Previous Rebbe meeting with Bashkov

Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Shneerson, known as the previous Rebbe, once went to Moscow. There after hearing reports of his secret workers, and giving them advice and encouragement, he was asked if Mark Bashkov, an official from the head office of the GPU communist party, can meet with him in his hotel room.

Bashkov told the Rebbe, that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were Lubavitcher Chasidim. As a child he learned Torah, but then stopped. He eventually joined the Socialist Party and had risen through the ranks of the KGB to become one of the highest officials in the country.

In the middle of their conversation, the door burst opened and policemen with guns barged in. "Citizen Schneersohn, you are under arrest! If you make one move, you will be shot. Give us your bags!"

When they had finished searching the previous Rebbe's belongings, they turned to Bashkov. "Now it's your turn, Comrade. We'll see if you are one of Schneersohn's men."

Bashkov red with anger answered calmly. "Comrades! I'm sure that you know the law. Before you go through someone's private belongings, you have to show him a search warrant. I want you to show me these papers."

"I am an agent of the Yevsektsia" shouted one of them to Bashkov, " Who are you to ask me about papers? If you resist, we will blow you away."

Bashkov then took out an identity card, which described him as a member of the head office of the Soviet secret police. When the men saw this, they turned pale. Bashkov asked them for their papers. He wrote down their names and told them to appear at GPU headquarters. "There you will learn how to conduct a search," said Bashkov.

Bashkov apologized to the Previous Rebbe for everything that had happened. If any of the agents of the Yevsektsia ever bothered him again, the Rebbe should let him know. Bashkov then said good-bye to the Rebbe and left.

The Previous Rebbe thought about everything that had happened, truly an example of Divine Providence. Had he not met Bashkov when he did, and if Bashkov was not who he was, the whole story would have ended very differently. The Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak wrote in his diary, "I saw G-dliness itself revealed before me."