Baptistic Theologies, 2009

poch in the religious life of Russia, in the later nineteenth century, with St. Petersburg as its centre. His work prepared the way for evangelical teaching and the appearance of the Evangelical Christian-Baptists as an organised movement and denomination. 23 Vasilii Pashkov was born in 1831 into the family of a rich Master of Hounds, Alexander Pashkov, his father. His mother was Countess Ekaterina 19 Heier, Religious Schism in the Russian Aristocracy, p. 26. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid., p. 28. 22 Ibid., p. 29. 22 M. Karetnikova, ‘Pashkov ee Pashkovtsi' [Pashkov and Pashkovites], Mirt, N.1,32, (2002), http://gazeta.mirt.ru/?!—, accessed 16 th October 2008. 76 Baptistic Theologies Tolstaya. Vasilii received an excellent education and served as an Imperial Guard. By the age of 43 he retired from the rank of Colonel. Pashkov was one of the most educated and wealthiest people in Russia. Being a personal friend of Alexander II he planned to become a Minister of State and had a place in the Imperial Council. As a young man Pashkov was indifferent to religion, although he was not against Orthodoxy. In one of his letters he wrote: ‘Once I was without Christ, foreign to covenants and promises, did not have hope, and drew near to God with my lips only, but my heart was far away from him'. - This description could be applied to many Russian aristocrats of that time. Pashkov came to an evangelical experience under the influence of Lord Radstock, whose prayer and Bible study meetings became popular among the high society of St. Petersburg in the 1870s. Touched especially by the simple prayers of Radstock, Pashkov came to a point where he gave his life to God and believed that he had received forgiveness of sins:” ‘It was as if a shaft from heaven pierced my chest. I rose up from my knees, ran to my room and gave myself to God.’ After his conversion Pashkov’s life was markedly changed. Pashkov continued the work started by Lord Radstock and became the leader of a new movement, which came to be named Pashkovism. He gained many followers, who mainly belonged to the aristocracy. The goal of Pashkovites was ‘to convert to their faith all the population of Russia under the head of our pious Sovereign Emperor’. Yet Pashkov continued to belong to the Orthodox Church and did not try to organise a separate sect. His aim was the moral and religious transformation of all Russia that should start from 90 the Orthodox Church itself and would not be tied to any other denomination." One of the most famous Russian writers of that time, N. Leskov, in his reflections on the situation in Russia, did not consider Radstockism (equal to Pashkovism) as a schism. ‘Radstock himself does not found any separate doctrine and does not demand anything similar from his followers. .. .If there 29 might be, perhaps, one exception, there is no point to speak about that.’ Another writer, A. Leroy Beaulieu, wrote on the same issue: ‘Pashk