Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

l skills were needed for the Bratskii Vestnik journal. Perhaps he was expected to replace the aged Karev, but within a year he had been transferred to take over the large Leningrad parish following the sudden death of its young presbyter. A, N. Kiriukhantsev and Michael Zhidkov were among the first students to study in England. They became full-time AUCECB workers on their return. Since 1960 Kiriukhantsev had replaced Michael Orlov as leader in Len- ingrad. Michael Zhidkov had recently been elected to replace the deceased N. A. Levindanto as spokesman for the Baltic but retained his Moscow residence and in 1966 also became the leading minister in the Moscow church. The two men were forty and thirty-eight years of age respectively, Zhidkov’s rapid rise was only one illustration of a nepotism that was be: coming apparent. Both young mien were, however, highly gifted; trained, but also acceptable to the authorities. The congress results showed significant changes for the better and con- firmed that reform would be gradual—there would be no outright confrontation with the state. During the election only the longtime senior presbyter for the Far East, E. N. Raevskii, was excluded from the council, although the heavily criticized K. S. Veliseichik barely managed to retain a council seat. In an apparent gesture to the reformers, V. F. Vasilenko, who had formerly supported the Orgkomitet, was elected to the council. The Regular Congress, 1969 The 1969 congress marks the end of the AUCECB defense against the reformers’ challenge. After this the task of winning back the dissenters be: 218 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il came primarily a local task, and the hope for the reunification with the CCECB was abandoned, even though leaders continued to say that reunifi- cation should happen. Only a week earlier CCECB supporters had met in a legally approved all-Union congress in Tula. Here they heard reports, elected members, and sent a letter to Kosygin requesting permission for their leadership to devote full time to the work as was true of the AUCECB leadership. Four meetings between representatives of the two bodies had been held that year. Many saw this as an optimistic sign, but within a few months of the congress, these efforts were confirmed as fruitless. The AUCECB congress met December 9-11 with 475 delegates and 269 guests. Mandate commission chairman Motorin reported that these delegates had been elected at sixty-three regional conferences and that each delegate represented 500 members. The atmosphere was more open than previously—for the first time, a Baptist representative from the West attended.®. It was Karev’s last congress, and he betrayed some irritation that it was still necessary to dis- cuss what had happened in 1960. Alexander Karev was’ suffering from cancer and would die two years later, It was apparent that there would be a struggle for the success