note: a beautiful 'primer' on how a Godly church functions as one openly, yet wisely bearing witness to Jesus Christ before and in the midst of a hostile world.
9 siberia is the forbidding land of eternal winter and prison camps. it is also the 4000 mile wide scenic frontier of the U.S.S.R. where today 40 million people are developing the world's richest natural resources. located east of the ural moutain range, siberia encompasses more than 60% of the soviet union.
barnaul (pronounced bar-na-ool), the scene of this book, is one of siberia's important industrial centers, with a population nearing half a million. it is the capital of the Altai region, located roughly a 1000 miles east of the urals, 2000 miles west of the pacific and 125 miles south of novosibirsk, siberia's largest and leading city.
during its long and tortured history, siberia has become synonymous with suffering. most recently, aleksandr solzhenitsyn, in his book The Gulag Archipelago, has documented the existence of stalin's sinister chain of prison camps stretched from european russia across siberia.
through its persecuted past and even to the present,
10 christian prisoners, exiles and immigrants have carried their faith to remote siberia. the blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the church. siberian churches have not only survived, but todya they are vigorous and vibrant.
a part of the story of the church in siberia is told in this book through the experiences of one congregation.
12 the christian assured us that their life in barnaul was not unique-not just an isolated instance. 'the same events were happening in churches across the country', they told us, 'and they are still happening...
as part of the Body of Christ, christians in russia long for communication and unity with other members of the Body - including the Church outside of russia from which they are severed by the iron Curtain. in their 'appeal to all christians of the world', the barnaul christians wrote, 'we believe that our sufferings are your sufferings, for whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. I corinthians 12.26
13 the barnaul christians believe their suffering has been a part of God's plan - a chapter in church history not yet completed:
'beloved, today we, as children of the covenant and prophets, continue the last pages of the Bible; today we ourselves inscribe and conclude the history of the Church of Christ on earth. we conclude the construction of the mystery hidden from eternity in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. ephesians 3.9
the barnau christian urge other churches to also record their history;
'as we read the precious verses of the Book of Books, the law and revelation of god to men, we find that already in very ancient times and later in the life of the people of israel various books and stories, records and letters, were written (II chronicles 32.32; joshua 10.13; nehemiah 7.5). we notice that for this purpose there were special historians and scribes. II kings 18.37
also, both the new testament and the Good News of salvation and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ were given to the world through simple, modest galilean residents and fishermen whom god made evangelists and recorders. their writings until now have served as inexhaustible food for the hearts and minds of millions who have sought and found Christ. books written over a period of almost 2000 years of the history of the Church of Christ under the inspiration of the word of god of the old and New Testaments have constituted the greatest part of the unexplored treasure of human thought...
our wish before the lord today is that He will call from our midst and our times such scribes and recorders as in ancient days and in the period of the founding and confirming
14 of the church when the new testament was written by blood (ephesians 4.12; romans 16.22; luke 1.1-3). in this way, many people in our day also may read and learn of all the wonderful deeds of our Lord, who yesterday, today and forever is the same. hebrews 13.8
thus dear brothers and sisters, we appeal to those of you who have still not begun to write all the events taking place in your lives and to whom god has revealed the importance of describing his glorious works in your churches. take your pen and begin to write and describe everything as your life and service passes by.
15 the baptist church in barnaul described here is an unregistered church - the kind often referred to as 'underground' in the West, although the russian believers themselves do not use this term. the barnaul christians have repeatedly requested permission from government officials to register openly as a recognized church with rights they feel are granted y the Soviet constitution, which guaranties 'freedom of religious worship' in article 124.
many baptist, evangelical christian, pentecostal and mennonite churches in the USSR (approximately 5000) of them) have received permission from the soviet government to register officially under the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUCECB), organized in 1944.
the barnaul congregation described here originally belonged to the AUCECB. through circumstances explained in this book, many of the members joined a reform movement organized in the early 60s when a group of baptist ministers under the leadership of aleksei f. prokofev and gennadii kriuchkov, later joined by georgii vins, formed the Initsiativnaia gruppa, an action group for the calling of a national baptist congress. by organizing a congress and electing new leadership, the action group hoped to bring about certain reforms within the AUCECB.
when this failed, the reformers organized their own orgkomitet (governing body).
16 eventually, they organized a separate union of unregistered churches - the CCECB (Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists). the barnaul congregation described in this book belongs to the CCECB.
in depicting the persecution of the unregistered barnaul CCECB congregation, we in no way mean to imply that only christians from unregistered churches live righteously in soviet society or suffer educational, economic, psychological and social pressures and in some instances, even imprisonment.
(foot -it should be noted that 99% of russian christians are not in prison. presently in the soviet union there are an estimated 100,000 political prisoners, among whom religious believers (Orthodox, catholics, jews, muslims and protestants) are included. it is impossible to estimate how many of these 100,000 are in prison because of their religious convictions..) registered churches are also experiencing surging spiritual vitality, especially in the ukraine.
the distinction between the two groups is not always clear. many russian believers participate in both registered and unregistered congregations in the same city. some baptist churches which have not been able to obtain official registration still consider themselves affiliated with the AUCECB. also, a few congregations previously associated with the CCECB have now been allowed to register independently.
in any case, both registered and unregistered churches face difficulties in an avowedly atheistic soviet society, although the degree of persecution varies from place to place...
17 the severe persecution of the barnaul church does not make it possible to generalize that all christians in the soviet union are treated identically. the soviet government has seemed particularly hostile to the barnaul CCECB congregation, which besides being unregistered has also boldly insisted on civil rights for religious persons. further, the barnaul congregation contained many german-russians - an ethnic group that the soviets have discriminated against since world war II.
there is one final point the russian christians would want us to convey: they are not spiritual supermen. they are ordinary people who become discouraged by the deprivations and tribulations of having to live in a militantly atheistic society. however, they believe that god is King of the universe and that He has not erred in allowing their church to be purged and purified for a more powerful witness. significantly, christians in the city of barnaul have seen the Holy spirit regenerate many people educated as atheists.
they would say that the secret of spiritual triumph lies in God's supernatural grace, which 'is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy'. jude 24
20 ...snow sprinkled the streets when the 20 believers from the city of barnaul, siberia, stepped off the train at moscow's yaroslavskii station on may 9, 1972.
21 the spring wind swirled cold and foreboding.
following the strategy they had planned and prayed over on the train, the christians - 14 adults and 6 children - broke into three groups. scouts were selected from each. they strolled casually among the pedestrians sprinkled along the well swept sidewalks of tchaikovsky street, passed the american embassy and cautiously surveyed the territory beyond the spiked iron fence enclosing the big building. they knew that, legally, soviet citizens are permitted to enter the embassy. but they also knew that, in reality, entry was forbidden. ivan y, an unobtrusive man, was chosen to stand at a distance from the three groups and observe. he would return home to report to the believers in barnaul in case all the others were arrested.
at two-thirty that afternoon the three groups gathered inconspicuously in a nearby park and prayed together. then everyone walked back toward the embassy. the american flag beckoned from the front of the building. formidable russian policemen sternly guarded the three arched entryways leading from the sidewalk into the embassy courtyard. if only they could dash past the police, if somehow they could gain the few feet from the sidewalk past the iron gate and into the courtyard, the siberians knew they would be safe inside american territory. their story would be heard.
at a sign from one of the men, the christians suddenly surged toward the arch. viktor grasped polina and liuba by the hand. 'i shut my eyes and shoved through the archway, viktor recalls. 'the russian policeman grabbed my friend vasilii, who was in front of me, his child in his arms and knocked him to his knees. but he clung to the child and struggled through the entrance.
'at that moment someone shoved polina. she was
22 thrown toward the iron fence. miraculously, she was not hurt and to this day i think an angel put his hand between her head and the post.
'as the militsiia began to beat us, we did not strike back, but we started to shout, 'they're killing us, they're killing us! some of the americans came running from the embassy door to see what was happening. during the confusion we kept trying to push through the archway.
'i was knocked down and my shoe torn off. one of the militsiia picked it up and began to smash me over the head with it.
he beat me until i collapsed. in the meantime, one of the women managed to grab my daughters and yak them inside the archway.
4 of us didn't make it in. the militsiia and KGB plainclothesmen who had swiftly arrived on the scene dragged three of us men and a seven year old boy, pavlik, away from the sidewalk and drove us to a police station in a 'Blck Maria', the van for transporting prisoners.
on the way to the station, the prisoners were bombarded with questions. 'who are you? why did you do it? why did you disgrace our country?
and only two weeks before the American president nixon arrives in moscow! one of the militsiia sputtered, his face and gray uniform smudged from the scuffle.
when the questioners finally paused, viktor and the other christians tried to explain. they pulled photos and documents from their pockets - copies of unanswered letters and telegrams they had repeatedly sent to government officials in moscow, pleading that persecutions against christians in siberia be stopped.
a KGB plainclothesman snatched the folded paper from victor's hands. 'this is the end of you! he
23 snapped. 'you'll never see daylight again!
with police linked tightly like a chain around them, the christians were escorted from the 'black maria' into the police station, inside was an uproar. viktor overheard one policeman inform another, 'there are only 19 of them, but maybe they're part of a larger uprising.
a second man turned to viktor and demanded, 'where are the rest of your group - where are they hiding?
victor said nothing.
quickly the officers prepared protocols - papers describing the circumstances of arrest - and demanded that the tree men sign them. but the christians, who suspected from experience that the soviet police might add charges after the paper had been signed, refused.
then the police started to threaten. 'we know all about you. we have called the authorities in barnaul. we know how you hold illegal church meetings. you are agitating against soviet society. you are not fit to eat soviet bread!
pavlik, the seven year old, clung to viktor. his father, mother, younger brother and two sisters were inside the US embassy building. 'whose boy is this> said the interrogator, glaring at pavlik.
pavlik huddled closer to viktor. 'please, uncle, tell them I belong to you, he whispered.
viktor held pavlik close. 'of course you belong to me, and we belong to Jesus. Jesus will look after your mama and papa and all of us' viktor comforted the child.
by this time, it was almost midnight. the christians had eaten nothing since noon. viktor found a melted piece of chocolate wrapped in red foil inside his pocket and handed it to pavlik.
24 after midnight the police finally tired of the interrogation. they shoved the 3 men and pavlik into a cell usually reserved for drunks to sleep off their inebriation. a policeman was assigned to guard each of the 4 christians as they slept.
but the guards - startled at the sight of 3 men and a child being thrust into a cell for drunks - were curious. 'there must be another reason. it can't be just because you are VERUIUSHCHIE (note - the use of this precious word becomes more and more precious through the book.), a young guard said.
'i never met a christian before, another guard with bewildered blue eyes mumbled. 'i understand you christians pray. who do you go about this?
'well, we will show you, viktor smiled. to the astonishment of the guards, the 4 christians dropped to their knees on the cement floor by the prison bunks. they prayed for the guards and the authorities who had put them in prison. they asked god to comfort their families waiting anxiously back in barnaul. and they prayed for the 15 bothers and sisters who they hoped were safe inside the american embassy.
the guards stared. they agreed among themselves that they had never seen anything like it.
the next morning 2 of the police bought some sausage, bread and milk for their prisoners with money the christians provided. 'little pavlik mustn't go hungry', one of the guards said kindly as he passed the food through the bars.
that morning the interrogations resumed. KGB officials separated the 3 men and questioned them severely.
'do you realize that the whole world will know about this episode? viktor's interrogator raged. 'your children are inside the american embassy.
25 he struggled to speak calmly, 'you can help straighten out this whole matter, he said. 'i'll give you a telephone. you call your friends in the embassy. tell them to come out. they must tell the americans it was all a mistake! he was nearly pleading now.
'but it was not a mistake, viktor corrected quietly, hoping that perhaps one official might listen at last. viktor reminded the KGB officer about the documents that had been stripped from him the night before - the list of grievances that made life so intolerable for believers in baraul. 'such persecution of hones citizens is a disgrace to our country. our soviet laws are supposed to protect against such injustices.
the official was still listening, so viktor boldly went on. 'even Lenin said that everyone must be perfectly free to belong to whatever religion he pleases and also be free to preach his religion and change his religion
'and article 124 of the constitution says that the church in the USSR is separated from the state and the school from the church, viktor persisted.
'i am sure you know, comrade, that the soviet union subscribes to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights...
but before viktor could cite more legal support, the KGB officer interrupted. 'Konechno of course, soviet laws strictly uphold the rights of believers. so how is it you dare to allege that they don't? you are slandering soviet reality, the officer insisted illogically.
viktor answered wearily with a request. 'please release us and we will join our brothers and sisters at the american embassy. maybe the americans will understand. maybe if the americans plead our case, our own government leaders will listen.
26 the answer was no.
meanwhile, the 15 who had gotten safely inside the embassy were presenting their case. but however much the americans might have sympathized, they hesitated to intercede with soviet officials. they did, however, ask the russian government not to retaliate against the believers.
'of course they won't be punished, the russian official had assured the american attache. 'it is not a crime to enter your embassy. the citizens will be sent straight home to their own city - barnaul.
when the time came the next day for the transfer, the 15 siberians implored the americans to accompany them - at least as far as the bus.
but the authorities have promised to take you by bus to the train station, the americans, who had their own doubts, replied. 'there you will meet your 4 friends and return home. the police have promised not to harm you. reluctantly, the 15 filed through the embassy entrance they had entered with such hope the day before.
'we were grabbed lie flour sacks and thrown aboard a bus, one woman recounts. 'they hurled me against the bus floor. some of the children clung to the windows crying to passersby, 'please help us! we don't want to go! most pedestrians averted their faces and detoured fearfully away from the commotion. others chided, 'they must be hooligans or the authorities wouldn't treat them like that! some stopped and spoke sympathetically, but no one tried to intervene.
then, as the christians had suspected, they were driven not to the train but to the police station.
the police herded the 15 new arrivals into a room next to the 4 who had already spent one night in
27 prison. pavlik heard their voices. 'Papa! Mama! he called to his parents through the partition. in a few moments the police opened the doors between the two rooms.
'you can't imagine the reunion we had in prison, viktor remembers. 'with tears of joy we embraced each other and started to sing, pray and thank God. polina and liuba rushed into my arms.
'Papa, we were sleeping on the floor under a table in the embassy! 6 year old liuba said. 'but i couldn't sleep all night, polina added soberly. 'we prayed all night that we would be together again.
nearly 20 policemen stood in the crowded room. most gaped. tears crept down the ruddy cheeks of one policeman and viktor heard him mutter, 'what kind of business is it to arrest people like this?
viktor had saved food from the supply the guard had brought that morning. the christians divided the food -urging each other to take the larger portion. after eating, they sang, prayed and praised God again.
after long talks among themselves, one of the chief KGB officials glumly addressed the christians, 'will you return home peacefully to Barnaul?
'if you return the money you took from us, viktor demanded. not knowing if they would ever be allowed to return home, the christians had purchased only one way tickets.
within hours after the incident at the american embassy, the christians in baraul knew their brothers were in the capricious hands of the moscow police. using code words, ivan Y., the observer, had telephoned the news to them.
28 the local militsiia also got the word promptly. plain-clothes police soon appeared at the home of every family whose relatives had traveled to moscow.
'where's your husband? a KBG officer questioned viktor's wife yelena.
'i'm sure you know better than i do..
'do you know what bitter consequences your husband's thoughtless trip to moscow could have for your whole family?...do you really think your husband did the right things?
'i wish i could have accompanied him to moscow, the woman replied firmly.
'you see how dusty my shoes are? another policeman said when he called at one of the christians' homes. 'all day i've been walking the streets trying to solve this problem - i'm worried about what will become of you here alone with your children.
'were you worried about my welfare when you dragged me out of church by my hair? the wife retorted. she turned sadly to the policeman. 'it is because our own motherland didn't care about our suffering that we had to turn to a foreign uncle. we pray he will have mercy on us. (note - let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer every man. colossians 4.6)
but the foreign uncle had been able to provide little practical assistance. the americans had expressed sympathy toward the plea to help publicize the barnaul persecution. but they were also realistic about the practicalities of their diplomatic position -particularly with richard nixon's visit only a few days away.
reunited in prison, the believers still believed that their decision to enter the american embassy had been part of God's will. nevertheless, some troubling uncertainties
29 loomed ahead. would the government actually allow them to return home? would the publicity of their trip persuade the government to stop persecuting believers in barnaul and other christian congregations across the USSR?
unsure of their fate, the 19 boarded the train which the authorities promised would take them home to their families.
31 the full meaning of the dramatic 1972 appeal to the american embassy becomes apparent only when placed against the background of the christians' experience in barnaul. it is a long story, going back to precommunist times. the following chapters are an attempt to trace that experience, particularly the 12 year period beginning in 1961, when the spotlight of soviet pressure against the evangelical faith seemed epecially focused on barnaul.
33 in 1917, when the bolshevik revolution crushed the already crumbling autocracy of tsar nicholas II, reinhold g. was a teenager - old enough to remember both the revolution and russia's struggle against germany in world war I.
R was himself a german - a german-russian. his ancestors had immigrated to russia in the late 1700s under the reign of empress catherine the Great and settled on the fertile farmlands of the ukraine. R's parents, like many of the G-R in the Ut, were 'Stundists' -Godly germans who faithfully gathered for Bible study hours ('stunden').
even before the Revolution, life had not been easy for evangelical christians. the russian orthodox church had strongly opposed the Stundists as well as Baptists in the ukraine and caucasus and other evangelical christians in aristocratic st. petersburg.
for a few years after the Bolshevik Revolution, life was surprisingly better for evangelicals. even though restrictions (such as denying the right of juridical personage) were placed on all religious associations, Lenin's new
34 communist government concentrated its attack against the recalcitrant Russian orthodox Church in its campaign to root out religion. evangelicals experienced an unprecedented but short-lived freedom. it is estimated that evangelicals numbered approximately a 100,000 before the revolution. under the first 10 years of soviet rule, they grew to about 2,000,000 adherents.
reinhold was married and had one child by the time Josef Stalin climbed to power in 1928. in april, 1929, S codified all previous laws on religion into a 'law on Religious Associations' containing 68 articles. S's new laws reinforced a 1922 law which had already stipulated that only churches which registered with the state were allowed to function. however, now the state agency could arbitrarily grant or deny registration and also could control the appointment of church leaders.
to make it consistent with S's new codes, the paragraph in the 1918 constitution which had guaranteed freedom of religion was altered in 1929. the 1918 constitution had said, 'in order to guarantee complete freedom of conscience for the workers, the church is separated from the state and the school from the church. the right of religious and antireligious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.' the new 1929 code canceled the right to 'religious propaganda' and allowed only 'freedom of religious worship'.
in reality, S's new laws on religion put the Soviet government in a position to control the churches of russia.
by the 1930s S was deporting soviet citizens for various reasons to siberian labor camps and prisons. the georgian dictator had set in motion the terror that would
35 eventually mean death to at least 20 million.
Reinhold's father, a leader among the stundists, was one of those exiled to siberia. like thousands of other christians, he died a martyr's death in a labor camp.
but christians like R's father viewed their exile as a missionary opportunity. through footsteps of blood, many churches sprang up across siberia. one of those churches was in the 200 year old city of barnaul where a small cluster of christians started to meet.
on june 22, 1941, hitler's army attacked an unprepared russia. S feared that german-russians such as R's family might welcome the nazi armies as liberators from the terrors of soviet tyranny. even though hundreds of german-russian soldiers fighting heroically against the nazi aggressors, S placed citizens of german heritage under a 'special settlement status. they could move about freely only in the area to which they had been assigned and were penalized if they left that area without authorization. German-Russians needed special permits to buy food and had to report regularly to the police.
purportedly to prevent collaboration with the nazis, S resettled hundreds of thousands of germans in various sections of the urals and siberia. he packed the refugees into cattle cars for the arduous train trip east and housed them in crude barracks when they finally reached their destinations. R, his wife and their 6 children were shipped to barnaul - an industrial city in the Altai Territory of Central Siberia. situated near Mongolia on the left bank of the large, north-flowing Ob River, it had a population of about 150,000 at that time.
in barnaul, Reinhold soon met other christians who were gathering faithfully to worship God. World War II, which threatened to devastate russia, brought some relief
36 to churches like the group of believers who met in a home in barnaul. because S needed tro unite russia's people against the german invaders he abruptly granted concessions to orthodox and protestant churches -whose congregations, ironically, included many german-russians. these concessions, however, constituted a secret concordat and were only a matter of policy, not public law.
..R recalls that in 1944 'there were about 10 of us christins who gathered in a home. then we bought a frame house at 67 radishchevskaia street, and this was the first baptist church building in barnaul'..
'at that time my wife, yekaterina and i lived on a kolkhoz (collective farm) outside the city. although R and his family had come from warmer climates, siberia soon became home. 'we grew accustomed to barnaul and liked it, R says simply. 'every sunday we walked 10 kilometers each way to our church -morning and evening.
Stalin died in 1953 and the iron grip of the dictator was broken. after 24 years of rule, some soviet
37citizens thought the country would not survive without him. others, such as R, wondered if freedoms promised in lenin's bolshevik revolution would finally begin to materialize. when Khrushchev chose the fertile Altai Territory -the region of which barnaul is the capital - as a center for his virgin lands project designed to develop siberian agricultual potential. pioneers from european russia, drawn by the challenge of the east, settled among the germans, latvians, estoians and others whom S had already sent to barnaul. some of the new settlers became christians and joined the church.
by 1958, there were over 500 members in the barnaul baptist church. parents who had been terrified of severe Soviet legislation against christian education during the first half of stalin's reign now brought their children to church. there were about 70 teenage believers among the barnaul christians.
but in the early sixties Khrushchev's government launched a new offensive against religion. confident of the success of his antireligious campaign, Kh once bragged that he would exhibit the last christian in the USSR on television by 1965.
from 1959 to 1964 an estimated 10,000 orthodox and baptist churches were closed. at the same time, Kh and the communist party intensified atheistic indoctrination in soviet schools. the output of atheistic literature was increased. at the 22nd Communist Party Congress in 1961, Kh said:
'communist education presupposes emancipation from religious prejudices and superstitions, which hinder soviet
38 people from fully developing their creative powers. a well thought out and well proportioned system of scientific atheistic propaganda is necessary to embrace all strata of society and to prevent the spread of religious attitudes, especially among children and juveniles.
in 1964, Leonid F. Ilichev, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, asserted,
'we cannot remain indifferent to the fate of children whom fanatical religious parents are virtually raping spiritually. we cannot permit blind and ignorant parents to raise children like themselves and thus deform them.
in barnaul, the antireligious campaign had resumed in 1958. it was then that the barnaul upolnomochennyi, the local government representative from the Council for Affairs of Religious Cults (foot - ..to provide government supervision of religious activities.) in moscow, started to keep closer watch on the church at 67 radishchevskaia street. Reinhold remembers the day he insisted, 'young people should not be so involved in church activities. if they must recite poems, they should be the kind that will not attract nonbelievers.
later the upolnomochennyi learned that one of the christians had taken a photo of the baraul youth group..he demanded the photo and a list of the names of the young people pictured. 'who among the adults is your youth leader? he wanted to know.
'we take turns, the christians replied.
in 1960 the soviet government pressured the governing body of the AUCECB in moscow to issue a pastoral
39 Letter of Instructions to Baptist presbyters or leaders throughout the nation. the letter was accompanied by the stringent new AUCECB Statutes.
the new states diminished autonomy of local churches and gave more authority to the central body. the statutes further declared that the AUCECB would recogize only congregations which had been legally registered by the soviet government. a larg percentage - possibly as high as two thirds of all russian baptist congregations - had never been able to obtain legal registration from the government. consequently, the new statutes effectively cut off unregistered congregations from the national brotherhood of the AUCECB and invited schism.
among other constricting clauses, the letter of Instructions to pastors prohibited 'unhealthy missionary manifestations'. emphasis on evanglistic preaching was condemned. the baptisms of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 were to be kept to a minimum. children were not to attend religious services and young people under 18 could not be baptized.
when Reinhold and the other Christians in barnaul read the New Statutes and heard about the letter of Instructions, they were aghast. even though they realized their leaders in moscow had probably issued the letter at swordpoint, they felt betrayed.
many believers in barnaul and in other regions of the soviet union felt that obeying these instructions would ruin their churches. some baptists tried desperately to call the AUCECB to reformation, they urged the AUCECB to stand boldly against government edicts. some believers decided either to separate from registered churches of the AUCECB were they found government control intolerable , or in the future not to apply
40 for registration under the AUCECB.
in barnaul one evening in 1960, the local minister of cults arrived at the church board meeting. Rein recalls, 'the upolnomochennyi insisted that a new man, yakov fedorovich sablin, be installed as chief pastor of presbyter.
the barnaul believers protested. as accustomed as they were to government surveillance, they insisted that internal affairs of the church must be sacred matter for the local congregation to resolve. each church should elect its own presbyters, not the central AUCECB or the soviet government. furthermore, the christians had serious doubts about the character of ..sablin. be believers in another town had accused him of drunkenness and immorality.
however, the local communist officials were insistent. 'if you don't accept ..sablin as your new presbyter, we'll completely close your church, they threatened.
the believers distrusted Sablin and resented the government's interference. nevertheless, they agreed they must try to keep their church open. sadly, they listened to Sablin's sermons urging christians to be less firm in their faith. one day A announced to his congregation, 'i am a communist plus God. the barnaul believers prayed that the new preacher would either be converted or leave. but S stayed.
mostly by threats, the minster of cults established a council of 20 leading members (dvadtsatka) from the church to carry out his orders. then he ordered the council to prepare to ordain S. church members like Reinhold, who objected, were swiftly excommunicated.
at the end of a service, S would simply read a list
41 of members whom he and local communist authorities had decided to excommunicate that week. there was no appeal, no referral for general vote of the church membership. the government's orders, carried out through the minister of cults, S and the dvadtsatka, were irrevocable.
finally, several of the church members could endure the heavy-handed interference no longer. at a members' meeting they excommunicated S.
in january, 1961, comrade A. N. Gorbatenko, vice president of the Railroad Regional Executive Committee (a municipal/police district in barnaul) , arrived with the militsiia and hung locks with seals on the doors of the prayer house at 67 radishchevskaia street. the act meant much more that the loss of a place to meet. it signaled the loss of official sanction. as far as the soviet government was concerned, the Barnaul Baptist Church no longer existed.
42 thrust out of their registered church building in 1961, the congregation of baptists in barnaul began to meet in homes. battered by a storm of opposition from the soviet government, they tried to cling together as a church.
all across russia, similar persecutions were ravaging other churches. for example, in vladivostok, a siberian city far to the east, soviet authorities had torn down the registered church the believers there continued to meet in a nearby house that was little more than a hovel. they hammered a roof onto the dilapidated building and , despite much difficulty, gathered there year around.
43 meanwhile, in barnaul, the upolnomochennyi and comrad Gorbatenko began insisting that it was illegal for believers to meet anywhere - unless they registered according to the regulations of S's 1929 law. they further demanded that the christians must obey the infamous New AUCECB Statutes and letter of Instructions.
the believers did eventually apply three times for registration after the government locked them out of their church on radishchevskaia street. they scrupulously submitted the required information such as the number of members in the congregation, the signatures of the dvadtsatka, the names of committee members and their places of employment.
their petitions were fruitless. one of the christians comments, 'the law states that authorities are legally required to say yes of no within a month of receiving a registration application. but as far as we know, our registration applications are still lying in a government office.
'if you want to register, communist officials insisted, you must adhere to the new regulations. you must curtail evangelistic activities and you must not bring your children to church.
thus they were caught between their desire for legal recognition and for continued spiritual life. the government would not allow both.
so the baptists continued meeting in homes without government sanction. they were not the first group to do so. pentecostals, seventh-day adventists, lutherans, mennonites, some russian orthodox and other groups who had been refused registration (or found it impossible to meet under the restrictions of registration) were also gathering in homes by 1961.
44 when they were expelled from their church, the baptists switched from home to home to hold their services. later they settled into one home as their meeting place, concluding that 'the unity gave us a stronger witness'.
squeezing 150 to 200 people into one or even a few homes was not a simple matter, especially in russia, where most people live in two or three-room apartments. believers did not regularly use apartments for church services, but when a family first moved into an apartment it was possible to hold housewarmings. christians packed a few small rooms, sang, prayed and preached. when police complained that christians were conducting a gospel meeting, they replied, 'No - a housewarming!
a few members of the now unregistered congregation owned small homes and these provided the est meting places. Leonid R., who lived in a log house that had belonged to his parents and grandparents, often opened his home to the other believers. 'the day before the meeting, my wife and children helped me move our furniture into the garden. our house was so small that we decided to remove the wall between two of the rooms to make more space for the meeting.
wherever they met, the believers discreetly tried not to disturb the neighborhood. they reminded their children not to linger outside the door. but despite their caution, their meetings in the closely watched soviet society did not go unnoticed...
Avram L., a believer from barnaul, laughs ruefully when he recalls the accusation of secrecy. 'no matter how hard we tried to meet quietly and peacefully, our meetings could not be called secret or underground. in our country any gathering attracts attention and the neighbors and police soon knew we were a church. besides, the KBG often published articles attacking us in the newspaper . even though there were only 150 to 200 of us christians meeting, i think the whole city of barnaul with its 350,000 people knew about our church!
'sometimes when we walked to the home where our church was held, children from the neighborhood hurled stones at us and hollered, 'Baptists! other neighbors came out to see what was causing the commotion. no, our meeting was not a secret - to the authorities or to our neighbors.
hoping for evidence to halt the house meetings, KBG representatives visited people in nearby neighborhoods to collect damaging evidence against the christians. 'are those religious fanatics bothering, embarrassing, or harming you in any way? they asked hopefully. bribed by a bottle of vodka, some neighbors were willing to invent complaints against the christians.
but not all non-christian neighbors showed hostility. many expressed curiosity and interest. the police feared that these people would be attracted to the joyful meetings. one of the barnaul pastors explains, 'when we met in a house, the police would not permit us to open any windows facing the street - only windows facing unoccupied courtyards.
some neighbors stoutly defended the christians and even admitted attending the meetings. 'their singing cheers our whole neighborhood', one woman who was not a believer told the police.
46 the upolnomochennyi himself sometimes came to the christian meetings to gather evidence against the believers. he meticulously recorded hymn titles, Scripture references, sermon topics and even jotted down the words the christians used when praying for him.
on one occasion he stood up during the meeting and abruptly announced, 'i demand an immediate discussion with the leaders of the church. you have preached - now i will preach to you!
the believers were not interested in a diatribe against christianity. 'why do you meddle in our affairs they asked. 'our laws say the church and state are separate. we do not interfere with matters of state.
on another occasion when a discussion was demanded during a service, the pastor took a vote. 'are you willing to remain for a discussion with the upolnomochennyi? he asked. the weary christians shouted in unison, 'No!'
as months of cross-examinations by the KBG officials wore on, some christians refused to answer summonses for questionings. 'why should we come? they boldly told the police. 'we know what you believe and you know what we believe. you attend our meetings and hear us preach. we won't convince you and you won't convince us. we don't have time to quarrel about these matters. we know you are collecting material and want to arrest us. we will not willingly be interrogated.
when the christians resisted, determined KBG officials ordered reinforcements. either the intransigent christians would stop their meetings or register - under government surveillance.
on october 19, 1963, at a harvest festival held in Y. D. Mantai's home, KGB agents, fire department employees and press and television editors invaded the meeting. comrade Konosov, the president of the October
47 Regional Executive Committee (a local jurisdiction), led the delegation that also included police and civil guards.
most often the authorities simply sent druzhinniki to disrupt the christian meetings. the druz, ostensibly a volunteer auxiliary police detachment, gave the appearance of legality - a collective of soviet citizens rising righteously to protest the activities of christians. and what happened if the druz went to excess in their anger? the soviet officials who had given them the orders in the first place could shrug its shoulders and say 'the will of the people must be obeyed'.
uninvited druz came to the christian meetings with portable microphones, loudspeaking systems and noisemakers. as soon as the singing started, the noise began. sometimes they shouted, 'christians are the enemies of the people! often the druz brought hand-turned sirens used for fire signals and cranked them while the choir sang. the believers simply sang louder and louder - sometimes until the arms of the druz drooped form winding the noisemakers.
at first the druz silenced their disruptions when the christians stood or knelt to pray. grateful, the congregation extended their prayers while the druz squirmed. but when the prayers continued for more than an hour, the druz began to shout, 'comrades, stop this foolishness. why are you allowing yourselves to be deceived by religion?
rapidly, the druz and militsiia discovered that discussions and disruptions did not dissuade the believers. so they began to levy fines against christians who used their homes for meetings. the first time, the fine was usually 50 rubles - about half a month's salary. sometimes fines went as high as 100 rubles or more.
48 often the determined christians paused just long enough to take an offering, pay the fine and continue their meeting. if the owner and the other christians did not have enough money, the police subtracted the fine from the owner's future salary. vladimir K., a poor pensioner, was fined by the baraul authorities for using his simple frame house as a church. V, who received a pension of only 13 rubles a month, had no cash. but he did have a yard full of chickens.
when he could not pay, the militsiia leader shouted, 'if that is the case, comrade, we will confiscate your chickens to pay your fine!
but they are not easy to catch, vladimir smiled faintly.
the christians continued their meeting while the militsiia stomped out the door swearing at the indignity of their assignment. while the congregation saying, the police chased chickens in the courtyard until they had scooped a gunnysackful.
unfortunately, the police did more than threaten and fine the christians.
for example, the police often stood at the front of the church and harassed the choir and preachers. to counter this, the congregation resolved to arrive early for their meetings. they stood in a tight circle and formed a solid wall that they hoped would prevent the police from disturbing their worship.
'but the police literally walked over us, Sofia T. remembers. her arm had been twisted and bruised by a policeman when he rudely shoved her to the floor as he tore his way through a meeting.
49 tougher druzhinnike were sent to replace the ones who had been silent during prayer. some komsomol (young communist league) teenagers, braced by all the free alcohol they could drink, cut their way violently through the crowd of christians. the Komsomoltsy brutalized believers, who they had been told were dangerous fanatics threatening communist society. when the christians tried to take photos of the terror that had come to their meetings, the police and druzhinniki ripped the cameras from their hands.
the police not only searched homes where meetings were held - they even invaded the homes of believers who only attended the meetings. the druzhinniki, their red arm bands tied tightly around their left arms, came with search warrants authorizing them to look for anti-soviet literature. any Bibles, hymnbooks, or other christian literature that they discovered were confiscated.
sometimes the police installed bugging devices in the christian homes theysearched. Lidiia and Ivan M. a christian couple, lived on the east side of barnaul. in the spring of 1962 their house was searched. after the police were safely distant from the house, L remarked with relief to her husband, 'I'm so thankful they didn't find the Bible we hid in the baby's crib.
the next day the police returned, marched straight to the baby's crib and seized the Bible. L and I later found a small microphone hidden behind the cupboard in their kitchen.
the barnaul believers were a minority in their city. in 1962, they were also among a minority of Russian Protestants outside AUCECB-related churches.
but by 1962, the soviet government was sincerely worried by the bold activities of believers in barnau and elsewhere who had become separated from the
50 AUCECB and even claimed to represent the evangelical christians and baptists in russia. the soviet government was not accustomed to christians bravely demanding their constitutional rights.
up to 1960, unregistered congregations across russia had no central organization and little contact with each other. now, intensified goverment interference was molding christians across russia into a national reform movement. pleading for revival and purification of AUCECB churches, fiery christian leaders such as aleksei r. prokofev, gennadii k. kriuchkov and georgii p. vins came to the forefront of the reform movement and formed an initsiativnaia gruppa ('action group'). many christians from barnaul actively supported the initsiativniki.
having failed to stop the house meetings of the initsiativniki, the local government decided to try other tactics. in a startling move, they reopened the registered baptist church. almost two years after it had been closed, the registered prayer house at 67 radshchevskaia street was reopened on christmas eve, 1962, by the authorities in the presence of the police, civil guards and a commissioner on religious cults of the district executive committee. soviet authorities. recalled d.i.babich, who had earlier served as barnaul presbyter, from alma-ata to replace yakov sablin...
the government invited the barnaul believers to return to their church building - but under the government's conditions. most of the congregation tried to return. however, druzhinniki halted believers at the door who insisted on bringing their children or who would not
51 bow to other government restrictions.
thus, many believers determined to continue their house meetings despite difficulties they feared would follow. they had tried and were trying to obey the laws of their country. now they felt they must obey the laws of God above all else.
timofie r., an elderly lay preacher whose wrinkled face records the suffering of those years, explains, 'when we had problems and persecutions, we knew it was because the officials of the kingdom of earth could not see the Kingdom of God. they could not understand that we believers live in tow worlds!
52 as more and more unregistered churches sprang up across the country in the 1960s, officials frantically tried to discourage any religious curiosity among soviet citizens. crude propaganda articles attacking believers and their 'barbarian' practices poured from government presses..
53 ...in contrast to soviet propaganda descriptions, the actual order of worship at baptist meetings in barnaul in the 1960s - and in other congregations, registered and unregistered, across russia - was strikingly different.
believers came quietly and usually early to worship services. as soon as tow or three gathered, they started to sing, finding a spiritual strength in unity. if someone had a piece of christian literature from the west, he stood and read aloud to the others. another christian fortunate enough to won a Bible or a portion of Scripture shared his treasure.
the singing rose spontaneously again - almost always from memory - since few people other than the choir director owned a hymn book. this preservice, warm and worshipful, continued for as long as an hour before the scheduled service actually began.
'during our services we felt it was important for everyone to have an opportunity to use his spiritual gifts, one of the barnaul lay pastors who now lives in germany explains. 'we were one body and each of the believers wanted to participate in worship this way we shared one another's burdens and also shared in the suffering of Christ.
in barnaul, 8 to 12 men took turns preaching. none of the regular preachers were university graduates. some had tried to enter universities but were rejected when it was discovered they were christians.
none of the men had any formal theological training, since there are no protestant Bible schools or seminaries in the soviet union.
the preachers chose strictly biblical sermon texts. illustrations were largely selected from the Bible, seldom from modern life. preachers took constant care that nothing in their sermons could be construed as anti-soviet or political by government officials and informers who regularly came to monitor the service.
the choir always sang several times during the service. 'to us the songs were more than songs - they were sermons, one expatriate choir member explains. 'they had come from the lives and sufferings of our brothers and sisters across our country. some of the songs were written by christians in prison. we remembered these circumstances as we sang.
children also participated in worship. christian parents in barnaul had demanded this right if their church were to register as the government ordered. 'like we adults, our children also wanted to bring their gifts of praise to Christ, one mother explains. 'often the children would memorize gospel poems and readings and they considered it a great privilege to recite these during the meeting.
in the crowded houses where they met, the congregation frequently stood during the entire service- two to four hours. however, if there were places to sit on the backless wooden benches, the babushki were given the first choice. during the service, the worshipers who were
55 sitting changed places quietly with those who stood.
but during prayer the christians always stood or knelt. 'for a human ruler we show respect, a babushka who has been a christian since the days of the tsar explains. 'when we talk to the King of the universe, we must stand or kneel',
in barnaul when the pastor announced a time for prayer, all who wanted to pray had an opportunity - and there were many. mothers pled for their children facing atheistic hostility at school. someone always remembered members of the body in prison for the sake of Christ. prayer was offered for the church in the West - that it might be purified and strengthened.
while one person prayed aloud, a sea of prayer surged through the room as other believers whispered their petitions and praise, 'Da, Gospodi - Yes, Lord, hear our prayer.
almost before one person finished, another started to pray. when the last prayer was offered, soft singing rose from the worshipers to a crescendo of praise. 'so many times we were discouraged and downcast, a mother of 6 remembers. 'during those times of prayer , we felt the Holy Spirit come and comfort us. we rose from our knees strengthened and encouraged.
christian meetings all over russia customarily included a time for PRIVETY (greetings). one sunday in barnau., aleksandr k., a christian visiting from the city of C., stood at the close of the meeting, 'greetings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from the believers in C, he began in customary fashion. then A told about the pastor from his church who was 'now in bonds. the listeners understood and silently prayed for the pastor in prison. A described the man in the church in C. who had 'turned from his sin and come back
56 to Christ. again they understood that an informer had repented.
as members of Christ's body, believers in barnaul wanted to obey Scriptural admonitions to give tithes and offerings to God. but these had to be gathered and distributed carefully. the soviet government outlaws benevolent activities by nongovernment agencies, insisting that in a socialist society such activities are outmoded. theoretically, the government handles all social assistance and strictly prohibits relief by religious organizations. Article 17 of stalin's 1929 law on Religious Associations explicitly states, 'it is forbidden to render material assistance to other members.
offerings were taken anyway. the christians did not pass a basket, but everyone knew which deacons had been appointed to receive offerings. unobtrusively, believers handed their gifts to these men, who shared them with needy members of the body.
sometimes they used these offerings to pay fines levied for holding church meetings in their homes. money was allocated to support families whose relatives were in prison for their faith. evangelists who had given up their work to travel full-time and preach the Gospel also received support.
although unregistered christians in barnaul were not officially allowed to organize as a church, they did anyway, choosing evangelists, deacons and presbyters. they elected a chief presbyter, dmitrii vasievich miniakov, a soft-spoken, kindly man with christian character as solid as siberian ice.
in addition to the preachers, some men were ordained as deacons or general helpers on the church. the congregation expected these men to have good command of their own families and also be willing to give generously
57 of their time to help other church members. besides these duties, the preachers and deacons all held full-time jobs.
traveling evangelists particularly infuriated the soviet government. although the christians were willing and able to support them, the government insisted that these christian workers were 'parasites' because they did not have full-time jobs.
russian evangelists followed their calling at great cost. they knew they could expect the police to trail them constantly and often they could not live at home. when a man gave himself to become an evangelist, church members provided money and food for him and his family.
one of the deacons might arrive at the doorstep of te evangelist's apartment with a sack of potatoes and a bushel of shchavel (tart spinach). 'here is your family's food for the weekend, he would say. 'you go to the next village, care for the believers there and conduct communion for them this sunday. we will look after your family.
christians also took turns observing the evangelist's house to see if it was being watched by the police. sometimes the evangelist could return home only at night and climb through a back window or door, careful to evade neighbors primed to report to the police. before the sun rose, he knew he must move on again.
one barnaul evangelist, brother Igor, was so sought by the police that he did not dare return for months at a time. the christians tried to arrange for him to meet his family at the homes of other believers. but even with this precaution, the attempt proved risky.
weary of eluding the police and desperately lonely to see his family, Igor arrived in barnaul one night in september. he walked 4 miles to his apartment and
58 slipped inside the door. his wife's eyes filled with fear. 'only a few minutes ago the police were here inside the apartment looking for you. you must have passed them on the street. she tearfully embraced her husband. Igor stayed for a few hours and left before dawn.
although life was especially grueling for evangelists, every day was difficult for all russian believers in barnaul. how did they react to pressure? 'we learned to depend strongly on prayer. at every meeting we prayed, and on wednesday night we met specifically to pray, one of the deacons recalls
'during times of trouble we placed extra emphasis on prayer. for example, once when one of our members was arrested, we determined to pray for him as a church every three ours. wherever we were - at work or at school - we prayed silently in the Spirit. it seemed to us that no one in the world knew or cared about our problems but God. we decided we must turn to him every three hours to find comfort strength and direction.
'our church in barnaul and churches all over russia decided to designate every friday as a day of prayer and fasting. we were comforted to know that on that day the sacrifice of prayer and praise was being offered to the God of heaven from every corner of our atheistic country.
wednesday nigh prayer services were the most intimate of the meetings in barnaul. the christians did not invite guests to these meetings and also hoped the police would leave them in peace. when they felt certain they were among only their own members, they opened their hearts.
on a typical wednesday night, a lay pastor read from Scripture to open the meeting. then he asked a practical question, 'Brothers and sisters, what needs do we have
59 among us? let us stand and make these known.
one man rose heavily to his feet. 'i lost my temper this week at home in the presence of some nonbelievers and i need your help' the christians paused immediately to pray for their brother
'are there other needs? the preacher asked quietly. unashamedly, the believers confessed the weaknesses, problems and temptations they had met that week. openly, they asked the other members advice and prayer.
in most baptist churches in russia, the first sunday of every month was set aside for Communion - a sacrament russian believers revere deeply and often prepare for by fasting the day before. on communion sundays in barnaul, the participants stood to share the unleavened loaf of bread and chalice of wine that the deacons reverently passed fro one person to the next. after the Communion service, the christians greeted each other with a 'holy kiss'.
according to the Scriptures in I corinthians 11, each christian searched his heart before communion. those who felt an obstacle to partaking in communion remained seated. after the service, the presbyter immediately counseled with any believer who did not participate. if two christians had quarreled, they discussed their disagreement and promptly resolved it. 'in our circumstances we could not afford disruption and disunity, one of the pastors explains. 'we had to maintain purity and close-knit fellowship at all times.
not surprisingly, non-christians noticed the sobornost -the true spirit of community, love and unity among believers in barnaul. neighbors living near christian families remarked about how 'the veruiushchie care for each other' - a compassion in marked contrast
60 to the mores of communist society.
after work, the believers visited the sick, befriended unbelievers and visited christian families who had relatives in prison. one seriously ill atheist agitator whom the christians visited regularly admitted ruefully, 'you believers don't leave the dying without comfort. that is your secret. my own comrades haven't visited me once. and you always bring gifts along besides!
in barnaul one curious woman asked her christian neighbor, 'why are you christians always so poor?
the woman replied, 'when we are poor, that means we have to help one another - that we are needed. if we all had everything we need, there would be no more opportunity to share and we would lose that blessing.
barnaul christians did not expect to be self-sufficient. they even considered self-sufficiency a misfortune. 'in our church when one person was in trouble, we all stood with him, katia c., a practical woman in her forties, explains. 'we never tried to escape another person's difficulties. instead they bound us together and built up our faith. we expected to care for each other. we christians are a family.
witnessing, barnaul style
61 Lenin's 1918 constitution recognized 'the right to religious and antireligious propaganda for all citizens.
under Stalin, lenin's constitution was changed. the right to antireligious propaganda was kept, but the right to religious propaganda was trimmed to 'freedom of religious worship' in the 1936 constitution.
in practice, this law means that people may freely propagate atheism across the soviet union. christians, however, face severe restrictions to sharing their faith. the soviet government expects to contain all evangelistic activities within the approximately 5000 registered churches across russia.
article 125 or the USSR constitution guarantees 'freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings and freedom of street processions and demonstrations. however, russian christians cannot organize evangelistic crusades. they cannot legally conduct sunday schools, youth camps or any other christian youth activities. they are permitted only token printings of christian literature and are warned not to listen to christian broadcasts from foreign nations.
but all the laws and edicts that atheistic officials have
62promulgated to stamp out the church - or at least prevent it from growing - have not stifled the russian believers' witness.
they witness consistently through their daily life-style. for example, a communist party commission investigated why christians are so successful in spreading their faith came to the following conclusions:
1. the believers are skillful, conscientious workers without exception and are respected for this.
2. the believers do not have problems with alcohol. increasingly they are given tasks that require reliability.
3. the believers do not let anyone die without comfort.
4. the believers do not subscribe to any peace resolutions in world politics, but they do promote peace in the way they live. they live in peace with their families and also help other families when these families are having problems.
galina n. and her husband lev, who have 9 children, believe that witnessing begins inside the christian family. 'within our families we have more freedom than anywhere else and this is where our evangelistic outreach starts, galina says. 'in russia it is now the fashion to have one or tow children, but most of us christians from barnaul have 6 to 10 children. we believe God blesses us with children so that we can strengthen and preserve the church.
'this does not mean we forget to witness to those outside our family. but this has to be done carefully.
story after story has come from barnaul to illustrate the many ways christians there share their faith.
andrei t. happened to discover a painting of Christ and john the baptist with the inscription 'Behold the lamb of God' in a barnaul art museau. andrei regularly visited the museum, and when visitors stopped
63 study the painting, he offered to explain the inscription. his witness was so effective that exasperated officials eventually removed the painting from the museum.
sometimes christians ingeniously arranged situations to sitness to strangers. one day anatolii Y. was traveling on a train from barnaul to another city with his friend pave r. they sat side by side in the crowded compartment.
after the train had pulled away from the station, anatolii casually turned to pavel. 'pavel ivanovich, you say you believe in go. how can you believe in a god you cannot see> while anatolii continued the conversation as if he were not a believer, pavel thoroughly explained the Gospel to him s the other paqssengers in the comparment listened. some joined the discussion.
yurii i. recalls an instance when he took the train from barnaul to novosibirsk with a group of several christians. one of the christians began to softly play hymns on his balalaika (russian mandolin). ochen priiatno - it is very pleasant, one of the passengers said. 'why don't you play louder?
the young man played the hymn through. then softly he began to sing the words, 'Christ is searching for you to bring you to your heavenly Father... one by one the other christians joined the singing. the passengers listened closely. several asked questions about the words of the hymn.
one day another christian, petr k., was riding the bus from barnaul to another city just a few days before easter. the passengers in his compartment enthusiastically exchanged plans for celebrating the holiday.
they debated the best method for coloring easter eggs in traditional ukrainian patterns. eventually they talked about the holiday itself. petr joined the discussion. 'it's
64 some sort of religious holiday, one of the women speculated. peter agreed and then went on to tell her about the meaning of easter.
dmitrii p., a grizzled old man who had endured the hardships of Stalin's labor camps, was known for his bold witness.
one afternoon Dmitrii and Yakov L., another believer, were seated in the second class 'hard-seat' section of a train. a third man, his face forlorn, sat across from them in the compartment. K, who owned a Bible, opened it and softly read aloud. the man across the aisle closed his newspaper and listened attentively.
he turned to Dmi. 'what difficult days we live in, he sighed. children won't listen to their parents. there is so much disobedience. it looks like the whole world is coming to an end.
'it is! Dmi exclaimed happily, turning pages of his Bible to the book of Revelation. even though two other passengers had entered the compartment, Dmi did not stop speaking to the man across the aisle. the other passengers could not help hearing as Dmi told the man about Christ's Second Coming to earth.
when Dmi and Yak stepped off the train, they noticed the last man who had come into the compartment following them. he strode closer. 'you are under arrest, he snapped, showing them his KGB card. he pointed straight ahead. 'now you will come with me.
the police at the station searched the 2 believers thoroughly. Dmi clutched his Bible, but a policeman snatched it from his hand. Yak tried to take the blame. 'please arrest me and let Dmi go-he is an old man, he pled.
but the police shoved both men into a cold cell where other prisoners sat hunched like shadows. although it
65 was winter and the cement floor was frigid, the 2 christians knelt and prayed aloud. 'thank you, God, for leading us, Dmi prayed. then the 2 sang hymns.
why don't you keep quiet? the guard on patrol snarled.
a drunk who was drowsing in the corner awoke from his stupor at the singing. 'well, you really got yourself into trouble this time, didn't you? he taunted.
'maybe the Lord brought us here, Dmi smiled. maybe our great God brought us into prison just so we could tell you about Him. Dmi walked over and sat beside the man. 'but i must tell you about Him quickly because we will only be staying here as long as He wants us to. in fact, i believe God will release us tonight!
at one-thirty that morning the guard clanked open the prison cell door. 'you're released! he shouted to the 2 christians while the other prisoners watched in speechless stupefaction. the drunk man stumbled after the 2 christians as they walked from the cell door.
but the police decided to question the believers once more before releasing them. the guard ushered the men into a tight, gry office. 'are you going to preach anymore in railroad cars? a stern KGB officer demanded.
'of course we will as we have opportunity, ..who are we to obey -you or god?
at three-thirty that morning the KBG finally thrust the two men out of the police station.
as the bold believers of barnaul witnessed, people were converted to Christ. 'some remained secret believers, Nikalai V. , one of the lay pastors, explains. 'these people were like Joseph of Arimathea in the Bible. if a person held a high position, the cost of becoming a christian was very great.
many, however, paid the price and openly joined the
66 believers' ranks. in april, 1962, Yurii Ivanovich Mikhalkov became a christian at age 25. an engineer who had been raised through the Komsomol, he had worked at a wee-paying job at barnaul's machine factory. Y's tall stature matched his strong christian witness, and immediately he began to share the Gospel with everyone he met - even the educated engineers around him.
Y had always been a meek person, not prone to talk about himself. that trait did not change, but Y became a bold conversationalist - about his faith in Christ.
one day, riding home from university on a street-car packed with young people, Y held out a new Bible. 'I've discovered a good book, he announced to the students. who he knew were avid readers.
the young people crowded for a closer look. 'everybody has problems, Y continued. 'this book has the solution to all of them...
often Y used funerals as an occasion to witness. in fact, other christians said, 'funerals are Y's specialty!
at one funeral, a mourner sight to Y, 'well, it's the end of everything.
'its just the opposite. it's only the beginning! Y replied, turning the conversation to eternal life.
with his engineer's aptitude for exactness, Y accurately chronicled persecutions of believers in his city. he used shorthand to transcribe the trials of christians.
soon after his conversion, Y's commitment to Christ was severely tested. his brother, a communist party member and a surgeon, excoriated Y for 'turning from science to christianity. then other communist party members prodded Y's wife, a student in medical school, to try to force her husband to renounce his faith. Y refused. finally she divorced him, moved
67 to moscow with their child and remarried. even after this Y implored his wife to return, but she refused.
Marina K. was another educated person who became a believer. a psychotherapist in her early thirties, she had been an ardent atheist. she was converted through the witness of believers in varnaul. after her conversion M followed the christian faith as firmly as she had clung to communism.
M's conversion outraged officials at the hospital where she worked. 'You - an educated person - allying yourself with those ignorant, fanatical christians! they cried. through weekly indoctrination sessions, the officials tried to make M's philosophy conform again to communism. when they could not, they dismissed her from her job. soon after that, here husband, angry and embarrassed at the disgrace of a veruiushchaia wife, deserted her.
in barnaul, Vladimir Firsov, who worked at a communist social club, was converted to Christ. he had been raised as a christian by his devout mother, but had turned from the faith. soon after he became director of the communist club, V's wife died, leaving him to care for their 18 month old daughter.
grieved by his wife's death, he started to attend the christian house meetings and also began to listen to christian broadcasts from missionary stations in the West. he returned to God and was baptized in 1962.
after leaving his job as director of the communist club. V found his testimony as a christian followed him and close other jobs to him. eventually, he became one of the evangelists in the church at barnaul.
in another siberian city, a communist director of a kolkhoz (collective farm) fiercely persecuted the christians who worked under him. he personally disrupted
68 their worship services and oversaw the arrest of some believers. for his fervor as a communist party member he received the order of lenin decoration.
in the process of interrogating and persecuting the christians, the kolhoz director gradually heard the Gospel. when he condemned the christians, they often replied with Bible verses. slowly the scriptures changed the director's heart.
one day he accompanied a group of druzhinnike to disband a meeting. but at the door he discovered he could not bludgeon the believers. instead, he fell on his knees in front of the startled christians and cried to God for salvation.
after his conversion he personally went to every christian he had persecuted to ask forgiveness. he traveled to the Communist Party headquarters in barnaul and turned in his communist party card. 'i belong to the christians now, he resolutely announced.
angrily, the authorities accepted the card. 'if you persist in your foolish christianity, we will strip away your awards, they threatened, confident that the loss of pension which accompanies awards would persuade the director to renounce his faith. eventually the director did lose his pension and position, but did not deny his faith.
Nadia and Vasilii S., who lived in barnaul, had turned away from the christian faith, although booth had attended church as children. they had lived in tiny, crowded apartments all their lives. more than anything else they wanted a house of their own.
but building a house in the soviet union is a staggering task. building supplies are scarce and expensive. like many other soviet citizens, Vasilii and Nadia started to steal supplies. they resorted to bribes to obtain materials they could not buy. but as their dream house slowly materialized, their happiness seemed to crumble.
they started to take time off from their housebuilding on sunday to attend christian meetings in a nearby home. at first they stood outside listening to the service through the door. then they crept inside but stood at the farthest corner.
one sunday, even before the lay preacher had finished his sermon, V and his wife stumbled down the aisle. they fell to their knees before the christians. with tears V asked God's forgiveness and pled with the church to pray for him.
even though evangelistic altar calls are forbidden by the soviet government, sinners who wanted to repent often came to the front anyway. the police could not accuse pastors of issuing public invitations when sinners came forward by themselves at the urging of the Holy Spirit.
after prayer, the believers customarily asked the new convertt, 'have you found forgiveness? have you found the joy of the Lord in your heart? what have you received from God now that you have repented?
often the joyful congregation started to sing while the new convert knelt at the front. 'A Wandering Sheep Has Been Found' was a frequent choice.
among russian christians, conversion is invariably followed by baptism. in the soviet union both christians and communist party officials recognize baptism as a significant occasion symbolizing a sincere change.
the soviet government views baptism as the final step of a person's commitment to christianity. in an article entitled 'Sectarian Pedagogy and Soviet Law', one soviet government spokesman wrote about the meaning of baptism among evangelical christians- baptists.
70 baptism is a conscious act and signifies not simply conversion...but the public token of the convert's acceptance as a member of the church, with all the ensuing obligations. quite obviously, this vital step in life is particularly meaningful for a young mind. not merely by chance many teenage high school students literally change before one's eyes after baptism. they no longer watch films, no longer socialize with classmates and so on.
because of the great significance of this christian sacrament, the soviet government consistently discourages any baptisms and specifically forbids baptisms of citizens under 18. at one point in the early 1960s some officials insisted that the minimum age fro baptism should be 30. after all, they argued, wasn't that the age at which Christ Himself had been baptized?
in their campaign to curtail baptisms of children among orthodox believers, some soviet officials soberly asserted, 'baptisms are a health hazard. according to a 1970 soviet government pamphlet entitled 'children and religion: a memorandum for parents,
'statistics are impartial. studies carried out by doctors show:
-that one child out of 10 gets seriously ill after the christening ceremony (mostl frequently with an inflammation of the lungs or middle ear).
-that the general rate of illness among christened children is twice as high as among those not christened.
-that these ceremonies are sometimes the cause of outbreaks of infectious disease among children. for example, in the village of perovka in orenburg province, an epidemic of scarlatina broke out as a result of mass christening.
-that there have been instances of drownings of little ones in baptismal fonts.
often local authorities tried to break up baptismal
71 meetings ahead of time. for example, on one occasion several believers from barnaul planned to attend the baptism of 5 new converts in the small town of S. when officials in S. heard about the proposed baptismal service, they correctly calculated that delegations of christians from other towns would attend. hastily they imposed a quarantine on the town.
when the christians arrived at the train station is S., they were swiftly turned back. 'the city is quarantined - only emergency cases can go through, the milisiia sternly announced.
Efrim S.'s cousin was being baptized and he was determined to attend. 'i'm going to help bury a dead man' R told the guard, remembering the apostle paul's description of baptism. stiffly the guard waved E. through the quarantine checkpoint.
russian christians carefully prepare new converts for baptism. often there is a year of probation before a new convert is baptised, although this requirement varies from one congregation to another. during that time other believers watch and encourage the new convert and instruct him in doctrine and christian living.
christians frankly discuss the cost of following Christ in russia with the new believer: 'are you prepared for persecution? will you be able to stand true to Christ if only you alone are left? if you are questioned by the police and asked to inform on your brothers and sisters, will you be able to withstand pressure? finally, members vote whether to accept the candidate for baptism. the decision must be unanimous.
during times of persecution russian believers have been forced to baptize new converts in secret. christians in barnaul recall baptismal services at 4 AM when believers gathered on the edge of the city at the ob River
72 to witness the baptism of new converts as they joined hands and stepped into the water.
but russian believers much prefer to perform baptism openly and outdoors. outside, passersby notice the converts in their whit gowns. curious, they linger to see what is happening and hear the Gospel preached as each new convert speaks his testimony before he is baptized. in this way baptismal services - which are permitted by law even though they are sometimes illegally prevented - become a means of mass evangelism.
sometimes baptismal services are held in winter. in barnaul, this means that the preacher must chop a hole in the thick ice. Valentina Y., who was baptized in november, remembers her baptism vividly. the christians gathered for the service near a lake outside the city. snow had already fallen. the deacons chopped a hole through the ice and V and 2 other young converts were baptized while the lay pastor stood for half an hour in the freezing water. 'but none of us caught a cold, V recalls with a smile.
TO JAIL
73 the reopening of the prayer house on christmas eve, 1962, was not, as might have been hoped, a government signal for detente with the christians. throughout the summer and fall, harassment had been on the increase as the militsiia strove to gather incriminating evidence against the unregistered baptists.
finally, on dec. 27, the prebyter of the church, Dmitrii Miniakov, was arrested and jailed. 5 other men of the congregation were questioned the same day and had their homes searched.
on dec. 29, 2 of the 5 were picked up: Grigorii Lebedev and Yurii Mikhalkov, the young engineer who had been a believer since april all were charged with organizing harmful religious meetings under Article 227 of the RSFSR penal code. this harsh law, enacted the year before, states:
organizing or directing a group, the activity of which, carried on under the appearance of preaching religious beliefs and performing religious ceremonies, is connected with causing harm to citizen's health or with any other infringe-
74 ments of the person or rights of citizens, or with inducing citizens to refuse social activity or the performance of civic duties or with drawing minors into such a group, shall be punished by deprivation of freedom for a term not exceeding five years or by exile by a similar term with or without confiscation of property.
on new year's eve, several barnaul believers visited the office of the procurator of the october region. they asked were the christian prisoners were being detained and why. the officials answered by herding the christians out of the office and assigning 15 day sentences to Artur Shtertser, M. Dik, and others.
but the case did not come to trial until the next may, by which time the number of defendants had grown to 5 - the presbyter Miniakov, Lebedev, Mikhalkov, Shtertser and Iosif Budimir. the location for the trial was the 'Red Corner' of a factory, which head a large hal used as a court. newspaper articles and radio and television broadcasts slandered the believers. posters caricaturing christians were hung in public places.
soviet citizens are legally allowed to attend public trials. however, officials persistently attempted to prevent members of the barnaul congregation from entering the red corner.
across the soviet union, police have devised several tactics to stop believers from attending the trials of fellow christians. in many instances they hold the trials in unannounced locations. other times they begin the trial and then suddenly post pone it or move it to another location. sometimes the trial is purposely conducted late at night.
during the 5 day trial of the barnaul believers, police barred christians from entering the front door of the courtroom, which held about 500 people. 'there is
75 no more room, they lied. they forcibly turned away local christians as well as believers who had traveled across russia just to support their suffering brothers.
finally, some of the christians discovered a back door to the courtroom through which the police had ushered in communist party members, Komsomoltsy, journalists, and other observers. one christian unobtrusively became friends with journalist and got inside. another carried a copy of the communist Agitator magazine in his hand and was waved into the courtroom.
when the trial began and the 5 defendants saw that many of their christian friends had not been admitted, they bravely protested. 'since you have not allowed our friends to attend this public trial, as they are legally permitted we are not going to answer your questions, they told the judge. 'when you allow our friends to enter and witness the proceedings against us, then we will cooperate.
some of the observers inside the courtroom sided with the defendants. 'it is a public trial...their friends have a right to attend.
to forstall further commotion the judge reluctantly allowed more of the christians inside the courtroom. those who stood outside kept a prayer vigil. when the defendants were marched to the platform, the believers in the audience stood to show their solidarity with their brothers. they shouted to the 5 men, 'Greetings to you brethren on behalf of your freedom!' and then, the 5 men knelt and prayed aloud.
like all soviet citizens, the 5 christians could have chosen the services of a government defense lawyer. they declined this dubious assistance, citing article 146 of the penal code which states, 'if a person is mentally balanced,he has the right to conduct his own defense.
76 'Christ and the truth are our defense, the 5 barnaul believers told the judge.
they had made a point of being familiar with soviet laws. the judge and procurator (prosecution lawyer) listened in confusion as Yurii Mikhlkov quoted clauses from the 1918 decree on the separation of church, state and school, the 1929 law on religious associations and the soviet constitution adopted in 1936.
the 5 men also constantly quoted Scripture, which they considered their best defense, meanwhile, the communist officials tried to prove that christian activities such as preaching were in fact 'slandrous fabrications discrediting the soviet political and social order'.
the 5 defendants answered firmly. one spoke for all when he said, 'we are grateful that we stand before you today not as criminals. we stand before yo as christians who believe in Jesus Christ and trust in god. we wish that all of you would have the same faith and joy that we do.
one of the christians explains, 'while our brethren on trial for their faith quoted God's Word and preached, we prayed God would gie them power. the courtroom was packed with atheists. our 5 brethren thanked God for the opportunity to sow the seed. we knew the whole city was talking about the trial.
the 5 were eventually sentenced to serve from 2 to 5 years of general and strict regime in the barnaul
77 prison. the courts also fined several other christians. YevgeniiBever received a fine deducting 25% of his wages for 6 months. T. L Kiriachkov was fined 50 rubles. P. I Klimontov had to pay 25% of his wages for one month.
it is estimated that at any given time since 1961, approximately 150 baptists from unregistered churches across the USSR have been in jail. sometimes christians have gone to jail for a few days or weeks as a waring. other believers have been sentenced to compulsory labor and forced to work for drastically reduced wages. in some instances, extended fines have been deducted from a believer's salary - a sentence often meted to pregnant women or to christians with physical infirmities.
in other instances, christians have lost their jobs or their permission to attend university. for example, on jan. 20, 1963, Yevgenii Bever was expelled from the Altai Agricultural Institute in his third year because of his religious convictions.
the following year, Irina T., who worked as a nurse's aide, was discharged as a punishment for helping to conduct sunday schools. she was assigned to sweep and shovel streets - a job she was forced to accept to help support her family of 10 children.
'it was hard work, Irina recalls, and a job that most people didn't want. in siberia so much snow falls that it's difficult to find a place to pile it after a while. but my
78 street sweeping job had compensations. i was assigned a section and worked alone. on one harassed me or tried to demote me because i was a believer.
'a few years later i was finally permitted to find another job. my boss said he was sorry to see me leave. 'i guess our division won't take first prize for street sweeping anymore now that you;re gone, he said.
CHILDREN OF GOD
79 younger members of the sect are obliged to spend not less than 10-20 hours a week praying, closing their eyes and folding their hands on their chest...
the 'critics' of science and atheism is one of the most favored themes in baptist sermons. their authors strive to prove that science is supposedly powerless in cracking the inner laws of the universe and that science 'describes' more or less reliably only the outer manifestations of nature...
in this way, quite a detailed and well thought out system of spiritual robbery and enslavement of young people ensues. and her is the result: their outlook is found to be incredibly narrow and impoverished...
the soviet government has rigorously attempted to curb christian parents, whom they accuse of subjecting their children to religious fanaticism. the article excerpted above, entitled 'Hunters of Children's souls', asserted that the sight of christian children 'stirred feelings of profound compassion and at the same time feelings of outrage against those who had brought them to this condition. according to the soviet writer, the children 'looked beaten, slack-jawed, permeated with the fear of 'God Almighty', and their statements bore over-
80 tones of a wholly unchildlike hatred toward all that is 'worldly'.
the Stefan Kuznetsovs, a christian family who lived in barnaul but have now immigrated to west germany, would describe the situation of Christian families quite differently.
in barnaul, stefan and anna lived in a tiny 3 room apartment with their 6 children. beside their stove, 8 pairs of shoes stood in neat stair-step arrangement. around the walls of the 2 front rooms were single beds used as couches by day, each covered with a lacy spread. the biggest bed was for 3 children, who slept widthwise.
besides the two living/bedrooms, there was a narrow kitchen and a tiny room with a shower and toilet. each room had a door to try to provide some privacy in cramped space. anna and stefan had no telephone or washing machine. they considered themselves fortunate to won a small refrigerator (their first) and a 2 burner stove.
like most christian families in russia, the Kuznetsovs hung a Scripture plaque in their front room 'this way other christians knew immediately that we were believers, anna explains. also, the plaque often opened a way to witness to nonbelievers.
Stefan earned 125 rubles a month working in a tractor factory; Anna earned 90 rubles as a janitor in a nursery school. since their family was large, the kuznetsovs received a small monthly allowance from the state for each child. they paid only 15 rubles a month for their apartment. medical care and education were free.
however, food and clothing were expencie for a family of 8. a man's suit, for example, cost about 100
81 rubles. nevertheless, each of A and S's 6 children had at least one change of clothes besides their school uniforms. the girls had colored ribbons to weave into their braids on school days and white ribbons for church. each child owned one pair of shoes and a pair of simple slippers worn inside the apartment to conserve the shoes and the few woven inside the apartment to conserve the shoes and the few woven rugs scattered around the floors.
the Ks didn't complain about their crowded conditions. some larger families lived in even fewer rooms. and A and S were thankful for the small garden plots outside the city that S's factory allowed its workers to use.
A and S struggled a long time with the soviet state over the souls of their children. the Ks knew that Stalin's 1929 laws on religion restricted youth from joining any religious organization until age 18. they also were aware that the 1960 Letter of Instuctions to presbyters prohibited children from even accompanying their parents to worship services. these restrictions and others contained in the letter of Instructions and New Statutes werre some of the reasons A and S did not return to the registered church.
in 1962, when the 5 christian leaders from bar(naul) went to prison, A and S knew that they had been charged under Article 227 of the penal code, one clause of which declares it illigal to entice minors to participate in religious activities 'harmful to the health of citizens and encroaching upon the person or the right of individuals.
in 1966, a decree on religion issued by the soviet government banned sunday schools and informal religious instruction for minors. in a 1968 marriage and family law, restrictions were place even on religious
82 instruction given by parents to their own children, despite an earlier soviet decree that proclaims, ;citizens can teach and be taught religion privately.'
the 1968 law further stipulates that children may be removed from parents who exhibit antisocial behavior - a term soviet courts sometimes interpret to include such actions as prohibiting children from joining communist clubs for youth. russian christians also do not permit their children to attend movies. they often go a strict step further and prohibit participation in sports, musical activities or any social events outside the church. the soviet state can claim final jurisdiction over children in cases like this, since a 1969 marriage and family law declares that parents have no ownership rights to their children. CHILDREN BELONG TO SOCIETY and parents are entrusted with their custody by the state only so long as they fulfill obligations along proper ideological lines. (foot - all this is in contrast to the UN sponsored convention on the fight against discrimination in the field of education, which the USSR signed in 1965. article 5 of this convention states: 'parents and, in appropriate cases, legal guardians, should have the possibility of insuring religious and moral education of their children according to their own convictions.)
but the Kuznetsovs refused to be intimidated. 'the children must see that we parents are genuine and victorious in our faith, S declares. 'here in our home they must learn that God is alive and powerful.
A adds, 'as a family of 8 living in 3 rooms, we could not afford quarreling. christian unity and love begin at home and we try to teach our children that. even the youngest children know that if they squabble, they must kiss the person they have hurt and ask each other's forgiveness. when the children need it, we spank them - but not in anger. we have made it a rule always to pray with the children before and after the spanking.
A and S were more fortunate than many
83 christian families in the soviet union. they owned a Bible - a treasure they often shared with other christian families. even when the bible was loaned out, their children memorized hand-copied portions of scripture. S often told them stories from the Old Testament - how god helped david slay an evil giant or how He saved daniel from the lions' den. 'just as samuel's mother gave her child to God, we have also given you to God, the children were often told.
the Ks listened daily to christian radio broadcasts from missionary stations in the West. when the youngest child, natasha, was 4, she liked to wear her sunday dress to listen because the programs made her feel like she was at church. the 3 youngest children considered Aunt Tania, who tells Bible stories on the broadcasts, to be a relative. 'the children consider all the aunts and uncles in the church and also the radio speakers as part of the same family, A explains with a smile.
the christian uncles and aunts are also the children's heros. in bar every christian child in the unregistered congregation reveres uncle Yurii Mikhalkov, the engineer who had received commendations for his good work. they know the Uncle Yurii has suffered to become a follower of Christ. the parents have explained to even the youngest children that 'Uncle Yurii is sitting in prison now because he wanted everyone - even his friends at the university - to know about Jesus.
A and S did not spare their children from biblical texts such as philippians 1.29: 'for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
'we had no time to read our children fairy tales, A says. 'while they were still tiny, we were forced to
84 teach them that christians must expect to suffer. we had to train them how to reply if the authorities questioned them.
'every day our children were taught atheism at school. their teachers tried to persuade them to turn against christianity. sometimes they even asked the children to inform on other christians. i had to tell my 6 year old olga, 'if the authorities ask, you must ot tell them that Sister Sonia is your sunday school teacher. if you do, they may bring Sister Sonia to a trial and because of your words they might throw her into prison.
all christian education in A and S's family was not sober, however. S bought games for the children at detskii magazin, the children's store - and altered them toward christian ends. the children hovered for hours over a game with a bulb that lights when the player matches the correct biblical character with the corresponding story in Scripture. a designed a coloring book by drawing pictures form Bible stories.
the parents also devised dramas to teach their children spiritual truths. once S brought a bundle of twigs inside the apartment. he handed the children one twig and asked them to break it. it snapped easily. as he added twigs, the bundle became hardr to break - 'just like the strength we will have if we stand together for Christ, S told the children.
another time a used thread for an object lesson. she wrapped a single thread around 10 year old katia's hand. the thread, A said, represented a small sin. a single thread seemed harmless, but as A wrapped more threads around K's hand the children saw the binding effects of even seemingly small sins.
S and A also taught their children christian songs; they sang with their family by the hour. often
85 when the whole family listened to the christian radio broadcasts, they sang along with the familiar hymns. 'if there is singing to God in a home, there is less room for the devil to tempt our children, A emphasizes.
in russia the family is the first stronghold of christian fellowship. however, believers in bar determined that their children must also receive systematic Bible training with other christian children outside their own family. they divided children into 4 groups and adults and older teenagers from the church volunteered for the perilous assignment of teaching them. usually the sunday schools met after the sunday morning services and at special times during the week.
one sunday in february, the primary age group met at A and S's apartment. the children bundled up in their long stockings and heavy coats after the morning service. then 4 adults escorted them on the trolley car to the K's apartment.
after they arrived, one of the older young people acted as sentry to alert the others if the police approached. in that case the children knew that they should immediately divide into small informal groups and scatter toys about the room.A prepared a lunch of rolls, boiled potatoes, cucumbers, pickles and butter while another sister taught the lesson.
when they started conducting the sunday schools in the early 60s, the bar christians had no written materials. later, they painstakingly wrote and mimeographed sunday school lessons, Scripture verses and poems. this literature, however, has been continually confiscated by the police during house searches.
although they rotated their sunday schools from house to house and tried to meet as unobtrusively as possible, the police sometimes disrupted the meetings
86 cornered the frightened children. 'what are you doing here? what have they told you? how often do you come? they would ask.
one of the police complained to a christian mother, 'you've done a wonderful job teaching your children. thy won't answer anything
'we teach our children not to be like judas, the mother replied tersely.
one sunday the police halted a children's meeting in an apartment. a surly policeman asked a 7 year old girl, 'how do you know there is a god? have you seen God?
the little girl mused a moment and then answered, 'the Bible says that only the pure in heart can see God. that's why we can see God and you can't .
besides the sunday schools held in homes, the adults in the bar church planned another ingenious system of christian education. each week, the deacons assigned older young people and adults from the church to visit homes and conduct christian training among the children of the family. the visitors took time to talk with each of the children, play games with them and win their confidence.
A observes, 'with such large families as most of us had, it was important that we planned specific times for Bible lessons. it helped the children sometimes to hear the Scripture lesson from someone outside their own family. this reinforced the teaching we gave them ourselves.
atheistic officials considered special church holidays such as easter especially corrupting for children. whoever, the militsiia assigned to attend church meetings could not help noticing how greatly the children enjoyed the christian celebrations.
87one easter service the christians in bar hung a sign formed with colored lights on the door of their prayer house that said, 'Khristos voskres - voistinu voskres! - Christ is risen - truly He is risen! during the 4 hour meeting, many of the children recited poems and Scriptures. afterwards the adults gave the children presents - pakha (a cheese dessert), kulich bread, hard-boiled eggs with brightly colored shells, wall mottoes, toys and games. the festivity delighted the christian children and also attracted neighborhood children.
in it attempt to stamp out religion, particularly among susceptible young people, the soviet government has systematically initiated communist ceremonies and holidays intended to replace christian ones such as easter. Domsomol weddings are supposed to replace religious ones. communist dedication of infants is calculated to take the place of baptisms and communist coming-of -age ceremonies at age 16, when internal soviet passports are issued, are organized to supplant such religious practices as confirmation. ceremonies for consecration of workers and joining the Red Army are also encouraged by soviet authorities so that secular rituals will become 'an inalienable, integral part of the many sided spiritual life of our society. these rituals should enable interaction among people...and of course they should serve as an active means of atheistic upbringing and training.
the text of one 'commemorative certificate' issued at an atheistic ceremony designed to replace baptism reads:
when you are grown, read these precepts and always follow them.
remember that you are a citizen of the Great Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics -the
88 country of freedom and happiness, where man is a friend, comrade and brother to man.
Guard the Motherland as the apple of your eye, increase her wealth and glory.
walk firmly on the path of life indicated by the great Lenin. be honorable, diligent and orderly in great an small matters. respect parents, elders. support the honor of the collective in which you learn and labor.
remember, fortune is joyful labor for the glory of one's people, the battle for the beautiful future of mankind -communism!
many of the believers in bar and in other churches throughout russia are young. this increasing percentage of young people particularly annoys communist authorities. for example, the atheistic publication Liudyna i Svit (Man and Word) insists, 'today typical believer is elderly, usually female, has little education, is isolated from any sort of working collective, is a housewife, a pensioner, or a part-time worker in a kolkhoz or production plant. however, on a religious holiday, one may find an occasional minor, a young man or a girl in a church or sectarian house of worship.
the many christian young people in bar use birthday parties, graduations and every possible celebration as an occasion for a christian gathering. 17 year old Volodia B. says, with a smile, 'in a youth group as large as ours, we can always find someone with a birthday.
sometimes the meetings are unstructured, giving the young people a chance to sing, pray and talk about God with other believers. their closeness strongly compensates for the lack of a university education or promising career, which they probably will not receive unless they deny their faith.
89 at other times the young people carefully plan their meeting. a passage of Scripture is assigned. the young peop;le on charge pass out slips of paper. on some are verses of Scripture wich the person is asked to explain. on others the young people have written probing questions:
'do you have a grudge against anyone in the youth group?
are you seriously praying for our brothers and sisters in prison?
describe your conversion experience.
how many times a day do you pray/
how do you overcome temptation?
everyone receives a paper and everyone participates. at the end of the meeting, slips of paper with each other's names and names of unconverted friends are distributed as prayer reminders for the week.
you in bar often plan gatherings with young christians from other areas. communist holidays such as International Labor Day (may 1), Day of Victory (may 9), and Revolution Day (november 7-8) are frequently used as opportunities to organize mass meetings for young people from registered and unregistered churches who come from hundreds of miles around bar.
once the unregistered churches from the Altai Territory planned a youth rally and obtained permission to use the registered church in the city of Novosibirsk. but more typically, th youth meetings are held in the forest. 'there's more space and the militsiia are less likely to disturb us, says sergei R., an 18 year old from bar.
as many as 800 young people have attended these rallies in the forests of siberia. the young people are careful to gather far enough into the forest that no one will accuse them of disrupting public peace. nevertheless, such huge meetings sometimes attract the attention of the police.sometimes they only record
92 names and threaten, while other times they puch their way through the crowd with clubs until the meeting disperses.
young people from bar frequently travel to outlying areas in smaller groups to encourage other churches. one saturday night 20 of them traveled to a small town where they planned to conduct a communion service the next morning.
on the way to the meeting the young people sang - so well that the conductor offered not to charge them for their train tickets. but the young people paid and continued singing. two plain-clothes policemen disliked the music. when the youth group arrived in the city of B., they arrested the elderly preacher, Brother Petr, who had accompanied the group.
inside the prison, Brother Petr refused to eat until he was released. the young people took turns standing vigil outside, patiently singing hymns. the police refused to allow the young people to conduct the communion service, but after 7 days finally released Brother Petr.
in 1974 several young christians from bar sent the following letter to the West. they wrote:
dear brothers and sisters in the West, beloved in the Lord, we young christians of far eastern Siberia greet you this day.
we are obliged to you for your solidarity and concerned attention to us as we are being persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ...we feel the inviible but strong support of your sincere prayers before God. our prayers are not alone - they are uited in one mighty stream with yours and, gaining great strength, flow into those blessed bowls wich stand before god's throne (revelation 5.8).
joy fills our hearts when we see that you do not remain indifferent to our persecution and that we are not alone -
93 we have friends with whom we are united by the blood of Jesus.
Let the world hear our voice this day.
Let it know that we are still alive!
Surely Christ Jesus of Nazareth is with us.
Surely friends from a distant country are with us!
Let our mutual concerns (our sufferings and deprivations and your prayers ) bear fruit before God. 'finally, brethren, farewell. be perfect, be of good comfort, beof one mind, live in peace; at the God of love and peace shell be with you'. II corinthians 13.11
that time will come very soon when we shall witnes those truths which John wrote about in his Revelation; then will we see all the glory of God. there will be on one who will grieve when brought to his knees before the Lord, for each will see incese offered with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar. revelation 8.3
unite with us for the truth and don't let your prayers for all the saints and for us grow weak in the future.
let us unite today into one christian family which knows neither border nor distance - only the pure, boundless azure sky which lies above you and us. there is one sky, where ou beloved Friend Jesus is and where wil will soon meet at His feet.
until we meet in heaven, dear friends,
Young Christians of Barnalu, Siberia, USSR
ANATOLII AND LARISA
94 anatolii was 12 and larisa 11 the year that the police locked the registered prayer house at 67 radishchevskaia Street. both wer caught in the tuult that followed when their parents and others began to meet in homes for church services - the time when some christians came to be called Initsiativnike (reformers).
A and L had always been together in the group of children who gathered cautiously for sunday school. as teenagers, they attended birthday parties that ere really youth meetings and occasionally attended mass meetings in the forest. but carefully following the conservative customs of christian courtship in russia, they had never been together alone.
however, by the time A was 20, he felt certain he loved L and wanted to marry her. but he did not propose to L directly. with traditional circumspection, he had never spoken to her except when the group of christian young people was together.
on a blustery night in january, A called at the home of Grigorii M., a pastor of the bar church whom all the young people trusted as their friend and
95 spiritual advisor. 'Brother Grigorii cares, the young people had remarked more than once.
G's wife Vera welcomed A into their 3 room wooden house. she seemed perpetually patient, despite the commotion of her own 6 children and a steam of christian brothers and sisters who constantly stopped to talk with the pastor.
Ah, so it is Larisa, the pastor smiled.
Anatolii, his face flushed, finally said, 'if it is God's will, I want to marry her, Brother Grigorii.
the pastor heartily approved the marriage. he had watched A and L mature in christian faith and he had suspected their attraction to each other. 'for the next 3 months I will pray with you, he said, trying to be heard above the children's choir practicing in the next room. 'then I will call on L's parents.
A nodded. the procedures of courtship and marriage were clearly understood among all the christian young people, even though seldom discussed. if L's parents agreed, then he and the pastor would call together on L. with a surge of joy, a felt certain l would say yes.
in april, the pastor and A -a nervous suitor - stood by the apartment door of L's family. L herself answered their knock. her long auburn hair swept gently from her forehead. the crimson of her cheeks and excitement in her eyes seemed to A hopeful signs, although she shyly summoned her father as soon as the guests were inside the door.
'but it is to you we must speak now, Larisa, the pastor said with a smile. 'do you feel it is God's will for you to marry Anatolii? would you like some time to pray over your decision?
next sunday the pastor announced the news. a ripple
96 of whispers passed through the section where the babushki sat. even though L and A had never been alone together, their engagement had not gone unsuspected by the church grandmothers. 'L and A will walk together, the pastor said with a smile. the wedding will be held sunday, june 15, after our worship time.
in russia, christian weddings and communist wedding are markedly different. communist wedding are held in wedding palaces - state buildings where as many as 50 couples a day are married in quick procession.
at the wedding palace each coupel, with their friends and relatives, is suhered into an ornate room. one or two officials - frequently women - preside over the ten minute ceremony in which they urge the couple to 'work faithfully foe the sake of the beloved motherland and rear children will will be ardent patriots and builders of communism'.
the newly weds sign documents, receive new internal passports to show their changed marital status and then are pronounced man and wife. after a quick glass of champagne, they mover along to make room for the next couple.
often the newly weds proceed straight from the palace to place their wedding bouquet on a monument honoring Lenin or World War II heroes. if they are fortunate enough to own a car or borrow one for the day, they deck it with streams of balloons and attach a doll to the front grille for good luck.
christian weddings in russia are joyously welcomed as an opportunity for a legitimate ass evangelistic meeting. from the first day of their engagement, Larisa and Anatolii started to plan and pray that their wedding would be a witness for Christ.
97 the couple wrote their wedding invitations on postcards. L decorated each post card with a flower border. in a festive script A copied Psalm 34.3 in the center of each postcard: 'O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.
the whole church helped with the preparations. they decided to hold the wedding at the home of the Orlovs, since they had removed some walls from their house in order to hold meetings. the forest bordered the O's , since they had removed some walls from their house in order to hold meetings. the forest bordered the O's backyard - a pleasant setting that would also help make the wedding more secluded.
counting everyone from the church, christians from other towns and non-christian neighbors, L and A expected at least 300 guests - more than both their families together could provide food for. but the young coupel, who were accustomed to thinking of the whole church as one family, knew that the members would help provide the traditional wedding dinner.
preparations for A and L's wedding progressed smoothly until 2 days before the ceremony. that day 20 young people and Iosif D., a deacon, arrived in bar after traveling 100 miles from the city of M. they had come to sing in the wedding choir and play in the orchestra.
the choir gathered that afternoon for a rehearsal at te O's house. during the sermon -invariably a part of a christian choir rehearsal in russia - Iosif preached on Judas's betrayal of Jesus. during the service, a woman from bar who had asked to join the wedding choir slipped quietly from the meeting.
30 minutes later the police had surrounded the house. they demanded that Iosif come with them to the police station.
98 "I don't think I ought to be going with you, he replied. I have come all the way from M. for this wedding - that's why I'm wearing this suit.
by this time l, A and the other young people in the choir were on their knees praying loudly, pleading with God to deliver Iosif. their prayers frightened the police. they bound Iosif's wrists and pulled him to the black wagon parked by the door.
'but i'm not charged with any offense, Iosif protested. 'I'm a free man, not a criminal!
inside the wagon, the police accused, 'you say you are Iosif - you are really Vania, the traveling evangelist. at last we have caught up with You!
'but my passport- Iosif pleaded. 'you can clearly see my name -I am Iosif, not Vania.
'Falsified! the policeman, who was also a KGB interrogator, snorted. 'and you pretend you have come for a wedding! he turned toward Iosif in the back seat of the black wagon. 'do not think you are deceiving us. we know your weddings -just another excuse for your fanatical meetings. it's another trick to pull soviet citizens into your church. real soviet citizens are married in wedding palaces!
strangely, the police parked the black wagon several blocks from the police station. 'we'll walk the rest of the way, the KGB interrogator ordered, unlocking the back door.
Iosif noticed a public washroom across the street. he asked or permission to step inside.
'i simply don't understand to this day how it all happened, Iosif recalls. 'when I spoke to him, the guard simply nodded and turned his back. inside the washroom, i heard a great commotion, my guard was shouting to the KGB interrogator that I had suddenly disappeared
99 i saw the other police scatter and start to search through the crowd. at any moment, i expected them to burst into the washroom, but surprisingly they did not enter the building.
when the police had moved on and the search subsided, i simply walked outside and up the street. i saw that swarms of reinforcements had been called from the station and had surrounded the whole area ahead and set up a barricade. people were being searched. i stepped back, watched from a distance and noticed that the police were allowing buses and automobiles to go through unsearched. i walked back to the bus stop, shoved in among the crowd pushing onto the bus and the police waved our vehicle through the barricade.
i returned to the choir rehearsal that had become a prayer meeting. 'i told you i would return if it was God's will,..and embraced the tearful young people.
Anatolii and Larisa's wedding day dawned sunny. only the dread of the almost certain return of the police hung over the happy day.
by 10 that morning almost 300 people had gathered for the worship service and wedding at the orlovs' house. L and A had strung a wedding banner across the front wall: THOU WILT SHOW ME THE PATH OF LIFE.
for the first and last time, the bride and bridegroom sat together in the front of the congregation during the worship service. by the next sunday L would sit on the women's side of the church and A with the men. L wore a long white dress and in her hair she braided a garland of fialki (violets. A had
tucked a fern in his jacket lapel. solemnly the young couple listened.
pastor Grigorii preached the first sermon. 'even as we have in our meeting today a bride and bridegroom, Christ the bridegroom is one day coming for His Bride the Church, are you ready to meet Him?
Iosif, the deacon from M., preached on the purpose of christian marriage. soberly he reminded the congregation, 'the words of the apostle paul are for our church today. 'the words of the apostle paul are for our church today. 'the time is short: it remaineth, that bothe they that have wives be as though they had none. I cor. 7.29 our first allegiance - married or unmarried - is to the Lord. for the next 30 minutes I spoke practically about God's will for single persons. 'Christ has a purpose and place for every member of His body...
after the sermons and the singing, Pastor Grigorii beckoned A and L to the front. with the congregation as their witness, he asked the young people the customary questions.
'are you marrying of your own free will?
will you live together according to the will of God?
will you be faithful to each other to the end?
will you establish a christian home and raise your children to follow Christ?
are you willing to endure persecution for the Gospel?
after the vows, L and A each prayed aloud. then the parents of the bride and bridegroom prayed. other members of the church also prayed at length for the young couple.
after the vows, L and A each prayed aloud. then the parents of the bride and bridegroom prayed. other members of the church also prayed at length for the young couple.
Grigorii prayed last. then he place L's hand in A's 'the life verse i give to you ..is Matthew 6.33, 'but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. slowly the choir sang...
102 before the long day was over, more than 350 people had participated in the wedding celebration. 20 people had preached short sermons. at least 40 non-believers attended - a cause for great gladness to the believers who otherwise had so little opportunity to share the Gospel with these non-christian friends.
L's mother had invited Marina I,. a neighbor from the apartment across the hall, to her daughter's wedding. Marina had never attended a christian wedding before. when she left the Orlovs' house that evening, she embraced L's mother and thanked her warmly for the invitation. 'You veruiushchie...' she mumbled, 'I just cannot understand -your wedding are so peaceful and orderly. just last week i attended the wedding of my nephew. vodka was flowing, dishes were flying,...
it was 2 AM by the time the last guests told the newlyweds good bye. an hour and a half later L and A rode the trolley car to L's parents' apartment, were they would live until they were fortunate enough to find an apartment of their own. L and A had both taken their 3 day wedding leave of absence from their factories before the ceremony so that they could help prepare for the celebration. in a few hours they would both return to work.
for both of them, their wedding had been the most glorious day of their lives. the sermons...the songs...the love of the church family.
and the police had not returned.
116 SONGS OF DELIVERANCE
on one of those freezing nights, february 29 - a month and a half after Khmara's death ( note: the previous chapter chronicles the brutal treatment and martyrdom of this man who said he would not follow Christ half way) christians from the unregistered congregation in bar gathered for a meeting at the home of aleksandr gushchin.
many times they had met without disruption by the police. but the raids came frequently enough that the christians were not particularly surprised when 5 swearing, shouting druzhinniki and their militsiia leader shoved into the gushchins' tiny house that night.
some of the druzhinniki were drunk. all were disgruntled
117 at being forced to come out into the icy siberian night to track down christians. they had come in a large truck - too large to drive onto the small access road near the gushchin home. consequently, they had to park half a kilometer away and tramp through swirling snow that threatened to turn into a blizzard.
150 christians had crowded into the house. most had managed to sit on narrow benches brought in especially for the meeting. but the benches were lined so closely that the knees of the people in one row nudged the backs of the people in front of them.
the druzhinniki demanded that the 'mob disperse. the believers instinctively moved even closer together. they formed a barricade between the police and the pastors at the front of the room, continuing to sing loudly.
the police were not in the mood for negotiations. they were angry and anxious to finish their assignment. when they saw they could not break through the congregation to the pastors, they started to pull the people closest to the door outside into the hall.
they also phoned the police station for reinforcements. 15 more druzhinniki were deployed with the order, 'be bolder and more energetic. you won't suffer for it.
the police dragged some believers out the door by their arms and legs. the druzhinniki pulled Nadia L., 5 months pregnant, out the door by her heavy braid wound tightly around her head. N pled for permission to at least be allowed to take her coat. in reply, one of the dru shoved her out into the night. 'you are coming with us now! he snarled.
N recalls, 'I thought of the words from the Bible, 'Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the
118 way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison. after all, what can you do when several men grab you and start dragging you through the door?
the druz thrust n and 3 others onto the truck. the christians huddled together for warmth - frightened of the danger of frostbite. then, although paralyzed from cold, they started to sing. 'the whistling wind was our accompaniment, N remembers.
aony a few more days
are left for us to walk
the narrow, thorn-hedged roads,
bearing the burden of Christ.
while our strength remains,
if He commands that we
shall labor, then with courage
we'll bear the cross He gives.
only a few more days
are left for us to work
before we're sheltered from pain
and at home in His glorious light.
back at the Gushchins' house, the militsiia leader had decided to take several more people to the police station, hoping that this would end the meeting and perhaps finally teach the stubborn christians a lesson.
however, when the pastors at the front of the packed room saw what was happening, they shouted to the police, 'Wait! if you are going to take some of us - then you must take us all. just a minute to put on our coats and we will come! we're one family, another pastor announced loudly
119 to the police. but the congregation knew his words were also meant to encourage them. 'we will stand together. what happens to one will happen to all.
uncertain whether taking all the christians meant a coup or chaos, the police hesitated. but the christians had swiftly pulled on their coats and were surging toward the captors.
Nadia and the 3 other christians crouched in a corner of the truck, expecting the vehicle to leave for the police station at any moment. N could not help thinking how comforting it would be if her husband lev were beside her. but the 9 children at home, N thought sensibly. if anything happens to me, Lev will have to care for them.
then she saw what looked like a dark cloud coming through the blizzard. over the howling wind she heard singing. 'you can't imagine my joy when i saw the other christians coming, N recalls, it was our brothers and sisters - our family joining us to help us in our time of need.
curious neighbors creaked open their double windows to peer into the stormy night at the strange scene by the truck - people embracing, singing, praying. police shouted, swore, and shoved.
but when the whole group had gathered by the truck. the druz faced a problem. 150 christians, plus police reinforcements. would not fit into the truck. furiously, they herded their prisoners into the snow-swept street for the long march to the station. but the police, wrapped in long overcoats and dushegreiki = sheepskin vests called 'soul-warmers' - were not suffering from the cold.
the 4 christians who had come without their coats were freeqing. the others quickly shared their wraps. 'I
120 can still see Yurii with Soia's kerchief tied tightly under his chin, N remembers with a laugh. 'but we didn't care if we looked like clowns. we were so glad for any warmth to protect us against the blizzard
arm in arm the christians marched away from the truck singing:
if we place our trust in Jesus,
Light will shine upon our way,
Joy will fill our hearts each day,
No discouragement will stay.
'as we marched, we made such a strange procession that people could not help noticing us through the blizzard, N recalls. we did not want to miss an opportunity to testify to them about Christ. the authorities would never have given us permission to preach on the street, but they could hardy prevent prisoners from singing. we even felt a happiness, because we were suffering for the sake of Christ. we remembered that Christ sang as He left the Last Supper for the Garden of Gethsemane.
the leader of the foray against the christians phoned ahead to the police station. he requested that trucks and more police be sent to transport the christians.
druz reinforcements had gathered at the Communist Club of the Eastern Village, where a film was being shown. they waited in the lobby to keep warm. as the 150 christians appeared outside the club, the movie finished. the druz poured into the street, but so did the crowd from the cinema.
the curious citizens intermingled with the christians. 'what have you done? they asked. 'where are they taking you? really? because you are a veruiushchii?
121 by now the blizzard was blowing wildly. in the confusion of the crowd, the police searched frantically for their prisoners. 'all christians to the left - non-christians to the right! the milisiia leader bellowed into the blizzard. 'No mixing!
when the police had finally succeeded in separating the crowd, they herded the christians into the 2 covered trucks that had been summoned from the police station.
the police pushed the christians like cattle onto the trucks - hollering, hitting and in some cases hurting their prisoners. the blizzard blew so bitterly that people could not recognize each other. the stormy night had turned into a surrealistic nightmare.
the crowd from the cinema did not disperse. they gaped as the police herded the harmless christians onto the trucks. some crossed to the christians' side of the street in protest. even some of the police started to grumble about such a 'crude assignment'.
inside the covered vans the christians trembled from cold and fear. their greatest worry was that the two trucks would drive to separate destinations. 'as long as we were together, we felt we could face our suffering, N remembers. to keep their courage in Christ from faltering, they started to sing.
to their great relief, both trucks arrived at the October Region Executive Committee building. with renewed courage the prisoners marched into the government building singing the hymn 'Joy of Salvation'.
Day of salvation
We sing today,
All our thanksgiving
Bring to the Lord
122 Heaven and earth
With joy praise His name
Miracle-working
Name we proclaim.
His precious blood,
Has saved us from sin.
By His stripes we are healed,
By His loss we are found.
The power of death
He broke in His death.
He bore our blame
And canceled the curse.
With praise in our hearts
We'll gratefully raise
Our songs throughout life
And forever in heaven.
Nadia remembers the remarkable triumphant entry of the prisoners. 'as our 150 voice choir sang, the songs echoed through the high halls of the Communist Party building as if it were a cathedral. there must have been about 500 police altogether surrounding us inside the building. what an opportunity we had to testify through our singing!
'what are you trying to do - hold a Gospel service in this building? one of the militsiia leaders growled. the christians sang all the louder and the police met in another room to discuss the fate of their prisoners.
about 9.30 that night the christians were released, but Yakov Vil, Aleksandr Cushchin and Vladimir Firsov were each fined 50 rubles. one of the druz who took part in disrupting the prayer meeting later said, 'we shouldn't just disperse sectarians - they should be strangled or imprisoned... the head of
123 the area KGB, Comrade I.F. Petrov, defended this statement vigorously.
outside the police station, the christians gathered in an empty yard to pray and praise God for delivering them from the hands of the police. afterwards, they walked arm in arm to the nearby apartment of a christian- and with great thanksgiving to God continued their meeting.
124-132 APPEAL TO THE KREMLIN (1964)
133-143 INTERLUDE (a time of waiting...)
144 THE FALLOUT
civil rights crusades such as the May, 1966, protest at the nation's capital severely embarrassed and also enraged communist authorities back home. chagrined officials in Barnaul (bar) felt the sting of failure when they considered the situation of christians on their city. the registered church, although not particularly active, remained open. but it was the unregistered church that the authorities worried about most. not only had the congregation REFUSED TO DISBAND, but it thrived in spit of their pressure. and it was not even technically violating Article 142 of the penal code by 'REFUSING TO REGISTER. repeatedly the congregation had requested permission to register, but only according to conditions they considered constitutional.
151 openly, communist officials tried to dissuade christians through atheistic education covertly, they tried to destroy the church from within by soliciting informers.
before his conversion, Kondrat Solomonovich Rudi spent 10 years in various prison camps for robbery and hooliganism. (def - ruffian) in 1965, he started to attend the unregistered church meetings in bar, where he was converted and later became a member.
in late 1965, the supervisor of the foundry shop of the Transmash factory summoned Rudi. two men, who did not identify themseles, told Rudi they wanted to chat with him. during the onversation, they commented, 'do you know that there are spies and saboteurs at those Baptist meetings you attend?
Rudi dismissed the accusation. you have attended our meetings..You know we only preach the Gospel of Christ.
during the fall of 1965 and through the following spring, the supervisor summoned Rudi approximately 19 times for conversations and each time asked him to be an informer against the unregistered christians
152 the officials proposed that R would simply continue going to the meetings as before and report everything to the KGB. 'you will be paid well..if you cooperate, you could become a KBG agent. we need people who are honest, who have high moral character and don't drink.
at first, the officials simply suggested proposals in a friendly fashion. then they fiercely threatened R during sessions held at the chemical fiber works and the cotton textile works.
but R resisted firmly, refusing to betray the believers. in fact, as a precaution he told the whole church about the KBG's invitation to join their ranks. steadfastly, the barnaul congregation supported R and prayed god would give him strength to refuse. several of the christians had been through the same ordeal with the KBG themselves and knew what their brother was suffering.
after almost 9 months of coercion by the KGB, R still refused to yield. on june 18, 1966, the procurator of the investigative division of the procurator's office of Altai Territory, A. Rylov, conducted a search at R's house. (eventually, on Feb 14, 1967, R was arrested and held for 5 days.)
when R still refused to cooperate, the KGB tried to pin the informant job on another christian - Aluiz Aleksandrovich Shtertser.
on july 28, 1966, Aluiz was summoned from the Plytechnical Institute, where he was repairing parquet floors, for a conversation with Senior KGB Officer Ditrii Stepanovich Gribok.
on August 4, Shtertser was again taken to Officer Gribok. the KGB continued to harass him that fall. even when he lay ill in the Stroigas Hospital on Oct. 25, 1966,
153 Officer Gribok visited him, urging Shtertser to reconsider becoming an informer. after this, he was approached 3 more times by the KGB, but he flatly refused their offers.
when the KGB could not persuade believers inside the church to act as informers, they tried to infiltrate false believers into the church.
Yasha R., a member of the Gar church, remembers a man who came to call at his apartment. 'i am a christian, the man insisted. i have just moved to bar and i'm delighted to find other believers. later the man offered, 'i have a hidden press. if you have anything you want printed, i'll be happy to help you.
although the offer of the press seemed suspicious, the christians welcomed the newcomer into their congregation and even invited him to preach. he gave a stirring sermon on the Parable of the Ten Virgins. he vigorously sang hymns. however, he avoided praying aloud at all costs.
but the presbyter insisted, 'we are going to pray and we want you, brother, to lead us in prayer.
eventually the christians discovered that the man was an informer - planted by the KGB. over the years, they learned to test people whom they were not sure they could trust. 'will you lead us aloud in prayer? they would ask.
concurrently with their campaign to destroy the church from within, the bar authorities were frowning o a new meeting site the christians had selected. on aug. 15, 1965, Evald Gustavovich Gauf, his wife and children and Yekaterina Fedorovna Shirobokova, a widow with one daughter, had signed as owners of a
154 brick house at 22 Strelochnaia Street. with financial help from the other christians, the Gaufs and Shirobokova had purchased the house for use as a molitvennyi dom - house of prayer. although the purchase was legal, the owners were unable for 6 months to obtain registration to reside there - a procedure usually routine and rapid.
Gauf and several of the other believers petitioned the Territorial Executive Committee in Barnaul (bar) to investigate illegal government interference preventing registration of the house as a residence. the christians asked to see the president of this committed, Comrade S. V. Kalchenko.
on friday, Nov 26, the whole church gathered at the committee office in bar. the christians who entered the building first were thrown out.
the next day, about 200 christians returned. all day they stood in the courtyard, until druz tore through the crowd and thrust them out.
Monday, comrade Kalchenko and his deputies grudgingly received a small delegation. the christians requested permission to register Gauf's house. grateful for the rare opportunity to present their case to a communist official, they also petitioned that persecutions and criminal proceedings against believers be stopped - not only in bar but also in Slavgorod, Nekrasovo, Orlovka, Aleksandrovka and other villages of the territory.
the Executive Committee answered harshly with fines and arrests. Anatolii KharitonovichLiukhtinenwas summoned to a civil court at the radio factory where he had worked for 10 years. for participating in the delegation, he was fined and fired. for their participation, Galina Gerasimenko and Nariia Klimakova were also dismissed from work for 6 months. in february, 1967 - almost a year and a half later - Yakov Bil was
155 charged under Article 142 of the RSFSR penal code with organizing the delegation to the Territorial Executive Committee.
the christians nevertheless continued to meet at Gauf's house during the winter of 1965.
finally, the angry authorities accused Gauf, 'you are conducting church next door to a school with 10 grades. you could corrupt the students! the Territorial Executive Committee and the court of the Railroad Region have handed down a new decision, the authorities announced. 'your house will be demolished and a multilevel residential building will be constructed in its place.
on Mar 9, 1966 - five years and two months after the registered prayer house had been padlocked - a brigade of durz arrived at Gauf's unregistered prayer house with irons and crowbars. several christians were praying inside. the druz broke down the doors, damaged the house and left.
8 days later, the Executive Committee sent a brigade, including druz who had been given a holiday to help, to finish the job with a bulldozer. firetrucks were also dispatched to encircle the house and block the view of passersby.
Gauf's 3 small children, tow elderly ladies and two retired men, Gigorii Dmitrievich Lebedev and Adold Mikhailocich Radke, happened to be inside the house this time. the wrecking crew chased them out and when Radke protested, they bound his arms and placed him on a bus.
the next morning, the whole church gathered at the ruins and prayed. meanwhile, the authorities circulated a rumor that underneath the house, a cemetery containing bones of babies had been discovered. they termed it
156 irrefutable evidence that the bar christians had been 'sacrificing children'.
in a document describing the destruction of their prayer house, the christians wrote:
such actions were a great surprise both to us believers and to the unbelievers of the whole town - and expecially to those who were actually present at this operation of brutal violence upon us believers unlike anything done since 1937 (the height of Stalin's purges). it was the wort of thing you would not believer, even if someone told you about it.
to all the cries of astonishment, the police najor, one of the responsible participants in this pogrom, casually remarked, 'don't worry; if moscow permits it, a bigger house will be build for you on this spot.
one would wish to think that it were not so - that is, that moscow did not do this folly in the name of the struggle against religion. but how can one think otherwise? moreover, the ruling of the primary court was confirmed by all appellate courts including the Supreme Court of the USSR, which until now still has not given any answer to the complaint...
it is difficult to avoid the fact that the courts, police, the press, radio ans all government agencies are obedient executors of the policy of suppressing all religious belief...
on june 21, 1966, Evald Gustavovich Gauf, the owner of the house, was dismissed as a 'hooligan' from his iron and cement manufacturing plant... and to this day...only a mound of earth remains at 22 Strelochnaia Street.
172 HUMAN RIGHTS
with noble intentions the United nations designated 1968 as the International Year of Human Rights. during this year the nations of the world reaffirmed the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, from which the following clauses are taken:
Article 5 no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 10 everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 12 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, not to attacks upon his honor and reputation. everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
173 Article 13, Section 2 everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own and to return to his country.
Article 18 Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 20, Section 1 everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
the USSR was one of the first nations to subscribe to this declaration in 1948 and in 1968 the soviets endorsed it once again.
in bar, the soviet union's public pronouncements and local actions did not coincide. a new wave of searches, disruptions, fines and arrests preceded Human Rights Year in bar. during february and march, 1967, the authorities interrogated several of the christian children and even asked them to write denunciations of their own parents. ans open letter records the interrogations of Vova Budimir, Sasha Airikh, Vova Airikh, Sacha Shtertser and Misha Bogomiachikov, all children from the church.
police also persisted in searching believers' homes and confiscating christian literature and documents. they then used the literature as evidence to charge believers under the clause in Article 142 forbidding 'the preparation for the purpose of mass distribution of petitions, letters, leaflets and other documents which call for infringement of the laws concerning religious cults.
on April 18-22, 1967, YakoBil, Yakov Pauls, Petr
174 Gibert, Aron Dik, Lidiia Neifield, Vatslave Lovkaites (an invalid woman and Luize Shtertser (at the time 6 months pregnant) were tried in the Railroad Workers Club after being forced to sign statements promising not to depart from the city. while several hundred people in the courtroom observed, authorities accused the christians under the amended Article 142 for activities dating from 1960 - although the article was only a year old at the time.
Yakow Bil and Petr Gibert were each sentenced to 300 rubles for possession of religious literature. Yakov Pauls was sentenced to 2 years general regime. the other 4 were fined a 25% deduction of wages for one year. also, Zelma Gauf was fined 50rubles.
that september, Yurii Mikhlkov formally petitioned the soviet government to lift the surveillance of christians by the KBG, but he received no reply. the authorities' only response was to intensify persecution against the bar believers.
as Human Rights Year began, they knew they were in a supernatural struggle. 'we at present live with the feeling of being in some kind of wartime and occupied territory, they wrote. 64 CCECB believers from across russia went to prison in 1968. by the end of the year, more than 200 CCECB members were in jail.
on june 23, 1968, Kornei Korneevich Kreker, a christian visiting bar from Mezhdurechensk, was arrested as he walked with his wife along Severozapadnaia Street. on sept. 13, 1968, Vatslva Osipovna Lovkaites, the invalid, was against arrested in bar. Lidiia Andreevna Neifeld was arrested that same evening.
police accused both women of 'corrupting children with christian teaching.
members of the Christian Council of Prisoners' Relatives (CPR) wrote to U Thant, secretary general of the United Nations, in aug. to complain that the soviet authorities had blatantly ignored their affirmation of human rights in dealing with the CCECB churches in russia. the council members expressed their gratitude for the declaration, but as Lidiia Vins pointed out in the letter, the christians could not help wondering whether it also applied to them:
...last year we sent you detailed letters about persecutions of evangelical christians and baptist believers who live within the territory of the USSR. until now we have received no answer.
it was the will of the Lord that the united Nations should declare the year 1968 as the International Year of Human Rights for the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the General Declaration of Human Rights. as far as we know, every country must adapt its legislation to agree with this declaration and warrant personal freedom - religious freedom included. now the eighth month of 1968 is approaching its end, but at the same time the number of prisoners who go to jail because they preach the Word of God has not decreased and their conditions in the prisons have not changed. police fill the prisons with other christians to replace those who finish their terms of punishment. during the past year another 30 were added to the list of prisoners from CCECB churches. again this means that hundreds of children have been made orphans.
for us the International Year of Human Rights is passing with new reinforced persecution. peaceful worship services are dispersed; believers who participate are fined and sentenced to 15 days without food; children are removed from christian parents because they are brought up with
religious instruction; and homes are searched and spiritual literature confiscated. we cannot describe our sufferings.
we beg you to communicate to us the result of our petition to you, and also whether the agreement of human rights is also valid for us.
as 1969 approached, believers in bar had little reason to feel that their government's siege against them had lifted. the CPR's plea to U Thant was unanswered . rampantly the searches, interrogations, fines and even arrests continued. now even children were interrogated more frequently.
Evald Gauf, owner of the prayer house which police destroyed in 1966, was again hounded in 1969. on sept. 23, citizens in civilian clothing arrived in an unmarked Volga car and coerced Gauf to go with them to the police station. next, at the Railroad Regional Executive Committee, he had to face the notorious Comrade Gorbatenko, who since 1961 had been instrumental in planning persecution of believers in bar.
after a special session, the Regional Executive Committee issued Decision number 234: Gauf was to be sent to a raw materials factory to perform one year of 'labor beneficial to society'. 29% of his wages would be deducted monthly for the benefit of the state, even though Gauf had a family to support.
but when the factory superintendent discovered G was a believer, the superintendent refused him a job. G was transferred to the Altai automotive plant, but here also officials hesitated to hire a believer, even though he had passed all examinations for an electricians's job. finally, G received a lower position there. before they officially hired him, factory officials reprimanded G for 'idleness' during the time he had not been permitted to work.
177 despite continuing harassments, the year 1969 somehow seemed slightly more encouraging to the bar believers than the Year of Human Rights, which had promised so much but delivered so little. by this time the congregation had enlarged its ties with CCECB congregations across russia. the church had also become increasingly active in the national Council of Prisoners' Relatives. in open letters they included accounts of persecution and other open letters from christians in places outside bar, such as Prokopevsk, Kasikove, Pavlodar, Dubrave, krivoi Rod, Lobzovka and Omsk.
bar christians also organized jubilee meetings in 1969 to celebrate the release of Yakov Bil and Petr Gibert as well as other CCECB prisoners from congregations outside bar. (foot - although set in remote siberia, bar served as a center for christian reunions..)
the same year, the soviet government permitted the AUCECB to hold another national congress in moscow. in his address, AUCECB president I. G. Ivanov said, 'we are continually saying to our separated (CCECB) brothers: let's work together; there were mistakes on our part as there also were on yours. today we have listened to reports and we have seen how many mistakes there were on one or the other side. therefore, we must come together and say: we were mistaken - some in one way, others in another, and now we wish to be in error no longer but to be together fulfilling the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'that they may all be one'.
such conciliatory communications did bring some unregistered christians back to AUCECB churches.
178 authorities allowed a few CCECB congregations to register. and, as before, some christians attended services at both registered AUCECB and unregistered CCECB churches. in some cities close fellowship existed between the 2 groups.
but even though leaders from both groups had negotiated during 1969 and agreed that church unity was vital, many christians from CCECB churches felt wary about returning to the AUCECB. many of the reformers still strongly distrusted some of the leading AUCECB officials, who they felt were willing to compromise their faith.
the hopes of the CCECB christians revived in dec. 1969, when they were finally given official permission to hold their first national congress. the reformers earnestly hoped this meant that the government was at last willing to legally recognize CCECB congregations. perhaps at last they would be allowed to register without relinquishing the reforms they had suffered to gain.
on dec. 6, 1969, 120 preachers from CCECB churches across russia gathered in the city of Tula, 150 kilometers south of moscow. they met in the home of N. I. Vladykin, 14 Krasnodontsy Street. during the congress, CCECB council members were chosen, including Dmitrii Miiakov from bar, who was reelected even though he was at that moment in prison. shortly afterward, the council asked soviet authorities to allow 8 members of the CCECB to work as full time ministers of the church. the reformers hoped that at last the days of hiding were over for evangelists.
but their high hopes were short lived. although at this time CCECB congregations across russia were submitting requests for registration, in most
179 instances this information was used only to plan new campaigns of repression. the 120 CCECB leaders who thought they had received government permission to meet freely in Tula found themselves treated like fugitives. some were arrested. the secretary of the CCECB council, Georgii Vins, was charged with parasitism - being unemployed. authorities confiscated the house in Tula where the council had met and owner Vladykin was sentenced to a year of forced labor.
meanwhile, the bar congregation had been meeting at Aleksandr Shtertser's house on 63 Voleibolnaia Drive since the destrucion of Gauf's house 4 years earlier. to make more room for the meetings, Shter
removed the inner walls of his house, reserving only one small bedroom. the Shters at first balanced boards across wooden logs for benches. later some of the deacons built simple wooden benches, which the Shters pushed to one side of the room during the day to make more living space.
the police persistently tried to dislodge the determined believers from their new meeting place. on dec. 17, 1969, a local communist official summoned Shter to the Railroad Club. the next day the believers sent protest telegrams to the USSR Supreme Court and the United Nations. they reminded the authorities that their first prayer hose had been destroyed by order of the communist officials. 'now if the authorities are going to destroy this home, there is nothing left but to destroy us together with the home by bulldozer! the christians stated.
in 1970 the bar believers applied once again to the Altai Regional Executive Committee for legal permission to register their prayer house on Voleibonaia Drive as a church:
180 for the combined fulfilling of our religious requirements, we the citizens, numbering 250 people, under the direction of the Council of Churches of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists (CCECB) of the USSR, decided to register our church...which has been active since 1961. the arias of the activity of our church will be developed according to the discretion of our church. we ask that our group be registered under the name of the bar church of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists whose address is Voleibolnaia Drive, Number 63, which will be temporary until we are granted a permanent location.
the bar congregation received no reply until jan., 1971. then came a letter from their long-time acquaintance, Comrade Gorbatenko, now president of the Railroad Regional Executive Committee. he severely warned them not to hold meetings, since they 'lacked registration'. in march the committee dispatched deputies to visit believers' homes. the deputies read solemnly from a letter with a stamp and seal that accused the believers of 'not registering'.
during 1970, harassment of bar believers was not just confined to meetings they conducted in their own town in the house on Voleibolnaia Drive. christians from bar also traveled to Troitskoe, Bolshaia Rechka, Ozero Krasilovo, pavlovsk and Shumanovka to visit other churches. in each of these cities they were harried by the police and in some instances beaten and detained in the police station.
on oct 18, 1970, some members of the bar church orchestra traveled to a harvest festival at the church in Kulunda, where Nikolai Khmara had lived. during the service, some of the same police who had arrested Kh appeared at the meeting and beat several
181 the police confiscated several musical instruments and hauled some of the christians to the police station. on that same sunday in bar, other members of the unregistered congregation had gathered at Shter's house to celebrate Communion. a police delegation in uniform headed by the district policman, Redor Markovich Stepanov, stormed into the house with a complaint supposedly submitted by the neighborhood. the statement said that the christians 'were disturbing neighbors who worked the night shift and had to sleep during the day. further, the neighbors complained that the christians were 'enticing minors into their religious meetings by serving wine at Communion. because he had opened his home for this church service, the authorities deducted 50 rubles from Aleksandr Shterster's pension.
a few days before easter, 1971, Evald Gauf traveled to the village of Bolshaia Rechka Station to celebrate Communion with the believers there. police came to the home where Gauf was staying and arrested him. later they took him to Biisk, where they held him in custody. after 22 days, G refused to eat. on the 31st day, he was released.
the bar believers wearily looked back to 1961 when their house meetings had begun. they had undergone 5 court trials, which sent 9 of their members to prisons and camps. they had experienced 26 searches with fines totaling 2000 rubles. their prayer house, valued at about 6000 rubles, had been destroyed.
after nearly a decade of struggle, many believers in
182 bar felt that the dark cloud of persecution might never lift. but clinging to God all the more, they refused to despair. they met more often to pray and share strength from the Bible. the Scriptures became their daily guide and sustenance. in an open letter they wrote:
that's how it always is with holy truth,
for men love sinful darkness more than light.
they quench our campfires burning in the night.
and fill their prisons with men who love truth.
for we ought to say, 'if the Lord will,
we shall live and do this or that. james 4.15
189 THE PASSPORT AFFAIR
to the bar believers, Dmitrii Miniakov's (note - their pastor) third arrest had been a terrible injustice. but even after his early release, rumors circulated that the police were plotting new arrests.
for 10 years the bar christians had continuously pled through every legal channel for a stop to religious persecution. they had conscientiously conducted themselves as hard working soviet citizens. they had tried to obey the laws of their land and petitioned their government likewise to heed constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.
the brave band of believers had struggled valiantly, not just for themselves but on behalf of all christians in russia. would their sufferings ever end? the monolithic soviet government still seemed determined to eventually crush anyone they considered a hindrance to the 'construction of communist society.
night after night during the fall of 1971 the church leaders gathered quietly. they fasted, prayed and asked God for direction.
after much searching, they knew what they should do. christians from the unregistered church had not been
190 treated like soviet citizens for 11 years. therefore, it seemed only logical that they should return to the government their documents of citizenship - the internal passports which all soviet citizens from age 16 must carry at all times in order to travel within the country or obtain many other privileges. 'a soviet citizen without a passport is a citizen who doesn't exist, the folk saying went.
rather than affording them privileges of citizenship, believers in bar decided that their passports (listing such details as name, birthday, nationality) had actually been used as a pretext for harassing and arresting them...
after mush consideration the bar christians wrote president podgorny a letter they planned to deliver personally to moscow: 'we prefer not to have passports or military service cards, which give the police an excuse for beating, maltreating or bringing us to court.
191 in a later open letter, the believers explained:
'the church decided to ...turn in passports and military service cards...since long ago we had already been deprived of our civil rights. our condition has been worse than that of Negroes or any other oppressed people we are deprived even of the possibility of praying and worshipping the Creator and Ruler of the world. spiritual oppression is more agonizing than physical oppression and we are suffering both.
'we want to enjoy the rights of free citizens in real life and not simply possess the documentary certification of a citizen - a passport, they wrote in another letter.
with great caution, they laid plans to return their documents to the authorities in moscow. they knew their unprecedented plan would be severely punished if it were discovered. but they hoped that the unheard of surrender of passports would shock the authorities into listening at last.
if the hundreds of protest documents they had mailed before had never reached their destination, there seemed little prospect the the passports and accompanying letter of explanation would ever arrive intact at the Kremlin. thus, 2 men and 2 women were inconspicuously chosen to gather the passports and deliver them by hand to moscow.
with great secrecy the committee collected 130 personal documents from among the congregation. then they circulated a letter to members of the Presidium which each of the passport holders signed, stating that the passports were surrendered voluntarily to protest against persecution of christians.
as a precaution, the 4 christians also copied each of the pass ports while someone stood sentry, watching for
192 the police. the committee had kept details of their plan from the rest of the congregation - where the passports were kept and who would carry them finally to moscow. but despite all their precautions, they could not help worrying as they worked night after night compiling the passports and laboriously photographing each one: had a Judas somehow overheard their plans?
on the day in nov. 1971, that the committee flew to moscow, their families accompanied them to the stop where they planned to catch the bus for the bar airport....
the christians' fears did not subside even after they arrived in moscow. but on the morning set for delivering the passports, a calm certainty of God's purpose compassed the 4.
they set off for the Kremlin clutching the passports in a small package. they passed tourists gathered by the tsar bell and cannon, hurried by a huge, hunched statue of Lenin, and stood before the stately Presidium building. one of them recalls, 'with every step toward the Kremlin we thought of our brothers and sisters back in bar praying - and we felt strengthened. as they approached the Presidium, with its red hammer and sickle flag swirling in the wind, the 4 christians decided that the 2 women would wait outside to watch - and flee if the men were caught inside.
in the Presidium offices, a policeman guarded the admissions window at which a woman receptionist stood.
193 'what do you want? he asked as he surveyed the 2 christians.
but before they could reply, the policman, who apparently thought he heard footsteps on the stairs, dashed toward the noise calling, 'who's there?
the christian turned quickly to the receptionist. 'will you please give these important papers to the authorities for me? he asked, politely handing her the package. she took the package and turned from her desk to examine it. the christians hurried from the building, mingled rapidly with passersby, and walked through Trinity Gate out of the Kremlin. they flew out of moscow on the next plane home without the authorities, or even most of the believers in bar, ever knowing who the messengers had been.
one of the men recalls solemnly, 'if God had not protected us, we surely would have been arrested and would probably be sitting in prison today.
as the christians had predicted, the moscow authorities were shocked. they quickly relayed word to bar. since the local officials did not know the identity of the messengers, they summoned several leaders from the unregistered congregation.'who delivered these to moscow? they demanded furiously. most of the christians could reply that they honestly did not know.
'never before in the history of the Soviet union had such a thing happened, one of the chief officials sputtered in anger mingled with bewilderment. 'all of moscow is talking about this. the whole country -the whole world will know about it. you must take back your passports immediately before word of your outrageous actions spreads even further. don't you fools know it is a
194 privilege to be a soviet citizen? he shouted
but the christians would not be badgered. 'you forced us into this, they said. 'if you had not persecuted us for 11 years, we obviously would not have given up our citizenship.
'but why didn't you come to us first before you went to moscow?
the christians smiled ruefully. 'we have lost track of the many times we tried to ask you for help, one of the deacons said. 'now it is too late.
in the following month the local authorities called on the bar christians, cajoling and finally demanding that the believers take back their pass ports.
'not until we are treated like real soviet citizens' was the reply.
the courage of some other CCECB churches in the soviet union was bolstered by the action. they told their authorities, 'if you do not stop treating us illegally, we will turn in our passports like the christians in bar did.
the bold protest drew national and even some international attention to the plight of believers in bar. it did not persuade the authorities, however, to grant civil rights to christians in their city bar police continued to disrupt meetings, conduct searches and arrest believers.
199 THE FINAL BLOW
after 11 years of persecution, the soviet government had not been able to break the adult christians of bar. thus, in 1971 a sinister campaign was launched against the christian schoolchildren.
but the attack was not new. it had been building for a long time.
in may, 1967, Antonina Miniakova, wife of the presbyter, had written to Leonid Brizhnev, general secretary of the communist party.
as the mother of 5 children, i am disturbed by the illegal actions of organs of the government with regard to our children. without the knowledge of my husband and me, my children, who are attending School Number 54 in bar, were called into separate offices by agents of the KBG and the procurator and interrogated for hours. one can imagine the state children are in when they are away from there parents and surrounded by investigators. if such interrogations have an impact on adults, they affect the health of our children even more.
200 I am stating the facts: in march, 1967, Detective Rylov of the regional procurator's office conducted an hour long interrogation of my son Vova, born in 1958, a pupil in the second grade in School 54 in bar.
on the morning of april 12, 1967, 6 agents of the KBG and the procurator's office searched our home, frightening the children. that same day lena, born in 1954, was called right out of class by here teacher, Nadezhda Sergeevn. she was taken to the teacher's room, where a teacher from the department of atheism, Valentina Alexswandrovna Arzhevikina, was waiting for her. after a prolonged conversation led by Arz in the presence of 3 students, my daughter Lena come home seriously disturbed and barely slept the entire night because of a headache. on the next day, L did poorly in her lessons, could not even concentrate, left the class 3 times in poor condition and finally went to the school doctor.
on Apr 25 l became severely ill and stayed in bed with a high temperature. on that same day agents of the militsiia drove up and took me with my nursing infant to the procurator's office, while the 4 children were left at home crying and in a state of fight. after taking me to the procurator's office, Detective Bariuchkov began to ask me whether i knew any believers in Alma-Ata and whether i had had any correspondence with them.
i was disturbed at all these actions by the procurator's office and the milisiia. when i came home and found my children crying uncontrollably. o was struck with horror at all the lawlessness which is committed against us believers - not by some hooligans or brigands - but by those who look after order and by representatives of local government.
when will these torments against us stop? when will pedagogues of atheism stop deriding our children? if this continues any longer, we will be forced to keep our children from going to school.
antonina miniakova
201 many other christian mothers found the persecution of innocent children unconscionable, two years after Antonina wrote to Brezhnev, christian mothers form across russia compiled a detailed document pleading that persecution against christian children be stopped - that legislation which the USSR had enacted or subscribed to protecting the rights of children be heeded. this protest, dated mar, 1969, was courageously signed by 1453 christian mothers:
as peaceful citizens of our country, we work and live quietly without harming others...'all human beings are born free and alike in worth and rights' - thus runs one of the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights that you have agreed upon. it is valid both for you and for us. you, like ourselves, were once rocked in the cradle by a mother. how much love was included in the cradle sons they sang when we rested in their bosom! your mothers wished you happiness in life. we also wish our children the same thing.
after citing cruel persecutions against their children, the christian mothers pled:
be merciful...the word mother cannot be killed in a child's heart and no atheistic rattles can console their sorrow. who can fathom the despair of a child's soul when it is torn from its mother's han? it is terrible to imagine that all this is happening now and not in the days the woman author Harriet Beecher Stowe writes about in her book Uncle Tom's Cabin, where the child Harry was sold as a slave. all this happens while you are 'protecting' the UNICEF children's fund for the children who suffer under racial discrimination.
we can frankly say that our children are well developed and disciplined. they are not impaired by vices. you'll never find our children among the tens of thousands of juvenile delinquents in this country.
your aim to deprive our children of their religious instruction is quite clear to us. it does not happen because you care about our children, but the aim is to prevent the growth of the church. but Jesus said, 'I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
we mothers, whose love for our children is unlimited, cannot give them to you to be ruined. we cannot and will not keep quiet any longer. they are our children. we have given them life. we also well defend them with all our might, and we are in our proper rights to do so. no intelligent person can contest the rights of a mother. even the animals defend their offspring at the risk of their own lives.
problems for the christian children in bar often began on the first day of school. most of the christian families were large. consequently, school teachers often recognized the christian children. and often- in violation of Lenin's 1918 decree on the separation of church and state (foot - 'each citizen may confess any religion or no religion at all. loss of any rights as the result of the confession of a religion or absence of a religion shall e revoked. the mention in official papers of the religion of a citizen is not allowed.) -a child's religious affiliations were recorded in his documents. a christian child's health records, for example, might contain the notation 'Baptist'.
Yurii C., age 7, came from a large family in the bar congregation, on his first day of school, his teacher Nina Ivanova greeted him. 'Ah, Yurii, she said, 'I remember your brothers Sasha and Petia and your sisters Olia, Katia and Ania. good students - all of them. but they would not change, she mused. and you, little Yurichka - are you going to tell me that you are a veruiushchii, too?
203 'no matter what your parents say, i must insist you join the Octoberists!
Y's parents were well acquainted with the system of atheistic clubs which all soviet schoolchildren are expected to join: the Octoberists, ages 7 to 9, who wear a pin with a red star and silhouette of Lenin as a boy; the Young Pioneers, ages 9-14, who wear a red scarf; and the final achievement for a soviet young person - the Komsomo (communist youth league), which may be joined at the age of 15 or 16.
children who do not choose to join the clubs are automatically barred from many advantages. most extracurricular activities are held at the Pioneer palaces. communist youth club members may take art, music, drama lessons and enjoy many other cultural advantages at no cost. most athletic activities are sponsored through the clubs and any child who expects to attend a university or succeed in russia's highly competitive climb for professional jobs must belong to the clubs.
although children are not legally required to join, most soviet teachers exert every pressure to make sure that their students do. 'how can you object to your children joining the Octoberists? Y's teacher argued with his parents. 'they will become nephews of Lenin, and L was a good man. when this didn't help, the teacher tried to coerce the child. 'just wear your Lenin pin when you're at school, Yurichka. your parents will never know that you belong.
Y still refused to join. then his teacher enlisted peer pressure to change the 7 year old christian. she told 3 ten year old Pioneers, 'you stand at the door and don't allow anyone to enter class unless they are wearing their L pin or red scarf.
in russia, some christian parents feel that their children
204 can join without compromising their convictions. Y's father, however, felt that the clubs were 'the first step toward atheism, because atheism is the foundation for all that the children study in these organizations. the children are taught that there are no spiritual values in life and that man is only a higher form of animal. besides this, they are taught to regard christians as enemies of soviet society; they are even instructed how to inform on believers - including their own parents. unfortunately, our children are taught many of these same lessons even in regular classroom sessions, but not so constantly as if they are enrolled in the communist clubs.
even though they didn't belong to communist clubs, our children were still forced to watch atheistic films - often about 'misguided christians' who had finally found the right path 'back to atheism'! our children knew that we didn't want them to see these films. the schoolteacher also knew. but frequently when the children asked to be dismissed from these films, the teacher locked the room and insisted they stay.
even though we parents objected to the communist clubs, we could not force our children to refuse to join. the decision had to be their own. in school our children were constantly encouraged to break away from their family's beliefs - to betray their own parents. like all soviet children, ours were taught to revere Pavlik Morozov, the Young Pioneer in the 1930s who was murdered by his relatives because he betrayed his parents to the soviet authorities for trying to assist banished kulaks (prosperous peasant farmers). in the Komsomol, new members were forced to 'take a stand of hatred against all religion. younger children were expected to write essays describing every aspect of their home life.
Y's parents raised a thorough defense against such
205efforts. 'we were forced to prepare our children from infancy to face persecution for their faith. in the evenings, we always discussed the problems of the school day with our children. they knew that their conduct had to be exemplary - even the tiniest slip of bad behavior would be used by the teacher to condemn all christians. every morning we prayed with the children before they left for school. on communist holidays, we knew that our children would confront problems because they didn't belong to the clubs and we tried to prepare them spiritually.
we repeated the stories of David, Moses, Daniel, Peter, Stephen and other faithful christians to them we reminded them of the christian aunts and uncles in russia imprisoned for their faith. 'if you join the Octoberists and then the Young Pioneers, you will be standing in opposition to all that our aunts and uncles in prison believe and have suffered for, we told them.
of course we never asked our children to make these decisions without their certainty that we were standing right behind them. our children knew we would do anything for them and that our whole family was in the struggle together to stand for our faith.
children were usually inducted into the communist clubs around nov 7 - Revolution Day. for several days before this time my wife and i prayed and fasted, asking God to strengthen our children for the difficulties we knew would come.
one day my daughter Katia ran home and announced. 'Today they are accepting the first year students into the Octoberists and Yurii is going to be among them.
I was aghast. his teacher made him do it! I protested to myself.
I had been out on the farm cleaning pig pens and was shabbily dressed, but i hurried to the school, afraid i would miss the ceremony and worried at what might happen to Y. my wife and i had warned Y's teacher that we would remove him from school if she forced him into the Octoberists against his will.
i rushed to the school and ran looking everywhere for Y, but could not find him. so i went directly to the principal, i reminded him that Y did not want to join the Octoberists and I asked to see my son. the principal retorted, 'I guess you haven't sat in prison long enough, have you?
if we have to, we will sit in prison for years so our children are not forced to become members of the communist clubs, I answered.
from the principal's office, i noticed children down the hall marching into a club room. i looked inside the room and saw that the initiation ceremony was about to begin. i wanted to go inside to be near Y, but i knew i did not dare, because i could be accused of disturbing a public meeting, so i stood outside, looking in and praying.
some of Y's older classmates saw me and knew I was Y's father. at the instruction of their teacher, they stood in front of Y to try to shield him from seeing me.
painfully i watched as the children marched proudly on stage. the little girls wore freshly starched whit aprons. a patriotic song blared from a phonograph turned to full volume. the Young Pioneer members, red scarves tied about their necks, were pinning the red star with an embossed photo of Lenin as a young boy to the shirts of each of the younger children.
Y's turn came. the teacher shoved him out onto
207 the stage. but when one of the Young Pioneers tried to fasten the pin on his shirt, he turned away. the Young Pioneer started to pin the symbol on the other side of his shirt and Y shifted again. finally, Y fled from the stage, to the shouts of the teacher and laughter of the students.
I wanted to comfort my son, but of course i could not see him until he came home that night.
in bar, christian parents conscientiously attended the parent - teacher association meetings. but frequently school officials turned these meetings into a diatribe against christianity.
Rais Y. recalls a PTA meeting where the lecturer raised the stock soviet slander against christians. 'the veruiushchie sacrifice their own children, the lecturer announced dramatically, in gruesome detail, he recounted the story of a ritual murder among believers in Leningrad.
Raisa stood. 'please give me the address in leningrad where this happened, she asked. I'd like to go and investigate this myself.
the lecturer reddened. 'that is impossible? he stammered.
in barnaul you say that child sacrifices are taking place in Leningrad, Raisa continued before an audience as quiet as night. 'in Leningrad, you probably say that we christians in bar are sacrificing our children. you are acting slyly and dishonestly.
the disconcerted lecture switched his attack. 'christian children are robbed of their childhood, treated like slaves and herded to prayer meetings. they are taught psalms instead of merry Pioneer songs. their backward parents prevent them from attending the theater or participating in the wholesome activities of the Young Pioneers. you christian parents are spiritually murdering your children. you are maiming their souls! the lecturer assailed, strangely resorting to religious terminology.
'may I have the names of the christian students to whom you refer? Raisa again asked politely, I would like to check your accusations.
angrily the lecturer refused.
that afternoon when the PTA meeting finished, the parents and teachers walked by a group of students carrying fireplace logs into the school building. the parents slowed to watch. 4 christian children energetically and enthusiastically led the project.
'isn't that Sasha R and Misha N? one of the mothers muttered. 'their parents are veruiushchie and look how hard the children work!
besides PTA meetings, christian parents in bar were frequently summoned to school for special conferences.when Lara R. arrived, she was greeted haughtily by her child's teacher. 'your daughter is having difficulty in reading class, she announced. your child should receive extra help at home. do you or your husband know how to read or write?
Lara said, 'don't assume that because I am a christian I am ignorant. I have had higher education and am a trained nurse. in fact, we christians find it hard to believer that intelligent people such as you persist in believing there is no God.
other parents did not wait for their children's teachers to summon them to school. every day Irina W.s 10 year old daughter Masha came home from school crying. one day M's teacher made here stand in a corner
209 until she would promise to wear a red scarf. when M refused, the teacher gave her a 2 (5 is the highest mark) on her spelling test, even though M had mispelled no words. the day report cards cam out, M received a 3 in conduct even though she had not been disobedient. M's hardest time came when her teacher campaigned to turn the other children against her. 'M believes in the devil, the teacher said one day to the students. 'maybe you children should help drive the devil from her!
in desperation, Irina visited her daughter's classroom. she pled with the teacher not to harass M. with tears she turned to the students,
'children, why do you act so cruelly toward M and the other christian children?
have they harmed you in any way?
are they bad students?
are they hindering you?
some of the children shouted back, 'Akh -M's nothing but a baptist!
by 1972, the situation for christian school children in bar had continued to worsen. christian parents wrote:
how are our childrentreated in school? here are some examples:
a physics teacher of the 51st school, Zoia Mikhailovna Komarova, in the middle of her lecture, slandered christian children from bar. after that our children wee beaten. interrogators Rylov, Shtyrev and others, with the support of the teachers, frightened our children so badly with their questions that they could not even reply.
how could they answer such questions as:
do you believe in go?
who taught you to believe?
do you pray?
where did you see God?
do you go to church?
where do you gather?
who conducts the services?
who preachers
shat does the preacher speak about?
is there a sunday school?
who teachers the children?
how many children attend church?
210 what are the names of the children?
who conducts the children's services?
what kind of program is there for the children?
if the interrogators are able to pry any information out of the children, it is enough to put a christian in prison for 3-5 years. during trials, they try to obtain testimonies from the children against the believers. beside that, they direct film and television cameras on the children. later, a long article appears in the newspapers telling how the christians were exposed at the trial and got what they deserved. after such incidents, some of our children have become sick and some have begun to stutter.
in mar. 1972, Vania L was called to the interrogator's room from his first grade class to be questioned by investigator Sht. terrified, the 7 year old fled and hid in the washroom.
when Vania tried to sneak home quietly, some older children found him and dragged him by the legs up the stairs, his head banging hard on the cement. they triumphantly jerked him into the interrogator's room.
when V returned home, sick and shaking his mother marched to the school. but before she could complain, his flustered teacher said, 'V did not adequately do his schoolwork today.
'of course he didn't, V's mother countered. 'how could he when you dragged him from class to the interrogator's room?
'i tried to persuade him to finish his work during recess, but he didn't, his teacher protested.
that same day Investigator Sht questioned another boy in front of the child's class and teacher. during the interrogation, the 2 adults were distracted. when they turned their heads, the christian boy ran out of the classroom and hid in another room.
211 a few days later when their frightened children reported that another interrogation was being prepared, a delegation of 3 christian parents visited the school Kirill M. , one of the parents, remembers that day.
when we arrived at the principal's office of the Railroad District school, the communist interrogator Sht was present. he seemed surprised to see us. after we greeted him, he asked directly, 'who gave you the authority to pressure our children? you are interrogating them about subjects not related to their education. you are violating the soviet constitution which guarantees separation of the school from the church. please show us the protocols you have prepared as a result of the interviews with our children, Kirill continued. 'we also request to see your documents authorizing you to interrogate our children.
Sht, who was also a KGB officer, shot back, 'who do you think you are that I am going to show you my documents?
he turned to leave the room, but kirill spoke again. 'if you want to know about the affairs of our church, he continued, we beg you to ask us adults who are members of the church - not our children.
we will call any of you for interrogation anytime we please! sht raged. and you can be sure we will continue to question your children. if i don't question them here, I will have them brought by car to my office. we are better equipped for interrogations there, he conclude.
Mariia K., whose 6 children all attended bar schools, spoke to Sht through tears, 'as a mother, i refuse to allow my children to be questioned by you. you have no authorization to interrogate them, ruin their health and cripple them mentally, my daughter Nadia's
212 health is already destroyed. she has seen you come too many times and take her father away to be questioned by the police. she has watched you ransack our home and tear christian literature from our hands. before her eyes, you have threatened to take her and the other children from us. now, to add to all this grief, you are interrogating her. i will not allow you to do this to my child.
it doesn't matter what you will allow, Sht ranted. it is not what you want, it is what we want. if you are not careful, we will invoke Article 19 of the Family and Marriage Law and take your children from you. you are ruining your children by your antisocial behavior.
Kirill spoke quietly, 'if that is your decision, comrade, our children are not returning to school from this day on - not until you promise to stop abusing them.
on march 16, 1972, most of the CCECB congregation in bar withdrew their children from school. they immediately sent carefully documented appeals to the soviet officials in moscow and to the united nations explaining their actions. they painstakingly described the suffering of their children. as they had done so often before, they begged that persecution be stopped.
the christians emphasized their strong desire for their children to return to school, but only'when this disgraceful action ends and a guarantee is given that it will not happen in the future. we parents do not send our children to school to be ridiculed and belittled, but to receive an education.
not all schoolteachers in bar had supported the interrogations. in fact, some teachers even sympathized with the christian children but were terrified to oppose
213 the KBG. nevertheless, all teachers were obligated to teach atheism...
the principal of one school apologized to some christian parents: 'I could do nothing to prevent the interrogation of your children. the KGB simply came and ordered me tog ive them a room. i heard the interrogator drilling the children as though they were criminals. but there wasn't a thing i could do to stop him, because he represented the government and had authority over me. but believe me - i didn't want to do this to you.
the authorities spread the accusation that christians refused to allow their children to attend school because 'religiozniki are opposed to education'. this explanation aroused civic fury and finally some citizens proposed that christian children should be taken from their parents by court order.
as a precaution, several christian parents boarded their children with friends outside the city...
but they did not send their children back to school. the authorities had offered no assurance that the cruel interrogations and harassments would cease. in fact, the KGB reiterated their threat to remove christian children from their parents.
this was the final blow. the christians could withstand persecution themselved, but they would not allow the authorities to endanger the health of their children. they had to take action that would startle the entire world.
on may 9, 1972, 20 bar baptists stormed the gate of the american embassy in moscow. the world had to hear their story.
note: this book has been like a beautiful 'snapshot' catechism on how the church of Jesus Christ should operate. may we 'look' like them in spirit and in life. amen.)
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