Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

. H. Rushbrooke in London.*! In forwarding a copy to Dr. Walter Lewis, his colleague in Wash- ington, Rushbrooke drew attention to the fact that both signatories, Zhidkov and Karev, were Evangelical Christians and expressed doubts about “gate-crashing” Evangelical Christians taking over the Baptists, not- ing further that they had heard from no Baptists so far. A few weeks later in another letter to Lewis, Rushbrooke expressed doubt that the Baptists “as a union” had assented to unification. At the end of March 1945 Rushbrooke 92 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II again shared his doubts with Lewis, since they still had no word directly from anyone connected with the former Baptist Union. He also wondered “if Goliaev really represents his brethren.”5? Walter Lewis was soon to be- come even more skeptical and remarked in a letter of May 81, 1945, that “I am not sure that the Baptists are getting a fair deal in the new organiza- tion. 53 Further, he felt “that the Russian Government is using this organi- zation for propaganda purposes.’’>4 Both men, however, tried hard to renew contacts with Moscow, with Rushbrooke offering Baptist World Alliance assistance “to help our brothers and sisters through the period of emergency.’ ’55 The Union Expands: Pentecostals With the creation of the new Union of Evangelical Christians and Baptists, Soviet evangelicals entered upon a three-year era of growth and unity. Less than a year later, in August 1945, delegations of Pentecostals, Baptists, and Evangelical Christians from Estonia, Latvia, and Belorussia: met with the All-Union Council in Moscow. Each delegation met with the council separately while the others toured Moscow. The official report stressed that all decisions were reached unanimously and the end result was that Pentecostals in the entire Soviet Union, plus Baptists and Evangelical Christians in the Baltic countries, joined the All-Union Council. At a recep- tion given by L. V. Polianskii of the Council for Affairs of Religious Cults for the Pentecostal and Latvian Baptist delegations, the delegations thanked Polianskii for enabling the delegation to travel to the conference and for housing and feeding them during the entire period.5¢ Without ques- tion the union of 1944 was much more a voluntary union when compared with those who found it necessary to join in 1945. In their relatively short history Pentecostals had grown rapidly, often at the expense of other evangelicals.’ They too were forced to issue a loyalty declaration to the state in 1927, but that did not prevent the severe decimation of their leadership a few years later. Voronaev, leader of one wing of the Pentecostals with its center in the southern Ukraine, was ar- rested, Then the authorities released a statement that he had recanted his faith, which was an exaggeration. They finally freed him in 1935 but rear- rested him shortly thereafter, and he did