Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2007

of long-term imprisonment. They were made enemies of their country, which had been their home for many generations. 6 Ibid., pp. 168-86. 7 J. Pritzkau, Geschichte der Baptisten in Siidrussland (Odessa, 1914, repr. Lage: Logos, 1999, new pagination), pp. 26-7. 8 Istoriya evangel’skikh khristian-baptistov v SSSR [History of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the USSR] (Moscow: Vsesoyusnyl sovet evangel’skikh khristian-baptistov, 1989), p. 66; Pritzkau, Geschichte der Baptisten in Siidrussland, p. 27. 9 Neu-Samara am Tock (1890-2003). Eine mennonitische Ansiedlung in Russland ostlich der Wolga (Warendorf, 2003), pp. 5-10. 111 Deportation, Sondersiedlung, Arbeitsarmee. Deutsche in der Sowjetunion 1941 bis 1956 , eds. A. Eisfeld and V. Herdt (Cologne: Wissenschaft und Politik, 1996), p. 113. 40 Journal of European Baptist Studies Up to one quarter of them did not survive Stalin’s persecutions between 1929- 1953. 11 State: Ruling with an Iron Hand When the Soviet Union entered World War II, the religion in the Soviet Union was not fully conquered although most of the Churches of Baptists and Evangelical Christians in the country, with an estimated membership from 800,000 (conservative estimations of Baptist researchers) 12 to 2,100,000 (intentional estimations of anti-religious authors), 13 were eliminated. Most of the churches were forced into illegality or ceased to exist. Taking into consideration big cities, only four legal Churches of Evangelical Christians or Baptists remained 14 to serve as a proof of freedom of conscience for foreigners. One of them, the Church of Evangelical Christians in Moscow, was led by Mikhail Orlov, a person with a stable reputation as a KGB collaborator. 15 Since 1937 he had also led the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians. 16 The Baptist Union was dissolved in 1935 when the last of its leaders was arrested. 17 During World War II, the attitude towards religion in the Soviet Union changed. In 1943, the Russian Orthodox Church received back the Patriarchate; in 1944 the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians and Baptists (AUCECB) was organised. 19 Special governmental institutions, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church led by a KGB general, 20 and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults were created in 11 V. Rrieger, ‘Die demographische Entwicklung der Deutschen in der Sowjetunion der Jahre 1926-1959’ in Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 2003, ed. H. Kampen (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 2003), pp. 9-21, 20. 12 Interview of S.N. Savinskii with J. Dyck, December 1996. 13 A.L. Klibanov, Klassovoe litso sovremennogo sektantstva [The Class Face of the Contemporary Sectarianism] (Leningrad: Priboi, 1928), pp. 15-16. 14 Beseda s predstavitelyami ‘Orgkomiteta’ 23 marta 1966 g. [Meetings with the Representatives of the ‘Orgkomitet’ on 23 March 1966] Archive of AUCECB, file 28.10, document nr.