Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

7 and to declare that Pentecostals objecting to military service were putting a blot on the relations between the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) and the Soviet state. The statement noted further that refusal to serve in the Red Army could be based neither on the confession of faith of the Pentecostals nor on the gospels.> Of all the evangelicals, only the Mennonites did not submit a declara- tion of loyalty to the Soviet state.®> Mennonites had had the longest tradi- tion of pacifism, having rejected military service under tsarist and Soviet regimes alike. Their only lapse (which the Soviets have never forgotten) was a L4-year period during the Civil War when a Self-Defense League was formed and weapons were used against anarchist bands.* Soon the error of this decision was recognized and the membership once again listened to - those preachers calling for an unequivocal stand in favor of pacifism. Even if no official renunciation of pacifism was forced from the Mennonites, after 1929 it no longer mattered. After 1929 the arrest of ministers, closure of churches, or the direct threat of arrest forced nearly all eligible Mennonites to accept military service. Forcing Mennonites to serve in the army was the pivotal factor in breaking the Mennonite church, according to one prominent Soviet so- ciologist. Since pacifism had almost come to be a talisman to distinguish Mennonites from other evangelicals, forcing them into submission on this matter broke the hold that the Mennonite religion had over its people. That claim, however, contained some wishful optimism, since Soviet writ- ings of the 1960s still complained that Mennonite preachers were discourag- ing young people from doing their duty in the army. Soviet writers com- plained that their theology of love undermined the class struggle.*” Even if anti-pacifist declarations were wrung from the evangelicals, grass-roots sentiment was not as easily eliminated. Following the war, the AUCEGB has consciously attempted to rewrite its history by passing over. its pacifist period in silence. Zhidkov cited Prokhanov as a supporter of military service and claimed that he had remarked: Examine the history of religious movements and you will see that those religious movements which in their time had dynamism, like the Quakers and Mennonites, died out, thanks to the fact that they followed the narrow teaching of nonresistance. But in contrast such mighty re- Preaching and Peace 119 pene movements as the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others ad a healthy view of the relationship to government; they grew and they have a full potential for growth in the future also.58 To further buttress their position, the AUCECB noted that the pacifist posi- tion rested on three Scripture passages: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 26:51-52: Matthew 5:39 and 44, But all three passages, the official AUCECB states ment claimed, are “concerned