Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

en, November 23, 1975. 83. J. C. Pollock, The Christians from Siberia (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964). NBA. RNS, Gest 1975; September 1977; January 1978; March 1978; July 1978. ora 85. A recent dramatic account is John C. Pollock, The Siberian Seven (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1979). Cf. G2W Informationsdienst, May 10, 1979; KNS, July 1978; “The Vashchenko Chronicle: An Attempt to Emigrate: 1962- 1978,” RCDA, XVII, 4-6, 1978, 84-88; cf. pp. 51-52. 296 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il 86. BV, 3/78, p. 61. ; _ 87. Evgenii Bresenden, “The Persecution of Pentecostal Evangelical Chris- tians, in Marta Harasowska and Orest Olhovych, eds., The International Sakharov Hearing (Baltimore-Toronto: Smoloskyp Publishers, 1977), p. 163. 88. G2W, VI, 11, 1978, p. 20f,, especially p. 35. -89. Michael Rowe, “Pentecostal Documents from the USSR,” RCL, January- June 1975, pp. 16-18. a me ene p. 54, . BV, 3/68, p. 15. See translation and analysis of Karev’s i writer in MOR, L, 3, 1976, 230-39. ee 92. BV, 2/70, p. 74, 98. BV, 3/75, p. 68. gg It is necessary to fight for each young man and woman who comes under the influence of religion. The question of children is a question of the life and death of the church. —A. N. Puzin, Chairman Council for Affairs of Religious Cults ... After Golgotha, the resurrection begins. Atheism, so to speak, is the manure that has prepared the ground for this resurrection. This is its significance. —Dmitrii Dudko 11 Children and Youth: Competition Between Presbyter and Atheist In August 1976 twelve-year-old Oleg Korovin sent the following tele- gram to Prime Minister Kosygin: “I am afraid to go to school because, ac- cording to a court ruling, they are going to send me to a boarding school. I would like to live with my aunt Natasha and have her as my parental guardian. ! Oleg’s parents had died and the authorities did not wish his aunt, Natalia Korovina, a Christian, to become the guardian. Oleg stopped going to school and the authorities came to search for him, even opening up the bags of sawdust in the attic. Oleg was virtually in a state of shock. Fortu- nately in this instance, Natalia Korovina could report that in September the court decision was reversed and Oleg could remain in her home. To some extent Soviet atheists have given up trying to persuade older believers to become atheists, rather placing increased emphasis on training the children and young people. That includes trying to keep them from coming under systematic religious influence. One of the first acts of the So- viet state was to separate the churches from the schools and to deny the churches the right of religious instruction for children. Officially, parents have the right to communicate their beliefs to their children, although in practice this, too, has been challenged. During the past decade there has been an increasing emphasis