Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

lications of their work. The wide diversity of participants, including researchers of multiple generations, academic backgrounds, denomina- 7 tions, and East European and Western nations, challenged participants to look beyond their own fields of expertise, to identify historical patterns and broader trends, and to consider new or unfamiliar approaches. With the English-language publication of these papers, the rich work begun on various aspects of Baptist and Evangelical history is made available to an international audience, with the hopes of stimulating depth and breadth of research in years to come. Attentive readers will note a number of key themes common to many of the articles in this volume, the unintentional recurrence of which makes it possible to identify experiences shared by East European Baptists and Evan- gelicals throughout the regions. At the same time, authors with knowledge of national or local sources, inaccessible to most researchers for linguistic or practical reasons, make clear the diversity of experiences of those who share the name Baptist today. Especially evident in the majority of articles in this volume is the inter- national cooperation and influence among the worldwide Baptist family. While political or practical considerations have often led to the production of purely national histories, these papers make clear that the true picture is multi-national, that Baptist identity transcends ethnic, geographic and political boundaries. The German roots of the Baptist faith in the Russian Empire, including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, are clearly identified in papers by Gregory Nichols, Johannes Dyck and Zbigniew Wierzchowski. Interaction with British evangelicalism is highlighted as well by Nichols and Sharyl Corrado, primarily in St Petersburg, and by Ian Randall, who traces the involvement of the Evangelical Alliance with Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire, in particular advocating for religious liberty. Yet the influence was not merely one-way, with Western ideas moving eastward. Davorin Peterlin, in a case study of his own grandmother, demonstrates the significant role of Russians in the Baptist Church in Yugoslavia, while Wierzchowski notes the influence of Russians and Ukrainians in Poland. Dyck and Nichols make note briefly of Russian Baptist leaders serving in Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, while Valdis Téraudkalns explores the political positions of Latvian Baptist communities in North and South America. Further research will be necessary to tell these stories in full. While the advent of Communism complicated the situation for Baptists - and other religious bodies - in Eastern Europe, international connec- tions, while hindered, did not end. Michael Bourdeaux notes the role of Western advocacy on behalf of persecuted Baptists in the Soviet Union, much of which he himself initiated as founder of Keston College in 1969. 8 Toivo Pilli also acknowledges support