Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

or ordained. Only some of these had graduated from the Bible correspondence course, but at least more of the new local leaders had secondary education. By 1979 half of all the senior presbyters and their assistants had completed the Bible correspondence course. Bychkov attempt a brief assessment of the Bible correspondence course. By 1979 a total of 272 workers had graduated. That indicated that a significant number failed to complete the course. In 1979, for example, ten persons failed the exams and four others did not take the exams due to ill- ness. Bychkov also reported that during the previous five years eight persons had to be eliminated for various reasons. Another problem was that it was a strenuous course of studies with eleven subjects to master and Bychkov urged possible candidates to keep this in mind. Another problem that would be a factor in accepting future students was that “not all graduates of the Bible correspondence course show a readiness to work New Frontiers After 1974 425 where they are especially needed.” The leadership could report little about the proposed theological seminary except to say that the “question remains in a status of positive consideration.” A few select students were studying abroad, and in future, the presidium had decided, only those candidates who demonstrated adequate knowledge of the necessary foreign language would be sent. Higher educational standards applied also to candidates for the correspondence course. Delegates in 1974 had clamored for more literature and, in this area also, Bychkov had achievements to report. A year earlier they had been able to import 25,000 Bibles and 5,000 concordances, the first official imporia- tion since 1945. A day before the congress opened, several of the Moscow staff arrived with a truckload of Bibles, bringing 20,000 large-size Bibles from Leningrad where they had been printed. Bychkov indicated that more Bibles were in the publication plans for the immediate future. They had also managed to print songbooks and other literature. Their journal, Bratskii Vestnik, of which they had printed only 6,000 copies before 1974, had been increased step by step to 10,000 copies per issue. Bratskii Vestnik has appeared every other month with only a few inter- ruptions since 1945. It is invariably eighty pages in length, but its format has changed somewhat over the years. It has to serve all the didactic and communicative functions, Issue No. 5 for 1979 is typical. After the usual let- ter of greeting from the presidium (this time to mark Unity Day), pages 5- 34 were devoted to “Spiritual Articles.” These included continued chapters of short exegetical commentary on the Gospel of Mark, the letter to the Hebrews, and the Acts of the Apostles, written by O. A. Tiark, A. M. Bychkov, and P. K. Shatrov respectively. A second section entitled ‘‘Chris- tian Unity” reported on the European Baptist Congress held in Brighton, Englan