The article concerns yeshiva students as well as rabbis who found themselves in the Soviet Union during World War II. The author analyzes the diary of Rabbi Chaim Stein, trying to answer the following questions: How did the yeshivah students and the rabbis cope with life in the Soviet Union? Was any semblance of yeshivah life possible in the Soviet kolkhozes? What did they know about the war and about the fate of their families? How did they perceive events from their religious viewpoint?