The Persecutor Book Summary

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John Jones Global 10 Honors Kourdakov,Sergei.The Persecutor.Old Tapan:Spire Books,1973. In America everyone is free to choose their job, where they live, and what religion they practice. It is easy for us as Americans to take freedom for granted. Through reading The Persecutor, I learned that not all countries offer freedom to its citizens for example, Russia. Sergei, a man from Russia wrote this autobiography recounting his life in Russia, including his childhood, his flee to Canada to find freedom, and his death. When Sergei was a child his father was killed by the Communist government and his mother died not long after from grief. This left four year old Sergei a defenseless orphan. After being moved to his first foster…show more content…
Sergei was at the top of his classes and a strong leader at Barysevo. He was well respected and eventually became “King” amongst the orphans and the Leader of the Communist Youth League. Sergei started studying for the military later in life. While going to the academy Sergei received an offer to become part of the special police squad. He accepted this job and continued to attend the academy as well. His job was to find where the “believers” were meeting, retrieve all their literature including bibles, arrest the leaders, and teach the others at the meeting a “lesson”. The “lesson” would often include brutal beatings with severe injuries that often resulted in death. While doing these actions he began to feel remorse for the innocent “believers” that he had once hunted and beat because of their religion and became more interested in their beliefs. Sergei left the secret service with hopes to find freedom from communism. Sergei began to travel the sea with the navy and eventually had a plan to escape from Russia. Sergei Fled to Canada for a better life and to find his…show more content…
I think that because the book is from Sergei’s point of view it captures more feeling and is more in depth then if someone else had written the book for him. Sergei provides the reader a little glimpse of what living as a citizen in Russia was like. Sergei told us about his childhood struggles he faced as an orphan and how difficult it was to be “bounced” from home to home. He shared with us his triumphs as the Leader of the Youth and how involved with Communism he was. After reading this book I realized how difficult it really was to survive in Russia during the fifties and sixties. I now realize how brutal and relentless the Soviet Union became to keep Russia a Communist country. This book also gave me an idea of how freedom is taken for granted here in America. It is easy for us to choose our religion, lifestyle, and career, but in Russia these things were chosen for you. If you wanted to practice a different way of life you were not accepted and were treated as if you had been burdened with
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