Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ext city in order to avoid the police who were waiting for him at the train station. When he arrived at his destination and found that others besides believers were expecting him, he traveled onward to the next sta- tion, where someone then took him to the evangelistic rally. Exactly where that meeting was to be held was determined only a few hours in advance, and by the time the authorities caught up, Gerhard Hamm had already returned home. Young Peter Peters had a special appeal for young people 246 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II and often participated in the semiannual regional youth rallies that were held. The authorities knew that on May-day and on November 7 (an- niversary of the Revolution) Reform Baptist young people would be meet- ing somewhere in the hills or woods for a large rally and tried to prevent this happening. Once they sealed off an entire town in Kazakhstan, but the young people who had gathered refused to let the authorities enter the house to arrest the leaders until under cover of darkness they could be spirited away. These youth rallies usually resulted in tens of new converts. Another major activity upset the authorities even more. One expert has observed that all the court cases concerning Initsiativniki in 1966, the year of the greatest arrests, were connected with children’s work.” Religious educational material was widely circulated in Samizdat. In one rather sad incident, two young girls, Maria Braun and Elena Chernetskaia, decided to continue their Sunday school activity even though pressure was increasing. Maria declared that, if it had to be, they would hold Sunday school for the children at five o'clock in the morning. Both girls were arrested, tried and sentenced to five years in prison. Three years later the terrible conditions in a women’s prison brought their results. Maria Braun announced she had broken with religion, and she became a prized propagandist for atheism.7! A less-publicized activity was the financial aid given to prisoners’ families. The families of prisoners, as well as those of persons who were unemployed, received no state aid, and therefore the absence of a breadwinner placed the family under severe financial hardship. Very often, as well, part of the prisoner's punishment was the confiscation of all his movable property. The CPR was vital in organizing relief, much of the money coming from abroad. Lidia Vins at a recent meeting in West Germany recalled how things had changed since the 1930s when her husband disappeared into the prison camps. Then their home had been confiscated, everyone else was poor and as relatives of prisoners they received no ration cards. But she had relied on Jesus’ promise that “I will not leave you fatherless.” From time to time, in the evenings, someone would knock on their window and there they would find food. Who was the unseen donor? It was the deputy director of the