Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

was the bearer of orthodox Calvinism, and Wesleyan holiness, which was Arminian in its theology.’ !° Russian Baptists and Evangelical Chris- -tians were strongly influenced by the holiness movement as it crystallized in annual conventions in Keswick, England, beginning in 1875. American Keswick teachers like D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, and A. B. Simpson were the direct and indirect teachers of Russian evangelicals. !! The reader will find little about the Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, about the Molokany and Dukhobory, or even about the German Lutherans or Catholics; All deserve their due attention which proved impossible here. In any case only the Adventists and German-speaking Lutherans and Catholics have enough in common with the groups treated to be labeled evangelicals. Regrettably, information on them is extremely limited. The Adventists experienced a split in 1924 when they, too, were forced to issue a loyalty statement. Those who refused, the so-called Reform Adventists, still exist today under the able leadership of Vladimir Sholkov. Since 1976 Ad- ventist Samizdat has become available in the West. In 1979 state authorities tried to crush them with special severity by sentencing 83-year-old Sholkov to five years. He died in a prison camp in Yakutia on January 27, 1980.1? The registered Adventists are in the process of forming an officially ap- proved union of their churches. . Trained as a historian; I have sought to apply accepted rules of ob- jectivity in my research. It is of course impossible to write without bias, but it may help the reader if the author's values are stated explicitly. Our under- 18 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War ll standing of the Soviet religious situation suffers from ignorance. There is a language barrier, true, but a greater barrier has been the withholding of in- formation from each other for fear the other would not understand, would condemn, or would put one in danger. This book is written in the first place for Christians who will not forget their fraternal responsibilities. When the Apostle Paul described his own work he declared that “we put aside all secret and shameful deeds; we do not act with deceit, nor do we falsify the word of God. In the full light of truth we live in God’s sight and try to com- mend ourselves to everyone's good conscience” (2 Corinthians 4:2, GNB). Applied to Soviet evangelical history, this meant for me that by simply lay- ing out the facts for all to see, I might in the long run contribute to strengthening the Soviet evangelical movement and to enabling Western believers to identify with their fellows in the Soviet Union. That has meant discussing many painful issues, yet never feeling completely certain that my treatment was fair in every case. Because the amount of information was often massive, it proved to be difficult to make a fair selection. Perhaps the book will stimulate discussion