Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

n prison) and went on: On the basis of their election, we ask you to regard the CCECB workers as having the legal right to be freed from work in industry and that you . give directives accordingly to the organs not to hinder them in carrying out the work entrusted to them. As if to emphasize that they were not being provocatory but simply de- manding their legal rights, they went on to say: The activity of the CCECB is not connected with the violation of social order nor infringing the rights of citizens, and does not concern itself with social-political or similar questions, only inner church religious questions, © The letter also requested similar rights for its evangelists. Premier Alexei Kosygin did not reply personally. But the answer was Reunification Rejected, 1964-1974 245 soon clear. Kriuchkov and Vins were both ordered to work in industry and Vins’s wages were garnished. Only a few days after the conference, M. I: Khorev was arrested, and following a secret trial, was sentenced to three years in prison.§! Numerous CCECB leaders followed, and by the end of the year both Kriuchkov and Vins went into hiding. Vins successfully eluded the authorities till March 1974. Kriuchkov, on the other hand, is still sought. Kriuchkov’s portrait, for example, was included on bulletin boards along with other most-wanted criminals. In 1974 his wife discovered that a listening device had been installed in their apartment, and Kriuchkov has had other narrow escapes. Major Activity In spite of the unrelieved pressure since 1969, the CCECB has suc- ceeded in carrying out a remarkable program of activity. Members of the council tried to meet annually, although sometimes the meeting could be completed only after several short interruptions while they fled from one house to another to avoid capture. In 1972, when all were free except P. G. Rumachik, the council membership was expanded. In May 1976 at another secret congress Gennadi Kriuchkov delivered a major report by means of a tape recorder. At a second meeting in December the de facto general secretary (Vins was in prison) I. Ia. Antonov reported.® One activity that turned out to be futile was their request to have the legislation on religion revised in order to make it conform to the freedom of conscience promised by Lenin in 1918. Detailed proposals were submitted beginning April 14, 1965, to Brezhnev as president of the commission for drafting a new constitution. More suggestions followed when the Brezhnev constitution was published in the spring of 1977, but to no avail.*6 A more successful program was evangelization. Some of the evan- gelists were appointed by the CCECB, which supported them financially and arranged evangelistic tours for them. Gerhard Hamm, a leader in the Baltic, was one such evangelist whose work the authorities tried to hinder.®7 A fellow believer who owned an automobile drove him to a train station in the n