Colonel V. A. Pashkov and the Late Nineteenth-Century Protestant Movement in Russia, Jan M. Surer, 1999

ism, which aimed at Russia's transformation through the application of moral and religious principles",' 15 thus admits of significant qualification. Pashkov understood the teachings of his faith not to conflict with such institutions as private property and the landowner/peasant relationship, with the disparate wealth these institutions imply. To see if such an economically and politically conservative mentality prevailed in the Russian evangelical movement as a whole, we must turn to a discussion of the Stundists, Baptists, and other evangelicals. 45 Heier, p. viii. Chapter 5 Pashkovism and Peasant Sectarianism One immediate cause of the banishment of Pashkov and Korf from Russia in 1884 was the conference of evangelical sectarians they convened in April of that year in St. Petersburg. Representatives of various evangelical sects, including Stundists, Baptists, and Molokans, attended. Although all theological differences were not resolved, the conference's congenial atmosphere was an important first step towards the unity in Christian brotherhood that Pashkov longed to see. This conference and Pashkov's lifelong interest in the wider evangelical sectarian movement are indications of the common ground these movements shared. Despite some theological differences regarding the rite of baptism, for example, they all attached great importance to the Bible and had effectively broken with the practices of the Orthodox Church. They thereby expressed a religious protest, however reluctantly, against the established church. We have seen that in the socio-economic sphere, however, the leading Pashkovites' response to the central issue of economic inequity stood more in opposition to the revolutionaries' attack on private property than to the typical practices of their class. Did evangelical sectarianism as a whole adopt a similar social outlook? 60 61 Pashkovite peasants The preaching, visiting, and tract distribution of the aristocratic Pashkovites were the means of spreading their message among the lower classes and peasantry; converts returned to their villages to speak of their new religious interest with others. For example, by inviting others to gatherings in their homes, dispensing Pashkovite literature, and traveling to other villages, a few adherents in Tver managed to plant some form of Pashkovism in five districts of Tver province by the early 1890's. In these incidents recorded by D. I. Skvortsov, those influenced by Pashkovism included several who themselves lived in St. Petersburg for a time or had relatives who did so. 1 This small sample contained a wide social range, from an illiterate servant girl to a gymnasium-educated collegiate secretary. Visitors (not necessarily sympathizers) to the latter's gatherings included villagers, factory workers, meshchane . Jews, a teacher, and a church watchman. 2 As Heier has noted, converts from the lower classes tended to b