Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

s to consider it his sacred duty openly refuse to participate in any aspect of military service.” The more the Soviet state gained strength, the more it pressed the Russian evangelicals to reject their pacifist position. This was the most important method of proving believers’ loyalty to the Communist authorities. In 1922, the leader of the Evangelical Christians, Ivan Prokhanov, published his call to all Christians around the world to not participate in any wars. In 1923 he was arrested. His assistant, A. Andreev, visited Prokhanov in prison and informed him that the leadership of the Evangelical Christians, discussing the problem, had agreed to recognise the right of the Soviet state to demand all citizens of the USSR serve in the Red Army, including believers.” Prokhanov was forced to approve this position in order to be freed from prison, signing the well-known declaration expressing his loyalty to the Soviet regime. The declaration was immediately published by the Communists, which stirred up a storm among the Evangelical Chris- tians. Because of this, in October 1923, the next Congress of Evangelical Christians emphasised the right of each believer to choose the form of military service in which to serve, armed or unarmed, according to his convictions. The same state pressure was applied to the Russian Baptist Union under leaders Pavel Vasilevich Pavlov and Mikhail Danilovich Timoshenko. In addition, delegates of the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Stockholm in 1923 failed to affirm the Russian pacifism as an official Baptist doctrine, instead calling for it to be the individual's personal decision. In December 1923 the Congress of the Russian Baptists was forced to proclaim the following: Considering any war to be a great evil and welcoming the peaceful policy of the Soviet state, which calls all nations around the world to global disarmament, our Congress allows each Baptist to settle the matter regarding common responsibility for military service according to his personal convictions.” The Soviet state pressure on both evangelical unions continued until 26 Cited in Plett, Istoriia bratstva, p. 115. + 7 Plett, Istoriia bratstva, pp.115-116. 8 Plett, Istoriia bratstva, p. 117. 96 1926 when their leaders were forced to abandon pacifism definitively. However, many church members maintained the ideas of non-resistance to the end of their lives. Some Baptists, for example, were shot as deserters by Red Army commanders when they refused to shoot the Germans during World War II.” Life of the Evangelical Communities in the 1920s Some church chroniclers discuss the primary tasks and needs of the Baptists in the 1920s. These were many activities: evangelism, spiritual nurture of churches, construction of Houses of Prayer, and the unification of churches into a single Baptist Union. For instance, in 1917 the believers in Turkestan established the Central Asian division of the All-Russ