Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

1990), p. 302; cited in Savin, Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i evangel’skie tserkvi Sibiri v 1920-1941 gg., p. 49. *! Mitrokhin, Baptizm: istoriia i sovremennost’, pp. 392-393. * Materialy II Vsesoiuznogo s’ezda voinstvuiushchikh bezbozhnikov (Moscow, 1929); cited in Savinskii, Istoriia evangel’skih khristian-baptistov Ukrainy, Rossii, Belorussii, chast’ 2 (1917- 1967), p. 116. 100 without Christ do not have any bright future’. Communist reporters and propagandists felt the influence of evangelical ideas in the USSR, drawing many parallels between Soviet and Baptist activities. These included the fiery Socialist and Baptist propaganda (or preaching), similar competitions among missionaries of the two ideologies, the “political housecleaning” of their folds, the mass youth organisations Komsomol and Bapsomol, active participation of women, similar intents to build new towns (socialist cities and the Christian city of Evangel'sk), and so on.” Evangelical expansion in the USSR after 1917 took place within a dramatic context, including the collapse of the great Russian Empire, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the “militant godless” Soviet power. Russian believers knew that the Holy Scripture never promised Christians an easy life on Earth: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Philippians 1:29). Subsequent events such as the persecution of Baptists for their faith in Christ, total collectivisation of Soviet villages and the forced closure of Baptist prayer houses and their confiscation by the Communist state“ led to the nearly complete destruction of the evangelical churches in the USSR. Sectarians were proclaimed an “alien element” both in the Soviet city and in the new Soviet village.* However, savage persecution was not able to divest the Soviet Christians of their beliefs. The 1937 census contained a question about religion. At that time of the widest terror, of 97.5 million who answered the question, more than 55 million Soviet citizens (about 57%) declared their faith in God.“ While Baptists were a small minority among those Soviet believers, they were undoubtedly among the bravest martyrs for Christ from all confessions in the USSR. Konstantin Prokhorov is an instructor at the Western Siberian Bible College, Omsk, Russia, and a research student at the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic. He is author of three books on church history and theology. *° Savin, Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i evangel'’skie tserkvi Sibiri v 1920-1941 gg., pp. 63-64. “* The majority of Soviet evangelical congregations of those times were in the countryside, as the former Russian Empire was primarily agrarian. © Savinskii, Istoriia evangelskih khristian-baptistov Ukrainy, Rossii, Belorussii, chast’ 2 (1917-1967), pp. 114-115. *€ M.V. Shkarovskii, Russkaia pravoslavnaia tserkov’ pri Staline i Khrushcheve: Gosud