Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ed “new” Baptists favoring conscientious objection, an alignment roughly identical with the more open Baptists, were in the majority. State in- terference finally enabled the “old” Baptists to gain the upper hand in the leadership.4 The Decision to Unite Considering the protracted struggle to unite Evangelical Christians and Baptists, the unity congress that took place in October 1944 appears de- ceptively placid. That was because all problematic issues had been settled in advance. By whom they were settled is not entirely clear. According to the published record, two Baptist spokesmen, N. A. Levindanto and M. L Goliaev, had formally requested the Evangelical Christian Union to look after their Baptist congregations. But Levindanto was in prison. Secret police officials visited him and another leading Baptist, F. G. Patkovskii, in the prison and informed them that churches would be reopened and that Baptist and Evangelical Christian congregations were to be united. Levin- danto and Patkovskii were to be released to help lead the unification. These men were only too glad to hear that churches would be opened again so they set about their part of the task immediately.* Who took the first initia- tive therefore remains shrouded in mystery. Perhaps Goliaev was following a suggestion from his father, the last Baptist president who died in Tashkent in 1942. Clearly there had been no possibility to obtain authorization from the church membership, but by 1942 war patriotism hinted at a potential role for the evangelicals. At least a number of former church officials were quick to respond positively to the apparent gestures of goodwill. Presumably they were in no position to bargain for legal protection or to resist measures that in the early 1920s they would have been unwilling to undertake. The state was not only rewarding good patriots for helping win the war; friendly gestures to the re- A New Evangelical Union 85 ligious bodies also helped the Soviet state war propaganda. The creation of the patriarchate and the establishment of an evangelical union improved the Soviet image in the Western world. In addition, both the Orthodox Church and the evangelical union now actively engaged in war propaganda through letters to their fellow believers abroad. Without doubt, their most important contribution was to assist in the pacification of the newly an- nexed border areas. One of the first acts at the unity congress was to send a telegram to Joseph Stalin, chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, in apprecia- tion for making possible the satisfaction of the religious needs of believers. On the second day of the congress a five-man delegation was sent to Polian- skii, chairman of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, to thank him for that council’s assistance in making the congress possible. All the reports on the congress maintained a positive tone. Clearly, no one dared.to resist even i