Oziornoje is a place among the Kazakh steppes. A wild land, it became a site of forced labor for thousands where people were deprived of their dignity and freedom. They entrusted their fate to God. This place of deportation was cursed by the Soviet genocidal totalitarian regime. This land became sacrificed by the blood of thousands of martyrs who interested themselves to the Almighty. Remote and barely inhabited, Oziornoje, Kazakhstan’s somber history began in the early 1940s when victims of the Soviet regime, many Polish natives but other nationalities as well, were deported here, into the harsh and empty wilderness in the Kazakh Steppe. They lived through the first summer in tents, and with the invaluable help of the Kazakh people, managed to construct simple dugouts to prepare for winter. The policies of the Soviet authorities led to widespread hunger, disease, and lack of even basic shelter for the decimated deportee population. Most of them died due to extremely exhausting physical labor, disease, hunger, repression, and harsh climatic conditions, where the daily temperature difference is nearly 100 degrees Celsius. The immense suffering of the people living in Kazakhstan and other areas was exacerbated by the famine of the 1920s, primarily caused by Soviet social policies. The destruction was completed by Stalinist purges in the 1930s and the artificially induced second famine of 1931–1933, as well as the colonial policies continued by the Soviet Union which led to the deep devastation of the region. The 20th century history of the region around Oziornoje and all of Kazakhstan is closely linked to the labor camps (gulags) scattered across it, forming part of the infamous "Gulag Archipelago." This troubled history and memoir of life during this time is well described by authors Alexander Solzhenitsyn and later by Ann Appelbaum. Over the years, Kazakhstan continued to suffer under the tyranny of the Soviet administration, including politically motivated justice, labor camps, and a state-induced famine that reportedly led to the deaths of 1.5 million people living in Kazakhstan, or one-third of the country’s population, who starved to death. The era of totalitarianism, which claimed millions of innocent lives, remains an unhealed wound in the memory of many. This land is whispering for the Peace. The Church of Our Lady of Peace in Oziornoje was consecrated in 1993. St. John Paul II during his visit to Kazakhstan in 2001 called Oziornoje the National Shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace. He made “a spiritual pilgrimage” to this shrine and prayed in silence for those who passed away there and those assembled on this land sacrificed by the blood of martyrs.