immature mind gained of the evils of the Soviet system and this man's triumph over those evils by God's grace.

[STEPHEN NISBETT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank God for freedom of religion

This book gave me a renewed appreciation for the freedom I experience daily to worship God. A society stripped of God’s guidance is a hell on earth.

[Priscilla King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most books written by other authors and marketed by Billy Graham, this is a reasonably well told true story about a Christian who had an extraordinary experience. In this case the author was able to use his time in an Old Soviet prison camp to make peace with his father and see some of the ethnic diversity of Russia during the ecumenical religious services the believing prisoners shared.

Few of Noble's contemporaries are still alive so, for today's readers, this book is a real historical artefact. However, Graham excelled at keeping the message of any book he endorsed accessible to the widest possible audience. If there are references you don't understand, they'll be easy to look up.

[GreyAtlas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This offers some very good insight into Russian culture, mindsets, and state of the Soviet Union. Though, it's written in a way that doesn't exactly feel authentic, more sensationalized. But, it's concise, filled with just the right amount of details, and the perfect length to savor without being overwhelmed. Quite enjoyable, though the author's claim of finding God is not something I feel I can attest to... but that's not for my judgement.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening accounts of the authors experiences in the Communist Soviet slave labor camps after World War II and the thirst for meaning, virtue and spirituality of the Russian people after a lifetime of listless atheism and moral depravity.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

a sincere and powerful testimony of Christ

Here is a man with a heart changed by God. He shine light that penetrates the despair and apathy of godless communism. If you read this book with an open heart, it will strengthen your testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

[Teena Brizzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing testimony

I read this book many years ago and decided to read it again. This was such a tremendous and amazing testimony of gods love for John and his love for the Russian people. I highly recommend it.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful history on the other side of WWII and Russia. Incredible testimony of faith and God's work in the lives of His faithful servants in Siberia.

[Brandon Stout · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story of faith and survival through terrible persecution.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness

In the worst of human conditions, God’s mercy and grace prevailed. An incredible story of how God is always there.