Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ish the quantity of Bibles, New Testa- ments and hymnbooks needed by ce ACRE eas That statement is in- ible and must be regarded as less than candid. a ao Hac Konere May-June 1947), P 40. A letter in Der Bote, Sep- tember 1957, from the Soviet Union complained that no Bibles had yet arrived. “If it would help, I would cry my heart out (ich weinte mich satt). _ Even in 1960 a Mennonite delegation reported that “Bibles, ao and Bibles again is the heart cry i "(MCC files, Akron, Pa., USA). m eee 4 rapes p. 10; cf. BV, 1/48, where Zhidkov noted that “in certain congregations the leaders are sisters, especially wise and experienced and developed in spiritual ae © 7). . BV, 1/46, p. 84. fs * ; ‘ This ies ond the ones following are based on systematic interviews with recent Soviet German emigrants to West Germany which I have conducted since 1974, a eae th . Virginia Classen, Peter Neufeld, & Vern Q. Preheim, “Glimpses of the Minuet 1848-1947,” unpublished research paper based on analysis of ny ey ye Renewal and Church Growth, 1944-1957 15 letters in Der Bote, Bethel College, February 1957, p. B8. 10. BV, 1/48, p. 7. 11. BV, 5/48, pp. 32-37, 12. Pravda, ity 1, 1944. For an extended history and analysis see this writer’s “Religious Administration and Modernization,” in Dennis Dunn, ed., Religion and Modernization in the Soviet Union (Boulder, Colo, : Westview Press, 1978), pp. 60- 104; cf. Luchterhandt, Der Sowjetstaat, pp. 212-239, 13. Bohdan R, Bociurkiw, “Chante (January 1968), p. 21, 14. A. Kolosov, “Religiia i tserkov v SSSR,” Bolshaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia (Moscow, 1947), p. 1788. Luchterhandt (pp. 102-104) cites an article by Bonch- Bruevich printed 1959 which he believes to be a verbatim rendering of the council’s statute. It differs from Kolosov only in that the latter summarizes the work of both councils whereas the statute cited refers to the Council for Russian Orthodox Church Affairs, 15. Walter Sawatsky, “Secret Soviet Lawbook on Religion,” RCL, IV, 4 (Winter 1976), pp. 24-34. This includes an English translation of the statute. An ed copy of the lawbook in German translation with commentary by Luchterhandt is: Die Rel; ionsgesetagebung der Sowjetunion (Berlin Verlag, 1978). 16. For the text of the letter and an up-to-date analysis of its significance, see 1929, and the official Instructions (or interpretation) of October 1, 1929, is available, for example, in William B, Stroyen, Communist Russia and the Russian Orthodox 18. The Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults (CARC), which had been created in 1944, had to be staffed by reload. and local plenipotentiaries, Given the shortage in manpower and the obvious low priorit assigned to religion, CARC must have taken some years to develop its authority ani efficiency. 20. BV, 1/47, p. 18; 5/47, p. 12; 1/48, p.7. 21. A detailed comparison of all artial statistical data (e.g., actual figures given for congregations