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

such an attitude in Russian Baptist churches (Ivan S. Prokhanov, V Kotle Rossii 1869-1933: Avtobiografiia Ivana Stepanovicha Prokhanova S Izlozheniiem Glavnikh Faktov Dvizheniia Evangelskikh Khristian v Rossii [In the Cauldron of Russia 1869-1933: An Autobiography of Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov with the Story of Main Fact Regarding the Movement of Evangelical Christians in Russia] (Druckhaus Gummersbach, 1992), pp 51-52). *° Vernadsky, A History of Russia, p 169. The above mentioned struggles and despair of the poor students was illustrated by Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky in the person of Rodion Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel Prestupleniie i Nakazaniie [Crime and Punishment]. 26 “Raznochintsy” is a complex word that consists of two roots — “raznii”, which means “different” and “chin” - “social status”. Thus, the name of this class meant “a mixture of people of different sorts, who were neither peasants, nor aristocracy.” 18 in its social importance. Although still relatively small in numbers, these people were extremely active in the society. Ironically, this new class, which was in many ways a result of the Great Reforms of Alexander Il, despised both the reforms and the government, demanding complete transformation of the Russian state.”’ This general dissatisfaction with the existing order and the belief that the reforms were incomplete also had some positive results. One of them was a “populist movement,” based upon a belief that it was possible to achieve the transformation of the whole society through education and the enlightenment of the masses. As noted by Edmund Heier, The movement reached its peak in 1873-74 when thousands, not only of young men and women, but also of men in well-established professions, [including hundreds of aristocrats] roamed the Russian countryside, often dressed as peasants, to carry out their enlightening propagandist activities. They abandoned the universities and life of comfort in order to serve the people and be one with them in spirit.”° However, peasants turned out to be the most conservative class of Russian society. Thus most of them did not welcome these ideas. They neither accepted these “western things” nor the people who were trying to “enlighten” them. Police archives hold multiple accounts of peasants reporting to the police on the activities of the populists. The history of Russian society in the second half of the 19" century presents a fascinating mosaic of new philosophical ideas and attempts to implement these ideas and translate them into reality. It was a period that many historians call the “Russian 27 «Mihilism” was one of its extreme manifestations. This movement was popular among the educated youth and was marked by a rejection of absolute values and belief in the absolute power of science. This was not a revolutionary movement, though; rather nihilists were marked by a ‘negative attitude towards existing convention,