Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

success. But at least there is promise of better quality propaganda for the fu- ture. For church-state relations as they affect the AUCECB there is hope that differences can in future be dealt with in open discussions as Alexei Bychkov affirmed in his recent congress report. For the Reform Baptists the next decade portends renewed pressures and continued polarization between church and state officials. The Khrushchev campaign was very costly for the evangelicals. Not only were there fines, beatings, meetings broken up by the authorities, closed churches, and imprisoned leaders, the authorities managed to utilize AUCECB leaders to suppress the evangelical activities of their own members. The letter of instruction to senior presbyters sent out in 1960 precipitated a major split that appears to have divided evangelicals perma- nently. With this letter and through certain subsequent actions, the leadership became compromised in the eyes of the membership. Reformers tried to excommunicate the leaders, thereby reducing excommunication (which should be a loving corrective) to a weapon of power. But the Khrushchev campaign also represented a promise of renewal. As a result of it there was considerable self-purging in evangelical ranks, As the evangel- 468 | Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II icals enter the eighties, both registered and unregistered evangelicals are now more nearly Bible-oriented than they were before the campaign began. They are also more aware of their legal rights so that now not only the reformers but even AUCECB spokesmen are speaking more frankly. The Reform Baptist dissent has made a major impact. Support for them peaked in 1966, when they had about 155,000 adherents. At present their leaders claim 2,000 congregations with 100,000 members. If that isa generous estimate as some claim, then their achievements in publication activity are even more impressive. When the leaders were arrested new preachers stepped into the gap, with the result that this growth in the leadership cadres helped to foster the starting of new churches. Often churches started in the new places of exile. The Reformers provided a grow- ing list of heroes of the faith which has stimulated the faith of many throughout the world. This aspect of their witness remains especially ap- pealing to young people—to confess a faith worth going to prison for. The impact on the AUCECB was more than a temporary loss of membership and an embarrassed leadership. The story of how their union was defended is the story of how a resolute membership gradually forced its powerless leadership to reform the church. By 1966 the union had finally become congregational in polity and successive congresses have continued this trend. At the 1979 congress the leaders were obviously at the mercy of the delegates, who wanted clear indication that their leaders were carrying out delegate wishes. The story of