Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

n pastor. In short, there are very few critics of the Latvian and Estonian Baptists. Central Asia and the Germans There are not many churches in Central Asia, but those that do exist often have a very large membership.*2 One reason for this is that in Kazakhstan, as well as in the other four Central Asian republics, there are large regions of desert. This is a predominantly Muslim area, but there are almost no converts from these peoples to Christianity. The location of Baptist churches is therefore due to Soviet resettlement policy. One peculiarity of the Central Asian Baptist churches is the high pro- portion of Germans. Some of these German.Mennonites came here at the beginning of the century to form new settlements on the frontier. Many more were brought here forcibly during the war to do forced labor in the mines around Karaganda or to dig canals near Frunze or to grow cotton in Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan. The high percentage of Ukrainians and Russians in these churches can often also be explained by this involuntary migration, although there were also many people moving to Kazakhstan voluntarily in response to Khrushchev 's virgin lands program.*8 The story of Karaganda illustrates what happened in many of these churches. This church had been registered after the war and consisted pri- marily of Russians and Ukrainians. By 1956 Germans became influential, with some of their ministers preaching in German. Soon the registered church was closed by the authorities but the believers began meeting in private homes in different parts of the city. When state pressure eased and 266 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il the church was reopened, the number of believers had grown significantly. The registered church became a large one and included a German wing led by Abram Friesen.“4 Other Mennonites finally managed to secure autono- mous registration as a German-speaking Mennonite Brethren church.‘ Since this congregation did not give the Mennonites (Kirchliche) full rights, the latter finally obtained their own registration: Still others led by David D. Klassen, who had had very negative experiences in the registered church in - Novosibirsk, remained unregistered and became closely linked with the CCECB.“8 In contrast to one regular-sized church building, such as in Moscow or Leningrad where 3,000 to 5,000 members tried to find room, the Karaganda evangelicals, through diversification, had five large con- gregations meeting in four buildings.” The conflict with the Reform Baptists was also different in this region.® In many areas, church members first became aware of the split after 1966 when the state resumed its pressure, now more specifically focused on the reformers. Registered churches that had closed were reopened, with leadership that had not compromised itself in the interval. Even most of those that remained open managed with minimal state in- terference. In Kirgizia