Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

a high official sent to investigate that the congregation was “probably holding a meeting in the izba [hut] of one of their own peasants’. General Evgenii Bogdanovich, warden of St Isaac’s Cathedral near Pashkov’s home, also felt threatened by the Pashkovite cafe- teria, requesting money from state secretary Aleksandr Polovtsov in 1883 to open a free soup kitchen that would “surpass the inexpensive cafeteria *” K.P. Pobedonostsev to M.M. Korff, 2 August 1881, in copybook “No. 1’, p. 244. 8 Dillon, “A Russian Religious Reformer’, p. 333. See also p. 334. »* Lev N. Tolstoi, Perepiska L.N. Tolstogo s grafinei A.A. Tolstoi, 1857-1903 (St Petersburg, 1911), pp. 267-268; Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (New York: Viking, 2001), p. 224. ® Robert Sloan Latimer, Under Three Tsars: Liberty of Conscience in Russia 1865-1909 (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1909), pp. 166-167. 69 ee run by Pashkov”. Polovtsov refused, however, explaining that he did not understand religious conflict over cooking, and had no sympathy for hand- outs in any case.” Pashkovite generosity, despite good intentions, was not always appreciated by Church or State. Despite such problems, however, Pashkovites remained actively involved in their society. While operating openly for less than ten years, their impact remained long after the initial leaders were banished abroad. Indeed, their programmes of Bible and literature distribution, home-based meetings, hospital and prison visitation, and charity caused the movement to live on for generations. Many practices of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the former Soviet Union have roots in the Pashkovite movement, and with the emigration abroad of many of those involved in the movement, their influence spread to Europe, North America and around the world. Chris- tians today have much to learn from their example. s Sharyl Corrado is a PhD Candidate in Russian History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), and author of a Master of Arts thesis entitled “The Philosophy of Ministry of Colonel Vasiliy Pashkov” (Depart- ment of Educational Ministries, Wheaton College, 2000), published in Russia as Filosofiia sluzheniia polkovnika Pashkova (St Petersburg: Bibliia dlia vsekh, 2005). *! A.A. Polovtsov, Dnevnik gosudarstvennogo sekretaria A.A. Polovtsova, vol. 1 (1883-1886) (Moscow: Nauka, 1966), p. 69. 70 Ivan Kargel and the Pietistic Community of Late Imperial Russia Gregory Nichols he Christian Church may be viewed as a rich tapestry of communi- ties connected through time and space. One method often used to define particular connections between communities is to identify “reoc- curring types” within the Universal Church, seeking to identify groups which share distinctive characteristics, yet are separated chronologically and geographically. According to theologian James McClendon, “what is vital is not that these movements influenced one another (though no dou