Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

zation, on other occasions hostile complaints by isolated members of the Old Church launched official investigations. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was 57 another area of Brethren contact. It involved their liaison with the Blankenburg Allianz Conference, the European counterpart to the English Darbyites or Plymouth Brethren. The Conference, founded in 1885, sponsored annual sessions in Germany which attracted international participation. Several personalities associated with the conference were to have a profound effect upon the Mennonite Brethren in Russia. These included F.W. Baedeker, Ernst F. Stroeter, F.B. Meyers, Otto Stockmayer and General von Viehbahn. Their influence was spread via one- or two-week Bible conferences in various Mennonite communities or through special lectures often sponsored by the estate owner David Dick at Apanlee. 11 The impact of their writings was possibly even more decisive. Two periodicals, Botschafter des Heils in Christo (Messenger of Salvation in Christ) and professor Stroeter's Das Prophetische Wort (The Prophetic Word), provided both Brethren and Old Church ministers with sermon material. On a more popular level their devotional calendar Botschafter des Friedens (Messenger of Peace) and the Elberfelder Bible translation circulated rather widely. What effect did the Blankenburg Conference have on the Brethren? In some ways it marked the final stage of foreign influence on the development of Brethren piety. From the very inception of the movement pietistic and Baptist literature had been disseminated by Mennonite booksellers and through the mail. Since it was mainly devotional in character it enhanced the Brethren inclination towards the inner life. Decades of casual Baptist contact did not threaten the Brethren understanding of what it meant to be the people of God on the Russian steppes. Similarly Blankenburg theology with its concern for holy living, the inner life and the communion of the saints was generally affirming for the Brethren. There were other views which, while commendable, possibly generated some discomfort among the Brethren. Blankenburg emphasized interdenominational fellow- ship by arguing that external forms and denominational creedalism mattered little. There were only two ordinances uniting all the true followers of Jesus: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Though they practiced immersion baptism, Blankenburg advocates did not make the baptismal mode a condition of membership. Similarly its communion celebrations were open to all true believers. The Blankenburg Allianz Conference, deeply rooted in its culture, readily identified with German nationalism and even militarism. It was a trifle ironic that Blankenburg's intensification of Mennonite piety, especially among the 58 Brethren, also diluted the commitment to nonresistence. In later years some leaders attributed the widespread support of the Selbstschutz du