Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 7, No. 3, 2007

erans and Mennonites, but also preached in Polish, seeking to win Roman Catholic Poles who composed the greater majority of the population. Between 1860 and 1865 persecution against Alf and other Baptists was intense. Gottfried Liebert, early chronicler of the Baptist movement in Poland, claimed Alf suffered eighteen times from persecution, some life threatening, which included thirty-two o imprisonments and transport of 1,728 kilometers. Alf also faced mob assault. 7 For the career of Alf, see Albert W. Wardin, Jr, Gottfried F. Alf: Pioneer of the Baptist Movement in Poland (Brentwood, TN: Baptist History and Heritage Society, 2003). 8 Gottfried Liebert, Geschichte der Baptisten in Russisch-Polen (Hamburg: J G Oncken, c. 1874), p. 246. 38 Journal of European Baptist Studies Beginning in 1859 but flooding into the 1860s many of the early German Baptist converts in Poland travelled 500 miles eastward to Volhynia in Western Ukraine, primarily for greater economic opportunity but also for more settled political conditions and religious freedom. Alf made a number of trips to this region where, in May 1864, he led in establishing two of the earliest Baptist churches in Ukraine—one at Horczik and a second at Soroczin. Besides trips to Volhynia, he also travelled in 1883 to the Volga. 9 In 1883 Alf claimed he had baptized 3,685 people and probably more before his death in 1898. Alf was not only a revivalist and organiser of churches but also attracted coworkers. He conducted mission schools and established Sunday schools. In 1887 he became the first president of the Union of the Baptist Churches in Russia, a union of non-Russians, a post he held until his death. The Alf movement was an indigenous work, although it gained its doctrine and polity from the German Baptists as well as moral and emotional support. It also received funds from America, Germany and Great Britain for mission support and chapels. From Oncken’s appeal, the Bristo Place Baptist Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, which still exists, provided money for Alf’s support. In 1897 the Russian census noted about 4,000 Baptists in Congress Poland and 10,400 in Volhynia, most of whom were a result of the Alf movement. In the meantime many of the converts had already migrated to America, including Alf’s nephew, Martin Klemm, who was my great¬ grandfather, joining with other family members the German Baptist Conference (now North American Baptist Conference) in the USA. Baltic Provinces The Baptist Church in Memel not only extended its influence in East Prussia but also up the coast of the Baltic Sea in Russia. As a consequence, Baptist work was established in Latvia, Estonia and St. Petersburg. 10 By 1855 nine people, born in Courland (today part of Latvia) but of German descent, were members of the Memel Church. In 1855 the church baptized its first Latvian, Frizis Jekabsons (Jacobson), a young helmsman, who soon 9 A church was estab