Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

October 1963, the first since the formation of the AUCECB nearly twenty years earlier. Its leaders, under duress from the authorities, failed to consult with Vins and Kriuchkov, the two senior leaders remaining at liberty, who did not have even token representation on the platform. The unregistered congregations, the number of which appeared to be increasing as the State removed their legitimacy, had no representation whatsoever. Nevertheless, the AUCECB appeared to make a genuine attempt at reform in some areas. For example, they passed a resolution to the effect that there would henceforth be regular congresses at three-year intervals. The guiding council - the AUCECB itself - would also be elected at these congresses. However, “alternative” names were not put forward, commu- nist-style, and the old faces continued to appear on the platform. Most importantly, the “Letter of Instructions” was revoked." Despite these concessions, the AUCECB would continue to appoint senior presbyters to the regions, which was one of the main objections of the reformers. Georgii Vins continued to maintain that this was a “pseudo- congress’, as its convening was illegitimate in the first place. The Reformers’ Campaign Continues Georgii Vins and Gennadii Kriuchkov continued their demands for genuine reform and increased the scope of their activities, despite the attempts of the KGB to hunt them down. Vins composed a theological justification for his position, forty-one close-packed pages of detailed reasoning, signed by six other leaders.’° Vins emerged at this time not only as a pastor, with deep care for his scat- tered people, but also as a poet. Among other works, he sent a long poem - a philippic rather than an irenicon - to Aleksandr Karev, General Secretary of the AUCECB. With Kriuchkov as co-author, he initiated a remarkable series of samizdat publications, dozens of which are preserved in Oxford in the archive of Keston Institute. Bratskii listok [Fraternal Leaflet] was the main title, but there was a flood, too, of‘appeals, lists of prisoners and even '? The origins of this accusation are set out in Bourdeaux, Faith on Trial in Russia, p. 85. '4 Bourdeaux, Religious Ferment in Russia, pp. 66-94; Sawatsky, Soviet Evangelicals, pp. 200- 210. 'S Bourdeaux, Faith on Trial in Russia, p. 89. 126 New Testaments and other scripture portions. Bratskii listok demonstrated an intense pastoral concern for everyone who had in any way helped with the work of the Reform Baptists, but it was the defence of prisoners which attracted the most publicity and, after what they considered the failure of the 1963 congress, the main focus of the work became a battle with the authorities to grant Baptists their right to religious liberty according to the Soviet constitution. (The actual words of the Constitution at this time guaranteed the “right to religious worship’, as opposed to “religious liberty’, and the two were f