Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

f the official statements might not have been wholeheartedly en- dorsed by everyone. ; The 1944 unity congress remains to the present day somewhat of a mystery and a point of controversy. Summaries of the activities including verbatim rendering of major decisions were printed in the first issue of Brat- skti Vestnik that began appearing in 1945. The congress itself is openly presented, but it is the preparations for the congress and the decisions which had obviously been taken by a smaller group earlier that have never been discussed openly. The second issue of Bratskii Vestnik reads like a concerted attempt to try to prove the authority of the unity congress, An opening article, unsigned, developed six arguments to prove the authority of the congress: (1) The decisions on unity were based on the commands and prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) The congress simply confirmed what had been agreed upon at earlier congresses. (3) The persons gathered at the congress were the oldest and most experienced workers at present from both denominations. In this connection the writer noted that all 45 members of the congress were already members of churches before 1917 and then listed those persons participating in a succession of unity conferences who were also present in 1944. (4) All the decisions were unani- mous. (5) The conference received greetings and expressions of good wishes from Drs. Rushbrooke and Lewis of the Baptist World Alliance and Dr. Johnson from the Evangelical Christians in America. (6) The authority of the conference also rested on the fact that the central state organ, Izvestiia, printed a brief report about it on November 10. These arguments, quite ob- viously, were needed to offset the fundamental weakness of the congress, 86 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il namely, that the participants were not elected representatives of congrega- tions or regional unions. This violated the fundamental congregational prin- ciple of both unions, although it was in keeping with new state policy toward religion which favored negotiations with a centralized leadership.” The 1944 congress simply approved what had been agreed upon in 1942. ‘There exists a curious letter in translation in the Washington office of the Baptist World Alliance that helps both to illuminate and to obscure what happened. Addressed to Dr. J. H. Rushbrooke, president, and signed by Jacob Zhidkov and Alexander Karev, the opening sentence reads: We are sending you a second answer to your letter of January 24, 1942.”27 This second letter, dated February 12, 1948, finally arrived in London February 16, 1944, fully a year later! The letter informed Rushbrooke about the crea- tion of a union of Evangelical Christians and Baptists and with its executive organ the All-Union Council domiciled in Moscow. Zhidkov reported that five persons from the Evangelical Christians and five from the Baptists had been