Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2007

loyed to manage the forest caretakers. As the communists swept to power, they established an even more brutal system of persecution, where the Party had to control and pressure all social organisations, including religious ones. 21 One threat was the national movements of each of Yugoslavia’s ethnic communities. The Yugoslav secret police, UDBA, was established, which could monitor, interrogate and liquidate suspected wrongdoers without trial. 22 In a bizarre incident, one of Strahil’s childhood friends, Ljupco Prgov, had set up a meeting with Strahil to encourage him to join the Macedonian secession movement in 1948. The meeting was being monitored by UDBA, who soon afterwards arrested Strahil. 23 He was interrogated, but the incident was clearly groundless and even the hard to convince UDBA inspectors themselves noted that Grozdanov was not implicated in the organisation. He was quickly released, without being further suspected by the UDBA, but this incident served as an important lesson to Strahil of how to deal with the numerous episodes he would have with the secret police during his ministry under communism. It was probably also a lesson in trust, since in the regime that was being formed, 18 Wolff, The Balkans in our time , p. 202. 19 Report by the Yugoslav Agency for State Security (UDBA) in the file of Strahil Grozdanov (SG), Radovis, Archive of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia [A copy available in Ivan Grozdanov’s personal documents]. The UDBA record on Strahil contains almost 300 pages of documented reports by informants, inspectors, during interrogations, as well as intercepted letters sent from or to Strahil during this time. 20 Report , (12.4.1955), SG, UDBA. 21 Ernst Halperin, The triumphant heretic: Tito’s struggle against Stalin (London: Heinemann, 1958), p. 34. 22 Fred Warner Neal, Titoism in Action: the reforms in Yugoslavia after 1948 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1958), p. 214. 23 Report , (14.10.1948), SG, UDBA. 26 Journal of European Baptist Studies even the closest of friends could turn into secret enemies. Knowing whom to speak to, and what to speak to them about, would be of life importance in the years to come. As the situation settled, Strahil became increasingly active in his ministry. During these years, he would be the caretaker pastor of four congregations: Radovis, Skopje, Raklis (Methodist) and Leskovac (Serbia). 24 His good health and youth enabled him to travel the distances often, and it helped him gain the experience he needed. He was already becoming leader of the Baptists in the region, since besides the Leskovac (Serbia), Skopje and Radovis churches, the closest Baptist church in Yugoslavia was the Belgrade church, some 400 km north of Leskovac. De facto, he had become the only local Baptist preacher in the South Serbia and Macedonia region. 25 In 1953 a group of leaders from the Baptist Union, among