With much emotion and the deepest sense of gratitude I supplicate at the holy Threshold—and request you to join with me in my prayers—for the spiritual advancement in the realms above of a soul who by the sheer merit of the signal services he rendered already deserves to rank highly among the departed faithful. May he forever rest in peace. SHOGHI. Haifa, Palestine, December 21, 1928. Letter of January 1, 1929. The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the West. Dearly-beloved co-workers: Whilst the Bahá’ís of Persia, constituting the overwhelming majority of the adherents of the Bahá’í Faith in eastern lands, are tasting the first-fruits of their long-dreamed emancipation, a not inconsiderable section of Bahá’u’lláh’s following in the East, inhabiting the provinces of Caucasus and Turkistan, are being subjected to trials and tribulations not very dissimilar, though inferior in intensity, to the afflictions borne so long and so heroically by their Persian brethren. In my last communication to you I have attempted to depict the nature and swiftness of those liberating forces which today are being released in Persia by an enlightened regime determined to shake off with unconcealed contempt the odious fetters of a long standing tyranny. And I feel that a description of the very perplexing situation with which our brethren in Russia find themselves confronted at present will serve to complete the picture which responsible believers in the West must bear in mind of the critical and swiftly moving changes that are transforming the face of the East. Persecutions in Russia