Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

rpretation in the Russian Orthodox Church: A Historical and Hermeneutical Perspective (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck). Tat’iana Nikol’skaia is Lecturer in Church History at St Petersburg Christian University and author of Russkii Protestantizm i gosudarstvennaia vlast’ v 1905-1991 gg. [Russian Protestantism and State Power in the years 1905 to 1991] (St Petersburg: European University Press, forthcoming). Protestantizm i protestanty v Rossii: proshloe, nastoiashchee, budushchee (Zaoksk: Istochnik zhizni, 2004), pp. 165-180. > *° See their scholarly journal, Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov’ v Rossii i za rubezhom (State, Religion, Church in Russia and abroad] (1999-2004). 142 Towards a Revived Identity: Estonian Baptists, 1970 —1985 Toivo Pilli | tye political scientist Rein Taagepera has suggested that the period of 1968-1980 in Estonia should, for its social and political atmosphere, be called the “years of suffocation’, because of “the almost painlessly slow but relentless squeeze on the national psyche”.’ In the religious sphere, Soviet policy became one of “divide and conquer’. The state was “granting concessions to registered congregations and even whole denominations, while dealing harshly with unregistered and dissident groups”. However, even while providing some opportunities for registered churches, the state never treated churches as equal partners; it was always a game of cat and mouse. In the 1970s atheistic propaganda in Estonia became subtler: a psycho- logical approach was used more widely to influence believers. Part of this approach included personal interviews of believers at schools and work- places. Already in the 1960s sociological data was used for the purposes of atheistic propaganda,’ to show statistically the diminishing numbers of churches and church members. The power of the Council for Religious Affairs (CRA), a government structure designed to control religious ' Rein Taagepera, Estonia: Return to Independence (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993), pp. 97-98. ? Philip Walters, “A Survey of Soviet Religious Policy’, in Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), Religious Policy in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 23. > Lembit Raid, VabamOtlejate ringidest massilise ateismini: marksistlik ateism Eestis aastail 1900-1965 [From the Circles of Freethinkers to Mass Atheism: Marxist Atheism in Estonia from 1900-1965] (Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1978), p. 188. 143 communities, was strengthened during the 1970s, especially after 1975 when a revised version of the law regulating religious life in the Soviet Union was published.* In the 1970s and 1980s, the Commissioner of the CRA in Estonia obtained valuable information about church activities from steering committees operating within all regional and city executive committees in the republic.’ The state observed church life carefully. All this may give the impression that not much had changed in Estonia