Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

of the Orthodox Holy Synod, this toleration did not extend to the Russian Stundists or Baptists. Ober-Prokuror Pobedonostsev and the local Orthodox leaders feared the evangelicals because they were launching aggressive missionary activity and gained the bulk of their converts from Orthodox ranks.3! Due to Orthodox opposition, most of the evangelical leaders before 1917 received extended sentences of prison and exile but persisted in their endeavors in spite of this. The Orthodox formed a missionary society which had as a major goal the attempt to stamp out Stundism. The authorities forbade the meeting of Stundists, confiscated their buildings, and even went so far as to take their children away. Later, one Baptist leader summarized his early memories this way: This was a time of horrible persecutions. Exiles, arrests, fines, and beat- ings of believers rained down abundantly upon the audacious followers of the Gospel. Under continual fear of being caught by the police, the brothers nevertheless did not.cease their meetings, holding them in base- ments, across the Dnieper, in the woods, in the cemetery, in ravines, and in the apartments of the more well-to-do brothers. 22 After 1894 when the Ministry of Internal Affairs proscribed all activities of the Stundists, the passports of the most active sectarians were marked Stun- dist “so that no person will accept them for work or lodging, until life in Russia becomes too costly for them.’’ Revolution Brings Relief A measure of relief came with a series of acts of toleration between 1903 and 1905. It now became possible to leave the Orthodox Church and join the confession of one’s preference. The so-called Revolution of 1905 36 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II helped the liberal forces in Russia, including in the Orthodox Church, to argue successfully on behalf of religious toleration. Tolerance, they felt, would benefit Orthodoxy in the long run. But it was to be only a temporary toleration. The evangelicals were quick to capitalize on the new situation and or- ganized systematic expansion. At a congress of the Evangelical Christians in 1910, Prokhanov set as a goal the organization of one congregation in each of 70 regions of the empire. From this one congregation five more were to be started. These would then form a local union which would continue to multiply itself.85 Some Baptist leaders encouraged their members to note the locations of evangelical churches on a map of Russia. They were then to head for places where there was no evangelical witness, and begin one. By 1909 the political climate of 1905 had changed and reactionaries gradually gained the upper hand. This was also apparent in the religious sphere. Additional regulating laws were introduced which were clearly intended to protect Orthodox believers from proselytizing and to restrict the activity of the evangelicals as much as po