Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

Pokolenie] in Riga (Pastor Aleksei Ledjajev [Lediaev] is a former Bap- tist.) that “Socialists, Muslims, Moonies and Buddhists are raising their teaching to the rank of national doctrine”. (Tserkov “Novoe Pokolenie’, http://www.newgeneration.|v/ru/ ideologija/pravitelstvo.htm [accessed 7 March 2005].) Such dualistic claims give the impres- sion that Christianity is under unavoidable attack by various enemies. * Cited in Cort, Christian Socialism, p. 212. This paper is. not the place to discuss in detail Barth’s own inconsistencies regarding various secular ideologies. (He has been criticized for directing his criticism more toward Nazism than Communism.) 118 Religious Liberty in the Soviet Union: Baptists in the Early Days of Protest (1960-1966)! Michael Bourdeaux he date is 16 May 1966, a day of glorious spring sunshine in Moscow. Crowds of visitors from all over the Soviet Union are strolling about its central streets, but those who are beginning to congregate on Staraia Ploshchad’ [Old Square] outside the offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party are different. Some five hundred people assemble in an orderly manner. Most do not know each other, as they are elected delegates from 130 towns and cities representing virtually every one of the fifteen Soviet republics, from Brest in Belorussia on the Polish border to Vladivostok in the Far East. They have come to hand over a letter to Leonid Brezhnev, Chairman of the Central Committee, which is in the possession of the leaders. They are allowed to leave their document with a receptionist, but that is not enough for them: they demand to see someone in authority. There is no response. In an orderly fashion they wait overnight, their numbers being swollen by members of the local Baptist church in Moscow. Detachments of the KGB arrive to form a ring around the demonstrators, so that they cannot talk to casual passers-by. At noon on the second day, an official comes out to summon ten leaders inside, ordering the rest to disperse. No one moves, but they pray together. Empty buses draw up and suddenly an assault begins. The militia drives the demonstrators with truncheons into ' My original intention was to continue until 1985, but that would have made this contribu- tion too long for the confines of the conference. 119 the buses, which move off as soon as they are full, with those inside still singing and praying. The ten inside were arrested. Interrogations began. The KGB discovered that they now held in their custody some of the Baptist leaders who had long been on their wanted list. Three days later two more, Pastors Georgii Vins and Mikhail Khorev, walked into the building to demand to know what had happened to those inside. Vins would not be at liberty again for three years. Peaceful demonstrations outside the building continued for several days.’ The documents handed in at the Central Committee building contained, in