Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, January 2009

ptist leaders. As Wieler wrote in 1874, ‘Notwithstanding all persecutions, the awakening is spreading 1 o through the feeble instrumentality of simple brethren....’ The movement continued under indigenous leadership. 4. Mladostundism Although Ratushnyi and Ryaboshapka were now leaders of a Stundo- Baptist movement, it did not mean all stundists would follow them. A break occurred between Stundo-Baptists and other stundists, called Mladostundists (Young Stundists) or Novostundists (New Stundists), which shows that the stundist movement was not monolithic, included indigenous elements, and continued to negotiate its own way. The Mladostundists not only opposed the priesthood and the sacraments of the Orthodox Church but in addition rejected any new hierarchy or new rites. They wished to continue the original stundist pattern of devotional gatherings with all believers equal. They opposed the administrative role of the ‘elder brother’, one who might also appeal for money for mission trips and propaganda. 14 11 For the Russian report on Tsimbal’s baptism, see Aleksil Dorodnitsyn, Materialy dlya istorii religozno- ratsionalisticheskago dvizheniya na yuge Rossii vo vtoro'ipolovine xix-go stoletiya (Kazan, 1908), doc. 58. For Pritzkau’s reports, see Quarterly Reporter , October 1869, pp. 394-95, and July, 1870, p. 837. 12 Lawrence Klippenstein, ed. and tr., ‘Johann Wieler (1839-1889) Among Evangelicals: A New Source of Mennonites and Evangelicalism in Imperial Russia’, Journal of Mennonite Studies , V (1987), pp. 49- 50. For a copy of the Pravila, see Dorodnitsyn, document 301. 13 Quarterly Review, July 1874, p. 6. 14 See Rozhdestvenskii, pp. 105-106, 174-75, 266-67, for the differences between the Mladostundists and Stundo-Baptists. 36 Journal of European Baptist Studies Mladostundists also spiritualised the ordinances of baptism and communion and opposed their observance. One of their leaders, Gerasim Balaban declared, ‘Rites - this is theatre’. They argued that baptism was only an external sign that had no power; one must receive the living water and be baptised in the Spirit. Christ’s baptism was for Himself alone. Also one does not receive Christ in the Lord’s Supper but from Christ Himself and His Word. In time Baptists will modify somewhat Mladostundist practice, but nevertheless the division persisted for some time. In the end, however, the stundist movement will become Stundo-Baptist in its entirety. At this point, it should be recognised that German Baptists took advantage of the evangelical movement already developing in the Russian Empire. They were not initiators of the movement but facilitators in moving it to what they considered were more consistent biblical principles such as separation from non-evangelical churches and believer’s baptism by immersion. They took advantage of a religious situation that was turning in their favour. This was true for the Alf movement in Russian P