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

tion of the religious scene of the Russian Empire. Frequently authors, particularly if they come from Russian baptistic tradition, claim that the appearance of the Baptist movement in Russia was a natural outcome of a search for true faith, a spiritual pilgrimage that the peoples of the Russian Empire? had made through the centuries.? Dukhobors, Khlysts, Skoptses, Starovers, Molokans and various others are mentioned as a proof of this constant spiritual search, thus showing that Russian Baptists have indigenous Russian roots, being a final product of the “pilgrimage,” implying that the people have “finally found it!”* Although some of these dissenters from Orthodoxy, like Molokans, do show obvious connections to at least one of the centres (in the Caucasus) where the first Russian Baptists appeared, most of these sects had little or nothing in common with Baptists. They existed and co-existed at different stages of Russian history, far earlier than the first signs * The materials of this chapter were published in a form of an article in Timofey Cheprasov, “Political and Religious Factors in the Emergence of the Baptist Movement in the Russian Empire,” in Baptistic Theologies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (autumn 2010), pp 46-58. * The Russian Empire was a multi-national country. Saying “Russian people” or “Russians”, | refer to the various ethnic groups who lived on the territory of the Russian Empire. Such use (instead of naming all possible ethnic groups) is out of mere convenience. | neither imply that there was one ethnicity nor try to rob other nations (some of which are independent countries now) of their history. > Eg. Sergey N. Savinskii, Istoriia Russko-Ukrainskogo Baptisma: Uchebnoie Posobiie [The history of Russian-Ukrainian Baptism: Study Manual] (Odessa, Odessa Theological Seminary “Bogomislie,” 1995), p 7. “ Heather Coleman suggests that from the very beginning of the Baptist movement in Russia, these Christians struggled with the accusations of being of a “German faith,” which inevitably raised questions of their political loyalty. Therefore, taking into account two world wars during which the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union fought with Germany, the proof of their indigenous Russian origin was crucial for the survival of the Baptist churches (Heather J. Coleman, “The Most Dangerous Sect: Baptists in Tsarist and Soviet Russia, 1905-1929,” PhD dissertation (Urbana, Illinois, 1998), Chapter 1). 12 of Baptists in Russia can be traced. Moreover, most of these religious groups were formed around a particular charismatic leader or a group of leaders.” None became a major movement that received wide recognition and support of the population or spread across the country. It was only in the second half of the 19" century when evangelicals like Stundists, Paskovites° and Baptists began to stir minds and cause controversies in different corners of the empire. 1867 is considered to be the starting poin