Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

is great.: We must restrict ourselves to a brief sketch of the eight phases that can be identified so far. The Khrushchev Campaign, 1959-1 Phase I: Leninist Legality, 1959-1961 ik ae pe Mahe The campaign began in 1959 with a propaganda barrage and the closure of churches: One scholar has argued. that the official: decision was probably taken at the party congress meeting from January 29:to Febria 5, 1959.” Baptist dissidents repeatedly claimed that only one third of ae ing Evangelical Christian-Baptist congregations had attained registration by then. For the Orthodox more-so than’ for Baptists, it was vital that the priest should be able to conduct the liturgy ina: registered building, ‘and this therefore became’a chief ‘point of ‘attack initially. By 1966 Gay 7,500 138 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il churches were left from the 22,000 that had been registered by the Or- thodox before the persecution began.” Many different arguments were used in order to ensure closure of a church. An old Jaw was resurrected, whereby any church which had been given its registration by the Nazi occupying forces was declared illegal. This affected in particular the churches in the West Ukraine where religion was particularly strong. Some churches were closed because they were located too close to a school and therefore posed a threat to the school’s freedom from religion. Other churches were declared historical monuments which must therefore be available for the enjoyment of all citizens, not just believ- ers, In other cases, such as the Orthodox Church in Perm, the throngs at- tending the worship services hindered normal traffic and therefore the church must be closed. Others were demolished to make room for urban renewal while still others were condemned because they were in urgent need of repair. However, the authorities blocked: the purchase of the necessary. materials to repair the church and therefore the believers could not meet the legal requirements. Another argument used was that the church was not needed any longer because no service had taken place in the past few weeks. This break in the regularity of services had been achieved by detaining the priest or presbyter for questioning or for observation in a mental clinic. Once again also, countless believers, especially clergymen, were ar- rested, charged with violating the legislation on religion and given prison sentences which initially averaged five-year periods. Exact statistics are not readily available but the Orthodox clergy had been reduced from 30,000 before 1959: to only 14,500 in early 1962.25 The Baptists began collecting data in 1961, and by 1964 could produce the names of 197 persons in prison.6 When the campaign began, Orthodox leaders attempted a short resistance, One feature of the propaganda attack had included the confession of apostate priests. In February 1960, the Journal of the Moscow Patria