Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

pulation increased, au- thorities discovered that here, too, new converts were being made. {When the leaders were dispatched into exile, it often meant the birth of a new mission outpost. In many. places authorities removed the entire church leadership only to return a few weeks later to find other men assuming the leadership. One man who experienced how new replacements were found to replace those arrested recalled that the most unlikely person suddenly discovered a preaching gift no one had suspected Out of this emergency situation an expanding corps of self-taught preachers was emerging. The witness of believers such as those in Barnaul impressed the public, which began to wonder why morally upright workers and peaceable neighbors were vilified as monsters, scum, obscurantists, extortionists, parasites, and bloodthirsty people. Some of those neighbors began to take an interest in religion. : cad Yet the most important impact of the dissent is an emotional one, How does one assess the sufferings of people striving to be true to their Lord at all costs? How does one understand the frustration of state officials upon realiz- ing that religion refused to disappear and their shame in discovering that through their struggle against religion they were debasing themselves rather than attaining new heights of communist morality? How does one do justice to the feelings of the AUCECB leaders and their supporters who . were suffering in silence? Some of them were suffering because they hoped that their low-key negotiations for believers would eventually bear fruit even though this made them look bad in the eyes of the reformers. Others were suffering because they knew the reformers’ accusations were only. too true and they did not have the courage to repent. Having seldom heard an official word of sympathy for those in prison; Reform Baptist leaders are incapable of discussing the AUCECB’s policies objectively. As far as they are concerned, the hands of the Moscow leadership are dripping with blood. AUCECB leaders are less passionate and in recent years have openly acknowledged fraternal sympathy for those ‘they believe to be misguided, but they cannot forget that the reformers were responsible for airing their dirty linen in the world’s newspapers. The gt ey en rt, rege Dissent Begins, 1960-1965 195 AUCECB set about trying to restore their proud unity by means of congresses while the reformers cooled their heels in prison because they had dared to call for such a congress. Notes to Chapter 6 1, Lialina, Chaps. 1-4; Klibanov & Mitrokhin, “Raskol .. .,” p. 1O0f. See also Voprosy nauchnogo ateizma, Vol. XXIV, 1979, which devotes the entire issue to the Christian sects. 2, Lialina, p. 14. 3, Ibid., pp. 26-29. : 4, BV, Bhs , p. 59; 1/57, p. 79; 5-6/58, p. 37; and August 1959 (as reported in 6/63, p. 18). 5. BV, 5-6/58, p. 39. 6. AS 565; AS 772, p. 6; in AS 871 the reformers claimed that