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

zhe istinnyi natsionalizm? (Posvyashchaetsia pamyati Vladimira Seergevicha Solov'eva)," Vo prosy filosofyi i psikhologii , XII, no. 59, pp. 507-09, as quoted in R. Pipes, Struve. Liberal on the Left. 1870-1905 . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970, p. 302. 24 On conservative opposition to the "strife" of representative government, see Pipes, p. 126. Chapter 7 Conclusion In the window of opportunity between 1905 and 1917, there were signs that the evangelical movement was continuing to grow, even to flourish. From 1907 the remnant of aristocratic Pashkovism in St. Petersburg was under the leadership of I. S. Prokhanov, 1 a Westinghouse engineer and thus a fitting symbol of the changing times. Both Baptist and Evangelical publishing and missionary efforts-multiplied; churches grew in number and size. 2 Continuing government opposition after 1905, in the form of new regulations for conferences (1910) and instances of church closings and fines, for example, was a sign of their success. 3 World War I worsened the sectarians' position, for charges of disloyalty, pacifism, and foreign influence were easily, albeit falsely, made. 4 The revolutionary year of 1917 and the uncertainty that followed gave them increased opportunities for action. Yet the Bolshevik government did not long tolerate this new religious manifestation, and the 1 Blane, p. 290. 2 For instances of these, see Blane, pp. 288-91. 3 Blane, pp. 293-98. Blane estimates that the Protestant sectarians' numbers doubled between 1905 and 1910. They still "represented but a fraction of one per cent of the total population in the Russian Empire" (p. 294). He cites Klibanov's figure of 200,000 in 1917 (p. 303 and note 166). 4 Blane, pp. 299-303. 86 87 sectarians soon found themselves' in all too familiar circumstances. Despite the persecutions of both the tsarist and Soviet governments, the spiritual descendants of the nineteenth- century evangelical sectarians can be found today in the nations of the former Soviet Union. 5 They have inherited not only the religious faith of their predecessors; many of the issues they and their nations face remain essentially unchanged from those met in the encounter of evangelical sectarianism with the Russia of the nineteenth century. What economic structure is best for society? How far does the right of private property extend? How should one regard an autocratic government? Can religious freedom be granted in an Orthodox nation? These questions for modern Russia parallel the issues investigated in this work. The Pashkovites and their fellow-believers addressed these issues in a way that differed from the radical revolutionaries on the one hand and the conservative government on the other. The Pashkovite movement arose during a time when much social thought was directed toward the achievement of equality. Existing economic relations within society were seen as ob