Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ontinuing concern of the Baptist World Alliance for the state of religious liberty in the Soviet Union. In the spring of 1946 Walter Lewis was quoted in the Religious News Service saying that Soviets were turning Bibles into pulp in. Estonia and closing Baptist seminaries in the Baltic states. Rushbrooke shared these concerns but did point out to Lewis that “this is the first direct attack on the Soviet govern- ment by a leading Baptist.” Perhaps this hindered a trip N. A. Levindanto and A. V, Karev had hoped to make to Britain, In any case, the AUCECB broke off all contacts when it refused to attend the Baptist World Alliance Congress in Copenhagen in the summer of 1947.8 There were virtually no contacts till 1954. In 1952, Carney Hargroves, then a Baptist pastor in Philadelphia (later elected president of the BWA), visited and a few letters were exchanged with Walter Lewis on the subject of peace. Finally, through participation in peace conferences in Sweden sponsored by the Quakers, R. Townley Lord and other British Baptists ob- tained an invitation to visit the Soviet Union in June 1954. The invitation stated that the purpose of the visit was “to have personal fellowship with us. ® Bratskii Vestnik also quoted Townley Lord as stating that “we found that Baptists here have full freedom of religious confession and equal rights among the other churches.””!° This technique of quoting foreign churchmen professing to find religious liberty in the Soviet Union became a permanent point of anxiety for the foreign visitors. Some hoped that such positive re- 362 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il marks would be rewarded by some easing of the pressure on Soviet believ- ers; others were misquoted (without the chance of rejoinder); while some foreign leaders made thoughtless remarks due to ignorance. The Baptist World Alliance Congress in London in 1955 became the first serious test of the new relationship. Soviet Baptists had exerted strong pressure for BWA leaders to attend the World Peace Council in Helsinki, which would help persuade Soviet authorities to permit a Soviet Baptist delegation to come to London for the congress.!! The one observer that was sent appeared to be sufficient so that eight delegates and two translators ap- peared in London.” The Russians were treated as full members of the BWA and were elected to various committees. Jacob Zhidkov was elected one of eleven vice-presidents. The next major test consisted of two separate but nearly simultaneous visits to the Soviet Union’s chief opponent in the Cold War, the United States of America. Robert Denny, then youth secretary and soon to become general secretary, handled the detailed planning which involved some risks to the American Baptist reputation, since public opinion was strong