Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

e of the remaining prisoners, who were then free to rejoin their congregations and to resume their ministry. 26 Sawatsky, Soviet Evangelicals, pp. 273-96. 27 See the present author's obituary of Georgii Vins: Michael Bourdeaux, “Georgi Vins: Pas- tor who Defied the KGB’, The Guardian (22 January 1998), p. 16. 131 It is the contention of this paper that the resolute action of the Reform Baptists over the last three decades of the existence of the Soviet Union was one of the strong contributory factors to the evolution of the civic society which Russia may yet become. Michael Bourdeaux is Founder and President of Keston Institute, Oxford, and author of many books on religion in the Soviet Union. 132 Baptists as a Symbol of Sectarianism in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia Aleksandr Negrov and Tat’iana Nikol'skaia bE rom the very outset, Russian state and society viewed the emerging evan- gelical Baptist movement not as a Protestant confession, but as a new sect or group of sectarians sharing similar doctrines (including Stundists, Pashkovites and Baptists). Sectarians in the Russian Empire endured state persecution and discrimination as well as negative attitudes within society, fuelled by official propaganda. While they were not insignificant in number — several districts in southern Russia and Transcaucasia were settled prima- rily by sectarians — they were treated as an alien and obscure minority. Oral tradition and literature disseminated rumours of sexual orgies, fanatical cruelty and human sacrifices practiced by some sects. Unsurprisingly, the common bitterness toward sectarianism was directly projected onto the evangelical Baptist movement. Initially the evangelical currents were given the pejorative nickname “Stunda” (or “Stundist”), from the German Stunde [hour], as one strand of the movement originated among peasants in the employ of German Pietists holding regular Bible “hours”. On 4 July 1894, the tsar approved regulations of the Committee of Ministers identifying “the Stundist sects as most harmful” When being reputed a Stundist became dangerous, evangelical believers rushed to distance themselves from the so-called Stundism. For instance, “A Brief Account of the Origin, Development, and Present Status of the ' Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archives] (RGIA), f. 796, op. 442, d. 1581, 1. 43. 133 Evangelical Movement in Russia and the Needs of the Russian Evangelical Christians (Known under Various Folk Nicknames such as Pashkovites, Baptists, neo-Molokans, etc.)”, submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early 1905, contains such appendices as an explanatory note by Kiev bourgeois Ivan Kushnerev, who refused to accept a passport identifying his religious affiliation as Stundist,’ and a petition to the Voronezh governor from Baptists of the Novokhopersk district claiming, “Three times already we have reported inequitabl