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

Petersburg and who later joined the Evangelical Christians. Two others were Vasilii G. Pavlov (1854-1924) and Vasilii V. Ivanov (1846-1919), Molokans who were baptized in 1871. Both Kargel and Pavlov studied with Oncken in Hamburg. Conclusion In spite of persecution, particularly of the Ukrainian and Russian Baptists, Baptists continued to grow. In the 1870s Slavic Baptists in Ukraine and Caucasus found each other. They corresponded, and Pavlov himself visited the Ukrainian brethren. In 1884, under the leadership of Johann Wider, the brother of Gerhard Wider, delegates formed the Russian Baptist Union. Three years later in 1887 the German Baptists in the Empire withdrew from the Baptist Union of Germany and formed the Union of Baptist Churches in Russia, incorporating not only German Baptists in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic area but also non-German Latvians and Estonians. In 1879 the Russian regime granted legal recognition to the German Baptists. On the other hand, beginning in the 1880s, the Slavic Stundists/Baptists experienced intense persecution for about twenty years. Finally in 1905 the czar granted toleration to all dissidents. In 1902 the German Union in Russia reported, in spite of heavy emigration, around 22,000 members. 32 At the European Baptist Congress in Berlin in 1908, Pavlov estimated that the Russian Baptist Union numbered 20,000. 33 In addition, a separate Evangelical Christian movement under Ivan S. Prokhanov (1869-1935) was emerging. Although the figures are not spectacular, they were a basis for significant growth in later years. It is remarkable how Baptists, without any grand strategy, appeared in such a comparatively short time in so many widely separated areas. 31 For the beginnings of the Kalweit and Voronin groups, see Baptist Missionary Magazine, January, 1870, pp. 20-21; Istoriya Evangel’skikh Khristian-Baptistov v SSSR (Moscow: All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, 1989), pp. 74-76; ‘Shesidesyatiletie, 1867-1927’, Baptist, 1927, no. 5, pp. 13-14; and Bratskii vestnik, 1957, no. 3,p. 28. 32 Baptist Missionary Magazine, April 1903, p. 126. 33 European Baptist Congress, Proceedings, 1908, p. 159. Penetration of the Baptists into the Russian Empire of the Nineteenth Century 47 What were the factors for their successful penetration? Some would argue that Baptists came ‘in the fullness of time’—the times were right socially, religiously, and politically. One might also point to the great value of the German bridge into the Russian Empire, and it was. In addition, a number of unforeseen circumstances, whether coincidental or providential, are startling. Although all the above factors played a role, at the same time a new movement should have vision, passion, leadership and something significant to offer the population. Baptists had all these features going for them. The movement began and continued with prayer. Passion for the lost was uppermos