One of the most persecuted denominations during the Soviet era was The True and Free Seventh-day Adventists (Virni i Vilni Adventysty Somoho Dnia - VVASD). All of its leaders perished in the camps. H. Ostwald and P. Mazhura died during the Stalinist era, and their successor, Volodymyr Shelkov, spent 26 years of his life in prison and exile and died in a camp in 1980 at the age of 84. He dedicated his entire life to defending the rights of believers in the USSR. He was a distinguished religious writer who, in particular, researched the problems of the relationship between church and state, and religion and law. Adventists were subjected to repression, just like the other Protestant denominations already mentioned. In Ukraine, the Seventh-day Adventists were active in 8 regions. Repressions against Adventists particularly intensified from 1979. The KGB diligently tried to uncover the VVASD’s underground publishing house, “The True Witness.” To do this, it used all methods, including the torture of Adventists detained with religious literature.
Protestants of the aforementioned denominations also suffered persecution for their categorical refusal to serve in the army. For participating in a structure that violates the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” flatly contradicts evangelical principles. Consistently upholding the principle of “non-resistance to evil by violence,” believers of these denominations consciously went to prison. By the end of their draft age, many had managed to serve two terms. There were cases when Protestants joined construction battalions (budbaty), but there they were terribly abused, hazed, beaten, and sometimes maimed.
One of the most horrific forms of repression against them was the deprivation of parental rights and the sending of their children to orphanages and boarding schools.