Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

ers, however, is that he became a Baptist while in Germany and brought this “new faith,” as some people called it, back home, to the village of lvanovka.*? Leschev was very enthusiastic about his faith and kept telling people about God and salvation. His witness was rather successful — his seven brothers and one sister as well as their families, were soon baptised and also became Baptists. A small Baptist congregation from a nearby village, Semidesiatnoie, provided much needed spiritual support for this newly established community. In 1921 extended families of Leschev, Popov, Chernich, Ziablokov, Kukuev, Demidov, Cheprasov, Scherbakov, Chekmarev, Rukin and Smol’ianinov (approximately seventy people) prompted by the desire to live ‘according to the teaching of Jesus, to be like the first church’ decided to create a Christian commune or brotherhood.°° They lived in separate homes; however, they had common property and a community purse. The commune owned a lot of land, where they had built 25 new homes for its members, 3 mills, a smithy, granaries and they widened the river and planted large gardens. In 1926 “the brotherhood” bought three tractors. Some of their 5 One can only guess how many Russians have adopted the Baptist faith as a result of their interaction with German Baptists during their trips to Western Europe, but also through their contacts during the war, and whilst in captivity. it could be surmised, the overall number of Russian citizens who became Baptists in this manner could be rather significant. It could have had serious impact on the fast growth of the Baptist movement after the World War | and the Revolution of 1917. However, no research has been done (or may seem possible) on this question. 3© Personal interview with M. Lesheva (Voronezh, 02.10.2007), available through the author. Konstantin Prokhorov mentions that when NEP (New Economic Policy) was introduced by the Soviets in the 1920s, many baptistic communities took it as God’s gift and formed their own “Christian businesses.” (Bozie and Kesarevo (Omsk, OOO Izdatelskii Dom “Nauka”, 2005), p 225). The case that | refer to is different, since the main reason for the appearance of the commune was not some business interests, but the desire to live biblically. 145 members went to study mechanics, accounting, and agricultural technologies. As noted by Nikolay Shutkin, this was the first commune in the Voronezh region, and it prospered financially, due to their hard work and honesty, and thrived socially, having ’37 Various members had different skills ‘their own system of bringing up children. which they contributed to the life of the commune in different ways. ‘All the fruits of their labour were shared among all the members, no one had shortage of anything,’ remembers Alexandra M. Cheprasova.°® The commune existed and prospered for about 10 years. After the Soviet government started collectivization,” in 1931 the co