Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

sts, with the latter led by P. V. Pavlov, both pacifist and ro-socialist, State pressure led to the reinstatement of Old Baptist leadership. The lewine Old Baptist, I. V. Ivanov-Klyshnikov, argued that by rejecting pacifism they would secure freedom to hold regular congresses, but, ironically, this was the last congress the state permitted (p. 592), 7 50. Kahle, pp. 406-407. Kahle attempts to explain Prokhanov’s actions as the expression of an optimism’ and faith in Soviet promises that he later’ recognized to have been unrealistic (p. 377f.). 51. Steeves, p.589. 52. BV, 3/7l, p. 71. ' 68. Krest'ianinov, p. 59, tried to account for this by claiming a higher percentage of kulaks among Mennonites than other evangelicals. was 54. John B. Toews, “The Origins arid Activities of the Mennonite Selbstschutz in the Ukraine (1918-1919), Mennonite Quarterly Review, Jan/72; pp. 4-40. 55. As late as 1936 there were still some Mennonite conscientious objectors, but the conditions of their alternative service scarcely differed from that of a een iauon camp. (I am indebted to an unpublished graduate paper by Peter Rempel.) 56. A. I. Klibanov, Iz mira religioznogo sektantstva (Moscow, 1974), pp: 110- lL. 57. Krestianinov, pp. 102-119. The textbook, Basic Course on Scientific Com- munism (Moscow, 1973), declared that “religious morality with its preaching of nonresistance results in the withering away of class consciousness and preparedness among believers.” (Cited from G2W, Sept/74, p. 14.) - 58. BV, 2/45, p. 26. 59. BV, 3/45, pp. 51-52. 60. BV, 2/45, p. S7£.; 3/46, p. 6; 5/47, p. 14: 61. BV, 1/45, pp. 14-29. 62. Kolarz, p.314. 63. BV, 3/71, pp. 66-71. See also 4/70, pp. 21-22 for a statement from the well- known Pentecostal G. G. Ponurko affirming that his union had approved military service in 1928. 64. MCC files, 1976. ; 65. This writer encountered such sentiment in many areas of the USSR, espe- cially the Ukraine and Central Asia, : 66. A. Bilinsky in Religion und Atheismus in der UdSSR, 7-8/1976, pp. 21-24. 67. Ibid., pp. 18-21. For prisoners’ list see: CPR Bulletin, No. 48 (1977); 56, 57, 59 (1978); 67/79. Sentences averaged 3.5 years. 68. See, for example, the statement from the WCC unit on Church and So- ciety entitled “Violence, Nonviolence, and the Struggle for Social Justice,” August, 1973, reprinted in Donald Durnbaugh (ed.), On Earth Peace (Elgin, IL: The Brethren Press, 1978), pp. 374-85. 69. Quote in Louis J. Halle, The Cold War as History (New York: Harper & Row, 106 p. 104; cf. pp. 106f., 155. ; : 70. BV, 4/47, p.7. 71. Ibid. 130 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il 72. Ibid. ; 73. BV, 6/47, p. 5. 74, Ibid., p. 6. . 75. BV, 1/58, p. 8. 76. Ibid., p. 4. - : Ibid. ; 80. Quoted in William C. Fletcher, Religion and Soviet ihc a Policy 1945- 1970 (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 81. Fletcher's study is the only at- tempt to examine the r