Background
There were almost no Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union until its annexation of the Baltic States, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina; most of them were located in the Moldavian SSR and Ukrainian SSR. Jehovah's Witnesses came into the conflict with the Soviet power, primarily because of their refusal to join the military. Their teachings were soon regarded as anti-Soviet. Members of religious groups, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses, qualified as religious elements considered a potential danger for the communist regime. In November 1950, Viktor Abakumov reported an idea to Stalin about their deportation, and Stalin suggested to plan this for March–April 1951.
Read more about this topic: Operation North
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“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
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