Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ion which affected more than half of its sixty- The Khrushchev Campaign Against Religion 141 four articles. This legislative revision simply confirmed the 1961 instruc- tions.9? Hereby it became much more difficult to register congregations, For example, whereas formerly the signature of a representative had sufficed, now all the members of the congregation must sign the registration applica- tion. Given the atmosphere of persecution, it should be possible to find one coward in each congregation who would thereby veto the request. The right to appeal rejection of registration was also dropped. It was now stated clearly that registration could be withdrawn for violation of the laws on reli- gion. The laws on religion included not only published laws but also the secret legislation and also the directives including verbal or telephone instructions from the two councils for religious. affairs. In order to strengthen the centralized nature of the religious policy, religious affairs agencies were given expanded discretionary powers so that local authorities could act on registration requests only with the agreement of the central councils for religious affairs. Although the first Orthodox Samizdat appeared in 1958,38 major resistance during the early sixties came from the Reform Baptists. During 1962 the Samizdat phenomenon expanded. The action group itself sent a total of seven letters to state officials in which they repeatedly complained about the “terrible illegality’”’ of state religious policy but they received no detailed replies.29 The only tangible reply appeared to be increased arrests of local Baptist leaders. Thirty persons were arrested in 1961. In 1962 an ad- ditional sixty-four arrests brought the total of known prisoners to ninety- four. The key Initsiativniki leader, A. F. Prokofiev was himself arrested in May 1962, and at his trial in August was sentenced to five years’ imprison- ment followed by five years’ exile. This effectively removed him from any position of influence for the next ten years.4° One of his key associates, Boris Zdorovets, was also sent to prison.4! The reformers remained undaunted, and the key leaders now became Gennadi K. Kriuchkov and Georgi P. Vins. Realizing that the present AUCECB leadership was in no mood to challenge the state, the initiative group called an expanded conference on February 25, 1962, and instituted procedures (in accordance with the Soviet constitution) to form their own organization. The action group was dissolved and an organizing committee (Orgkomitet) elected, which was given the task of organizing an All-Union congress of ECB churches. On April 22, 1962, the Orgkomitet dispatched a letter to the churches which again denounced the anti-church activities of the AUCECB. It called upon the AUCECB members to repent within the next two months or else they 142 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il wou