Anti-Putin dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza was released in the recent hostage deal with Russia, escaping a 25-year prison sentence. Western nations released spies, fraudsters, and an assassin, all effusively greeted at the airport by Putin and an honor guard. In exchange, Russia released an American journalist and brave Russian dissidents, among others. The exchange evinced the character of contrasting societies. One aspires to liberty and law. The other rejoices in tyranny, subversion, and propaganda.
Some brave Russians are not satisfied with their nation’s degradation. Kara-Murza fought for liberty and law in Russia since a young man, a follower of Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015. Before his imprisonment, Kara-Murza had lived 10 years in the U.S. He could have remained in America, safely and prosperously, denouncing tyranny in Russia from a distance, widely celebrated and without risk to himself. But he wondered: “How can I ask my fellow Russians to stand up to Putin if I’m too afraid to do it myself?”
So, Kara-Murza returned to Russia, to share in the sufferings of his people, and to confront the tyrant in his own land. Of course, Kara-Murza knew the risks. Previously in Russia, before coming to America, he almost certainly had been poisoned and nearly killed by the Russian security service. Infamously, anti-Putin dissident Alexei Navalny, also surviving two poisonings, returned to Russia from Germany, only to be arrested, and dying earlier this year in prison. So, Kara-Murza’s arrest and incarceration were no surprise. He was charged and convicted of “high treason” and “spreading ‘false’ information,” based on speeches he gave in the West, including the Arizona state legislature. Upon his conviction, he told the judge “That the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate.”
His health already weakened by his two poisonings, Kara-Murza did not expect to survive his prison sentence. A prison doctor told him as much. His captors told him to request a pardon from Putin, but he refused, instead denouncing him as a “dictator, usurper and a murderer.” When he was escorted from prison last week, he understandably assumed he would be shot. Instead, he was taken to Moscow, then flown to Germany as part of the prisoner exchange.
On the departing plane, a guard told Kara-Murza he would never see Russia again, prompting the dissident’s response: “I’m a historian, so I am sure I will be back in my country. And it will be much quicker than you think.” At age 42, Kara-Murza almost certainly will outlive Putin, and we pray, will outlive Russia’s dictatorship.
Kara-Murza’s unbelievably brave willingness to return to Russia and certain imprisonment, if not death, recalls the example of another courageous intellectual dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He had studied at Union Seminary in New York in 1930-1931, and returned to New York for two weeks in 1939, then back to Nazi Germany. In 1942, Bonhoeffer visited Sweden, where again he could have sought refuge but again returned to Germany.
Bonhoeffer’s many friends in America and elsewhere offered him refuge in the democratic West, but he declined the offers. He told Reinhold Niebuhr: “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” He continued to help the underground church, assisted Jews in their escape, and aided the anti-Hitler plot. Arrested in 1943, he was hanged in 1945 as the war ended, at age 39.
Had Bonhoeffer stayed in New York in 1939, or in Sweden in 1942, he could have accepted offers from Niebuhr or others to teach and preach in America or elsewhere in the West. Perhaps he could have taught at Union Seminary alongside Niebuhr. Bonhoeffer could have, with a normal long lifespan, lived until the 1990s. Imagine the extraordinary books and articles he could have written, and the sermons and lectures he could have delivered, with those additional 50 years. What an addition to Christian thought and insight they would have been!
Surely Bonhoeffer knew how significant his contributions to Christian reflection would have been had he survived beyond his 30s. Even if he escaped Nazi Germany in 1942, he had already demonstrated incredible courage and acumen working for the underground church and for the anti-Hitler plot. Nobody would have faulted his departure. Bonhoeffer would have been both a hero and survivor, as well as a brilliant intellect. He would have enjoyed fame and admiration the rest of a potentially long life. Yet he willingly chose continued danger, suffering and martyrdom as a witness to his faith and in solidarity with others who could not escape. His star shines even brighter as a sacrificial witness to the evils of the Third Reich and of all totalitarian regimes that seek to displace God.
What can explain the almost unworldly courage of freedom advocates like Bonhoeffer and Kara-Murza? Neither had to face death. Both could have retreated to safety and fame after demonstrating their bravery. Both clearly were animated by an unyielding sense of justice and decency. Both felt a passionate solidarity with many other captives who lacked their fame and opportunity and could not escape. Both could see an invisible world that transcends the horrors of the current world.
The Book of Hebrews, in recounting great suffering heroes of faith, says, “Of whom the world was not worthy.” God still summons extraordinary persons to witness and courage, of whom the world is not worthy. Kara-Murza and Bonhoeffer, and so many others whose names we will never know, are God’s reminder that amid great evils, there are always the brave and the true who will resist no matter the cost.
