Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

rnments would ensure greater religious freedom for Baptists. In the case of German territories there was some success, and there was also some optimism about changes further east. In the 1870s the British Alliance President, Sir Harry Verney, asked the British government to raise the subject of liberty for evangelicals and Jews at the Conference of Euro- pean Powers.” The experience of Baptists in Russia in the 1880s and early 1890s, however, showed the limited nature of Evangelical Alliance influ- ence. Nonetheless, for an emerging evangelical leader such as Prokhanov, partnership between Western and Eastern evangelicals in Europe was important. In 1896 Prokhanov stated with typical boldness at the Alliance Conference: “I want to invite all West European brethren to closer contact with Russian Christians”.® The plea is still a relevant one today. Ian Randall is a Baptist minister and is Lecturer in Church History and Spirituality at Spurgeons College, London, and also Senior Research Fellow at the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague. He is the author of several books and many articles, his most recent books being The English Baptists of the Twentieth Century; A School of the Prophets: 150 Years of Spurgeonss College; and What a Friend We Have in Jesus: The Evangelical Tradition, all published in 2005. 8° EC, vol. 37 (April 1878), p. 126. %° Jubilee of the Evangelical Alliance, p. 313. 33 Fresh Skins for New Wine: On the Structure of the First Russian Baptist Congregations in South Russia Johannes Dyck introduction ne of the last books of antireligious propaganda produced by the Soviet state contains a remarkable statement about Baptists: “The popularity of the Baptist [movement] in many respects can be explained by its specific organisation ... It can be said that especially the Baptist [move- ment] shows the highest abilities for reproduction under conditions of a socialist society’ (emphasis added).' The atheistic state knew well how to deal with the “discretion and valour” of Baptists, to use Trevor Beeson’s expression,” but it acknowledged helplessness in fighting against the struc- ture. Baptist structures in the Soviet Union were more stable and survived better than the other denominational structures in the country, and there- fore deserve special attention. This paper identifies “structure” using an inductive approach. In the social sciences, the term “structure” refers to “discernible patterns, observed regularities and noticeable configurations”’ which indicate a certain order. Order, in turn, is inherent to the concept of system, which has been success- ' Protestantizm: slovar’ ateista [Protestantism: the atheist'’s dictionary], s.v. “Baptisty” (Mos- cow: Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1990), pp. 47-48. ? Trevor Beeson, Discretion and Valour: Religious Conditions in Russia and Eastern Europe (London: Fontana, 1974). 34 fully applied to a broad