Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

4, pp. 61-62. (The text of a program by Radio Moscow in reply to listeners’ questions from Brazil about freedom of religion in the Soviet Union.) 37. An estimate based on extrapolations from local detailed statistics suggests a total of 181,889 members in 2,515 congregations, 38. See below, Chap. 5, for an extended treatment. 39. V. F. Krest’ianinov, Mennonity (Moscow, 1967), p. 177f. 41. To counter this trend, state officials in the late fifties introduced a patriotic marriage ritual in special wedding palaces (cf. Feron, pp. 14-15). 42. See for example BV, 5/47, celebrating the Sth anniversary of the Evangel- ical Baptist movement and 6/47 celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. 48. Our Hope (New York, 1978), pp. 31-33. 44. BV, 1/53, p. 40. In Moscow 350 persons were baptized during the first six months of 195] (p. 14). 45. Ibid., p. 40; cf. 5/48, pp. 25-28; 5/48, p. 4, 46. On living na levo see Chap. 3 in Hedrick Smith, The Russians (New York: Times Books, 1976); cf. Gregory Grossman, “The ‘Second Economy’ of the USSR,” Problems of Communism, XXVI (September-October, 1977), 25-41. The “second Te ae Renewal and Church Growth, 1944-1957 77 economy” refers to all financial transactions of ffici i ‘ ‘ may represent near hei ro ans S of an unofficial or illegal character and of BV, 5/48, p. 4, 48. Soviet evangelicals appear to have been influenced b the Orth Theology of Tears, Wilhelm Kahle, “Die Tranen der Frommen i dee Gi gegnung: ma eine Oe eae in Andrew Blane, ed., The cat Word of Orthodox Civi ization, Vol. II J ry (T Hues Maine ) of Russia and Orthodoxy (The The “marriage” did not take place because both partners wanted to be the man... —Kahle, p. 208 3 A New Evangelical Union: The Tangled Unity Thread In wartime conditions 45 delegates (seven of them women) met on October 26, 1944, in the Moscow Evangelical Christian Church to hold a unity congress. Congress delegates had traveled to Moscow in military transports, hotel accommodation and food was provided by the state, and without question the state ensured that the congress would make the proper decisions. Nevertheless, participants later recalled the moment with exulta- tion. When the crucial vote was taken and the chairman announced that unification was a unanimous decision, leading Baptists and Evangelical Christians embraced. Many wept openly with joy and broke forth into songs and prayers of thanksgiving. What God working through stubborn Christians had been unable to do, God working through Stalin had finally achieved—the wonder of unity. The Long Search for Unity Significant unification efforts began only after the revolution of 1905. Several new edicts began to permit the evangelical groupings a legal existence, Both Baptists and Evangelical Christians introduced statements of faith for submission to the authorities.! Concern