…although Fr. Gleb escaped an additional prison sentence, his exile conditions, in which he is to spend the next five years, could hardly be worse. Anyone who has read the third volume of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago knows that exile can be as difficult and unpleasant as life in the camps.

    Fr. Gleb has now reached his place of exile, a remote village in the republic of Yakutia from where he telephoned his family to say that he was alive and as well as could be expected. The region has an extremely harsh climate; “it is under snow for twothirdsof the year, and temperatures in January fall as low as -50° to -60°C. To visit Fr. Gleb, his relatives (who live in Moscow) would have to travel some 5,000-5,500 kilometers. As there-is no direct rail link, they would have to fly to the republican capital (Yakutsk), and there hire a small plane to take them to the regional center nearest to the village of Irnikhsham. From the regional center they could, with luck, catch a bus (if there is one) or get a lift in a truck. Failing that, they might have no option but to walk the rest of the way.” (KNS, #214)

    Pray also for Fr. Gleb’ s family: Matushka Iraida and children Maria, Alexander and Anna.