Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

urteen churches had been closed in 1960-63. They also noted that whereas 1,246 persons were baptized in Latvia and Estonia from 1957 to 1959, only 195 persons were baptized in 1960-62 while 1,099 died; i.e., a loss of 904 in membership (AS 772, p. 16). 34. BV, 2/49, pp. 71-80; 3/58, p. 66; 2/59, p. 19; EBPS, February 18, 1974; October 20, 1977, p. 4. 35. BV, 2/55, p. 6; 4/48, pp. 57-58. 36. BV, 2/58, p. 66; 6/66, pp. 21, 46. 37, BV, 5/48, pp. 52-53, At first he was assisted by Io. Kh. Laks, an evangelical Christian. Life in the Provinces 2? 88. Since 1947 Sil'dos had repeatedly acted as assistant senior presbyter; Levindanto relied on him because he spoke Russian. Robert Vyzu was trained at the Baptist seminary and then at the University of Tartu, Estonia. 89. They were: K. Latseklis (1945-47), August Korp (1948), A. M. Redlikh (1949-1953), F. E. Khuns (1953-59), P. K. Egle (1966-77), la. E. Tervits (1977- ). Re- dlikh, a dark horse candidate, was ousted for Pentecostal leanings. 40. BV, 3/61, p. 79; 1/72, pp. 72-74. Why Levindanto took over without the help of Estonian and Latvian senior presbyters is unclear, but it is apparent that he and the Moscow leadership ae | several years before the Latvians accepted Sil'dos as senior presbyter. 41. O. A. Tiark (born 1904) had a master’s degree from Columbia University (BV, 1/56, p. 26). In large part due to his regular Bible commentary series in BV, when he was announced as speaker at the 1974 congress, delegates craned their necks to see him, as if he were a patriarch. Arpad A. Arder, converted 1945; or- dained 1955; presbyter in Rakvere 1956-70; elected AUCECB candidate in 1966. Later state pressure forced his transfer to a smaller church. Robert Vyzu read a major doctrinal paper at the 1979 congress. 42. In Kazakhstan there are 17,000 members (162 congregations); in Kirgizia, 6,200 (forty percent German); and in Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan and Turkmenia, a fifteen of them are not registered (BV, 1/75 and 1979 congress notes). 43. See Martin McCauley, Khrushchev and the Development of Soviet Agri- culture: The Virgin Land Programme 1953-1964 (London: Macmillan, 1976), p. 232. 44. In 1976 Emil Baumbach, a German, became presbyter for the entire con- gregation (BV, 2/76, p. 79). 45. Registered in 1967 (BV, 4/67; p. 42). H. Woelk and W. Matthies were the leaders; present leader is Heinrich Goertzen. The Church Mennonites who meet in the same building were registered in 1975. 46. An additional factor was that this group was a mixture of Germans and Russians and rejected the ethnic exclusivism of the Mennonite Brethren. 47, There is a registered Pentecostal (Edinstvenniki) congregation of 500 members, and a large German Lutheran congregation of 2,800 members. Data sup- plied by Dr. Paul Hansen of the Lutheran World Federation, the first foreign churchman to receive permission to visit Karaganda. 48. Heavily based on Umsiedler interview d