Judo star, philosopher, master forger, evangelist: one man’s journey to faith

Story provided by Volodymyr Bronovitskyy, the Kiev Regional Director of the Ukrainian Bible Society

Victor Mural-Sikorsky (centre, with moustache) was once behind bars himself and now works among prisoners, sharing the Bible story and his own dramatic testimony. Ukraine. Photo: UkBS (UKR04DJ-33.JPG)

KIEV, Ukraine — Life was never to be easy or straightforward for Victor Mural-Sikorsky. Just hours after he was born his mother abandoned him in a rubbish bin where he nearly froze to death. He only survived because some passers-by heard his cries and took him to a hospital.

His childhood was spent in orphanages – perhaps not an ideal upbringing for the young boy, but Victor’s keen interest in sport was encouraged and he soon showed great talent. He excelled at judo, reaching international competition level, and he became eligible for selection for the Soviet Union’s Olympic team. The future looked very bright indeed.

But his dreams of a glittering sporting career ended when he was involved in a serious car accident and he found himself confined to a hospital bed for a long time. He felt a deep despair when he realised that he would never compete in sport again.

New challenge

Having already faced many difficulties in his life, however, Victor refused to give up his dreams for a better future and was soon looking for a new challenge. He had heard about how difficult it was to graduate from the prestigious faculty of philosophy at Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev, so he enrolled and devoted himself to studying. He excelled at this too and graduated with a much-coveted degree.

Rich at any cost

He found that he was not earning enough, however, particularly when he got married. He felt that money would solve all his problems and that he needed to get rich at any cost.

With his usual determination, he began to experiment with various techniques of manufacturing counterfeit 25-rouble notes. Again, he excelled, and was soon producing such high quality forgeries that it was only possible to distinguish between real and fake money by looking at the serial numbers. In total, he printed more than four million roubles, and he and his wife lived very comfortably indeed. And he might have got away with it had it not been for the sheer quantity of money that he had printed, which was circulating all over the country. The police dedicated a lot of time and resources to tracking him down and he was sent to prison.

Absurdity

He was still in prison when Gorbachev’s system of ‘glasnost’ began, bringing more openness to every sphere of public life. Christian organisations were now permitted to visit prisoners and it was during a Christian concert in his prison that Victor heard a pastor talking about the Bible and Jesus. Having read many philosophers, Victor listened with great cynicism, dismissing everything he heard as absurdity.

At the end of the evening, he asked the pastor for a Bible, looking forward to studying it to prove how ridiculous and inconsistent the Christian faith was. With great enthusiasm and aggressiveness he opened the Bible that night and started reading. But, to his surprise, he did not find what he was looking for: instead of wanting to disprove everything he read, he was moved and intrigued by the stories and he could not put the book down.

In time, he became a committed and passionate Christian, sharing his new faith with his fellow inmates. When he was released he had a new purpose in life: to return to prison to continue his ministry. Today, he focuses his talents and enthusiasm on bringing the Bible story to people in many different prisons across Ukraine. (WR 388/23 - 10/11.04)