Stalinist repression of evangelical Christians and Baptists



For one meeting, the NKVD Troika could consider dozens of criminal cases, so standard “extracts from the protocol” were filed in the cases of convicts instead of full sentences. In this case, the convict, in addition to attending meetings of an illegal (like almost all then) group of “sectarians,” no other charges were brought

Among the reasons for including believers of different faiths among the target groups of unfolding repression, historians call the intransigence of the Bolshevik ideology to religion and the desire to accelerate the process of “withering away of religion”, Joseph Stalin’s personal struggle for power and the general intensification of repression , as well as the need to “search for enemies” to rally the population and blame them on the difficulties of collectivization and industrialization .

Lev Mitrokhin believed that the attack on religion was determined by pragmatic political motives, and more specifically, by the struggle for sole power and the strengthening of a totalitarian regime in the country intolerant of independence and free-thinking. For this, according to Lev Mitrokhin, Stalin needed an “image of the enemy”, supporting in the USSR an atmosphere of suspicion, denunciations, “universal investigation and fear” ^[1] .

Despite the absence of a real threat of power from religious organizations, “believers, especially sectarians, were extremely dangerous in another, ideologically, respect: they openly proclaimed the heavenly God as the highest unquestioned authority and did not want to change him to an earthly autocrat,” wrote Mitrokhin . Given the atheism characteristic of the Bolsheviks, religious ministers ideally suited the role of “enemy” ^[1] .

Igor Kurlyandsky ^{[“com.” 1]} explained the Stalinist repressions against believers for two reasons. Firstly, the conduct of collectivization and dispossession required the erosion of the spiritual foundation of the peasantry by a massive blow to religion, combined with incitement of base instincts among the people. Secondly, the Bolshevik ideology itself predicted the extinction of religion in the "happy future" of mankind, and the rapid transformations in the country inspired the party leaders with the illusion that this process could be accelerated by making efforts ^[2] .

The ideological substantiation of the repressions was the doctrine put forward by Stalin “strengthening the class struggle as socialism is completed”, which he first expressed at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) On July 9, 1928 ^[3] . The theory of class struggle, from the point of view of the Bolsheviks, justified repressions of people not for specific crimes, but for the very fact of belonging of one or another person to the "hostile class."

According to Stalin's new doctrine, with the development of socialism in the USSR, the opposition of the "hostile classes" not only did not weaken, but, on the contrary, intensified. Which, in turn, implied the intensification of the fight against them.

The advance to socialism cannot but lead to the resistance of the exploiting elements to this advance, and the resistance of the exploiters cannot but lead to the inevitable aggravation of the class struggle ^[3] .

The number of hostile "anti-Soviet elements" included "sectarians." In particular, during the period of the Great Terror, they, together with “churchmen” (that is, Orthodox), were mentioned as a separate “contingent subject to repression” in the secret operational order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former fists, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements "Of July 30, 1937  .

On April 8, 1929, the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On Religious Associations” was issued. This document (with additions and amendments introduced later) was the main legal act regulating the religious life in the USSR until the very end of Soviet power. He actually banned the activities that most effectively contributed to the Christian mission ^[4] :

create mutual assistance cash desks, cooperatives, production associations and generally use the property at their disposal for any other purpose than satisfying religious needs; provide material support to its members; organize special children's, youth, women's prayer and other meetings, as well as general biblical, literary, needlework, labor, religious studies, etc. meetings, groups, circles, departments, as well as arrange excursions and playgrounds, open libraries and reading rooms, organize sanatoriums and medical care.

On the basis of this law and instructions for its application, churches were closed, ministers were arrested and, in general, all church activities of the gospel communities were suppressed ^[4] .

On May 18, 1929, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted amendments to Article 4 of the Constitution of the RSFSR , which previously assigned citizens “freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda”. The new edition of the article guaranteed citizens "freedom of religious practice and anti-religious propaganda."

Tatyana Nikolskaya ^{[“com.” 2]} identified three main areas of persecution:

1. Fight against religious organizations: confiscation of houses of worship and other buildings belonging to religious organizations; deregistration of religious communities, unions; the closure of educational institutions; closing of publications, as well as a ban on any active religious activity, except for “worship” within the walls of legally operating churches and houses of worship.

2. Repression against ministers and religious activists.

3. Anti-religious propaganda in order to discredit religion and believers, as well as justification of their actions ^[5] .

Propaganda

The late 1920s - early 1930s were peak in the activities of the All-Union Anti-Religious Society “ Union of Atheists ”. A variety of anti-religious publications were published - the newspaper “ Atheist ”, the magazines “Atheist”, “Anti-religious”, “Militant Atheism” and others, organized lectures, demonstrations, disputes, “anti-religious Easter”, etc. The society had tens of thousands of primary cells in factories , factories, on collective farms, in educational institutions. By 1936, the number of organizations exceeded 5 million people, in the detachments of young atheists were more than 2 million children ^[6] .

According to the resolution of the II Congress of the Union of Atheists, held in 1929, “ sectarian organizations, represented by the tops, preachers, activists, are the political agents and political apparatus of not only the kulak and Nepman, but also the direct political agents and military spy organizations of the international bourgeoisie ” ^[7] .

“ The official press of that time carefully collected facts that seemed to confirm the thesis of the inevitability of the aggravation of the class struggle, ” said Lev Mitrokhin . - But the harvest was small. Somewhere, the Baptists tried to organize labor cooperatives consisting exclusively of co-religionists; such "hostile" actions were suppressed from the very beginning. Somewhere, dispossessed sectarians were revealed who, dressed in rags, warned against joining the collective farms, referring to their own adversities. It was reported that prosperous Baptists persecuted their poor "brothers and sisters" who entered the collective farm, about the creation of special funds in support of the "refuseniks", about the distribution of "holy letters", intimidating by close doomsday and punishment that would befall believers who accepted the seal of the Antichrist, then there are those who have joined the collective farm ... ” ^[8]

On May 15, 1932, three months after the conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved the second five-year plan, the Union of Militant Atheists planned its own, "atheist", five-year plan: in the first year - to close the still remaining theological schools; in the second - to carry out the mass closure of churches, to prohibit the publication of religious works and the manufacture of objects of worship; in the third - to send all worshipers abroad; in the fourth, to close the remaining temples of all religions; consolidate the gains made. Thus, it was assumed that by May 1, 1937, religion would be finished in the USSR ^[9] .

However, starting from 1932-1933, the activities of the “Union of Militant Atheists” steadily declined: the authorities needed it less and less, preferring direct repressions to “enlightening” methods of fighting religion.

Deprivation

Since the late 1920s, Christian ministers (elders, deacons, preachers, evangelists, Bible workers) lost their voting rights ^[10] . Simply active believers ^[11] also became “deprived”, often up to 50% of community members were added to the list of “deprived” ^[12] . In practice, the deprivation of electoral rights entailed expulsion from trade unions, dismissal from service, deprivation of pensions, loss of the right to use cooperation, deprivation of bread rations, etc.

The head of the secretariat of the chairman of the All-Union Central Executive Committee of the USSR, analyzing the flow of complaints received “from the ground”, described the situation as follows:

“ There are no signs of elementary revolutionary legality in relation to them, as deprived persons. Local arbitrariness and misunderstanding of party policy reigns on this politically important issue. All measures of local authorities are aimed at, for one with his fists, to "dispossess" of the ministers of worship. This illegal “dispossession” is carried out under the guise of taxation. They try to cultivate the ministers of worship along all lines and in such a size that they cannot fulfill the requirements presented to them. And then all property, even the most necessary for the family, is confiscated from them, and the family is evicted. Such events are sometimes held in court, and more often in administrative order, and this eviction is not limited to eviction from home. There are cases of exiles of worshipers to remote places of the USSR for a number of years (for example, the Vologda province.). Where logging takes place, worshipers and members of their families are mobilized for this work, regardless of gender, age, or health. In some places, these oppressions of religious worshipers are turning into literal mockery. For example, [there were] cases of mobilization of worshipers in the Barnaul district for cleaning pigsties, stables, latrines, etc. ” ^[11] .

Fighting Religious Organizations

During the repressive campaign, both central unions (Baptists and evangelical Christians) were temporarily dissolved, most union employees were arrested, and regional unions and departments ceased to function.

Federal Baptist Union

At the end of 1928, the publication of the Baptist of Ukraine magazine ceased, and in the middle of 1929, the Baptist magazine was stopped. With the arrest of Pavel Ivanov-Klyshnikov , the work of Bible courses ceased, and have not made a single graduation of cadets since the opening (end of 1927) ^[13] .

In December 1929, Chairman of the Federal Union of Baptists of the USSR Nikolai Odintsov wrote: “ As a result of the general lack of money received (earlier) from the province, we were forced to cease the Union’s activities ” ^[14] . In May 1930, a house belonging to the Baptist Union was confiscated in Moscow, which housed the office of the Union, Bible courses, and residential apartments for workers on the Union’s board ^[15] . According to the recollections of one of the believers, a female Baptist worked as a massage therapist and sometimes received sweets and gingerbread from patients. She shared them with Odintsov when he came hungry and sat on a small bench, waiting for help ^[16] .

In December 1930, the remaining members of the board and council of the Baptist Union who remained at large (a significant part of the ministers were already in prison and exile) received permission to restore the Union, and an organizational plenum was appointed. According to the memoirs of Lydia Vince (wife of the chairman of the Far Eastern Baptist Union, Peter Vince ), the plenum was actively interested in the GPU, who wanted to introduce its agents into the board. In anticipation of the plenary session, some participants were called to the GPU for a “preventative conversation”. Vince, who in the circle of believers was indignant at the intervention of the GPU, was arrested even before the plenum. It became known that some of the participants invited to the plenum were arrested even before their arrival in Moscow ^{[17] [13]} .

The Union was restored, however, by virtue of the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR of April 8, 1929 "On Religious Associations", its activity was mainly nominal. For five years, members of the board were arrested (and mostly shot or killed in the camps): Pavel Ivanov-Klyshnikov , Nikolai Odintsov , Pavel Datsko , Mikhail Timoshenko and others, as a result of which the Union ceased to exist in 1935 ^{[18 ]} .

All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians

In 1928, the leader of evangelical Christians Ivan Prokhanov did not return to the USSR from a trip abroad. The Christian magazine was published until the end of 1928, after which its publication ceased. In May 1929, by the decision of the expanded Presidium of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians (ALL), the activities of the Council were suspended, members of the Councils were forced to switch to another job ^[19] .  In 1929, the Leningrad Bible Courses organized by Prokhanov in 1923 were closed. The teacher, Ivan Kargel, was arrested right on the courses and deported from Leningrad. He was again arrested in 1937 (at the age of 88), but was soon released home to die. His three daughters (believers) were arrested by that time: Helena was shot in 1938, Elizabeth and Maria spent more than one year in the camps ^[20] .

On August 28, 1931, an ALL meeting was held with the participation of 40 delegates, at which a decision was made to apply for the resumption of the council. The following members were elected to the council: Yakov Zhidkov and ten more members ^[21] . There is no information about the fate of one of them, all the others, except Alexei Andreev and Mikhail Orlov , were later arrested. Orlov and Andreev led the remaining nominally ALL exist ^[22] .

Regional Unions and Departments

In 1928-1931, regional unions and divisions of Baptists and evangelical Christians ceased operations. To date, their history is largely unexplored. In those regional unions and departments about which there is information, the leadership was mainly repressed ^[23] (see articles of the Far Eastern Military Council , CFE Treaty , PRSP ).

Confiscation of houses of worship and community denial

The attack on religion was accompanied by the confiscation of houses of worship and the deprivation of community registration. Characteristically, in the midst of repression, the party continued to strictly warn against violent measures against religion. In the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the struggle against the distortions of the party in the collective farm movement” of March 14, 1930, “ completely unacceptable distortions of the party in the field of combating religious prejudice ” were condemned ^[24] . “ This is not just a discrepancy between words and deeds, official declarations with real-life official instructions. This is hypocrisy, elevated to routine, cynicism, as an integral feature of the treatment of the population , ”noted Lev Mitrokhin ^[24] .

In Samara in the autumn of 1929, immediately after the closure of the Volga-Kama Union of Baptists, a prayer house and all the property of the Samara community were confiscated by a court decision, and believers were not allowed to attend services. All this was accompanied by waves of searches and arrests ^[25] .

In Leningrad and its environs, where about 10 communities of evangelical Christians and about the same number of Baptist communities operating in the 1920s, there was only one Gospel House, built by believers in 1910-1911. The cells of the RCP (b) of the Baltic Plant and the Krasny Gvozdilshchik factory claimed this building. In 1930, the House of the Gospel was taken from believers ^[26] , and all communities except the community of the House of the Gospel are closed. Two days after the transfer of the Gospel House to the Elektroapparat plant, a bright red full house appeared on it with the words: “Religion is opium for the people!”, “We will turn the centers of obscurantism into the centers of cultural events!” ^[27] .

In Moscow, the last Baptist community after the arrest of Presbyter Pavel Pavlov officially existed until 1935 ^[27] . Until 1935, the Omsk Baptist community held liturgical meetings in a house of worship built by believers in 1910. In 1935, the house was confiscated and converted to accommodate the equestrian reserve of the regional police ^[28] .

By 1936, almost all communities of evangelical Christians and Baptists were deregistered, their elders were mostly repressed, and prayer houses (from whom they were) were confiscated.

The Great Terror Period

The most difficult time for believers was the period of the Great Terror of 1937-1938. The basis for mass repressions of believers was the secret operational order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former fists, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements” of July 30, 1937, issued as part of the execution of the Politburo decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks No. P51 / 94 “On anti-Soviet elements ”of July 2, 1937 ^[29] .

Order 00447 listed "elements" hostile to the Soviet government (including "formerly repressed churchmen and sectarians") who were called "the main instigators of all kinds of anti-Soviet and sabotage crimes." The order ordered "to crush this whole gang of anti-Soviet elements in the most merciless way."

The repressed should be divided into two categories depending on the degree of hostility. Those in the first category were ordered to be shot, in the second - imprisoned in camps and prisons for 8-10 years. For each region of the USSR, the number of those who should be assigned to each of the categories was established.

Contrary to popular belief, current denunciations played an insignificant role in the implementation of order 00447 ^[30] . The scale of the repressions, the centralization of the process, the need to adjust the number of victims to “control figures” forced the NKVD to put the process on a “flow”: the arrests were made on the basis of files of local state security agencies, as well as testimonies of those arrested. Tatyana Nikolskaya describes the case when the authorities in 1938 invited believers to restore the registration of the community, and then arrested them according to the lists of community members submitted for registration ^[31] .

In accordance with order 00447, the consideration of cases was carried out by the NKVD Troika , consisting of the head of the regional department of the NKVD, the secretary of the regional committee and the prosecutor of the region. Materials for consideration were submitted by the NKVD bodies, the consideration took place in absentia, the protocol was not conducted, the procedure was free. Former Chekist M. Schreider described in his memoirs how the Troika worked in the Ivanovo Region: a subpoena or so-called “album” was drawn up, on each page of which was the name, patronymic, last name, year of birth and the committed “crime” of the arrested person. After that, the head of the regional department of the NKVD wrote in red pencil on each page a capital letter “P”, which meant “execution,” and signed it. That same evening or night, the sentence was carried out. Usually, other members of the troika signed the pages of the “album-agenda” in advance, “in advance” ^[32] .

Since a significant part of the ministers had already been repressed by this time, mass arrests with subsequent executions and imprisonment in the Gulag camps were carried out among ordinary members of the communities. Also, the repression of this period included some of the previously convicted ministers who had ended their sentences. For example, the evangelist of the Far Eastern department of ALL Vladimir Blushtein, according to the recollections of his son Vsevolod, was convicted in 1933, but after serving his 5-year term he was never released from the camp. He was shot after refusing to renounce Christ in a newspaper publication ^[33] . Another such example is the chairman of the Federal Baptist Union Nikolai Odintsov , who was shot in 1938 - after his arrest in 1933, after serving a 3-year term and exile.

In general, on the basis of order 00447 from August 1937 to November 1938, 390 thousand people were executed, 380 thousand were sent to the Gulag camps ^[34] (the initial quotas were exceeded several times). In the total mass of repressed, according to the NKVD, “churchmen and sectarians” amounted to 50,769 people, that is 6.6% ^[35] . It is not possible to say exactly what the share of the Gospel believers among them is. According to Andrei Savin ^{[“com.” 3]} , “ their share is obviously comparable to the number of repressed Orthodox clergy and exceeds the number of clergy of other faiths ” ^[35] .

The final stage



The Great Terror campaign declined in the fall of 1938. Nevertheless, repressions against believers continued for more than two years, although they were no longer massive, but point in nature. For example, Robert Fetler , presbyter of the Russian Baptist community in Riga, was repressed with his wife and five children on June 14, 1941, shortly after the Soviet troops entered Latvia . Robert Fetler and his two sons (19 and 20 years old) were arrested and died at different times in prison, and his wife and three daughters (the youngest 10 years old) were exiled to Siberia.

The temporary cessation of repression came only with the outbreak of World War II. “No matter how paradoxical this sounds, but, bitterly ironically, it was the war that saved all the churches from complete extermination, giving them the opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty. In exchange, Stalin granted some new freedoms, though not reinforced by the protection of the law, ”stated Walter Zavatsky ^{[“ com. ”4]} .



The vast majority of elders were repressed ^[36] . Believers began to move to an illegal position. In the North Caucasus, southern Ukraine, the Central Black Earth region , and the Volga region , only in 1929-1933 the number of evangelical Christians and Baptists decreased by 2-10 times, similar processes were observed in other regions. At the same time, the number of evangelical Christians and Baptists sharply increased in places of exile, for example, if in Frunze in 1930 there were up to 150 Baptists, then in 1933 there were 1850 of them ^[36] .

In the book of Andrei Dementyev “Aven-Jezer. Gospel movement in Primorye. 1898-1990 ”contains a list of repressed evangelical Christians and Baptists in the Primorsky Territory, based mainly on the Database of Victims of Political Repression in the Primorsky Territory. The list contains 102 people (90 of them were executed or died in prison) ^[37] , which amounted to about 6% of the number of evangelical Christians and Baptists in the Primorsky Territory in 1927.

According to George Vince , a total of 25,000 evangelical Christians and Baptists were arrested during the repressions starting in 1929 ^[38] . Given the close doctrines of the fraternal Mennonites ^{[“com.” 5]} and the Baptists of the Ingermanland Union ^{[“com.” 6]} , the total number of those arrested, according to George Vins, exceeded 50 thousand ^[38] .

• Khrushchev anti-religious campaign

• Stalinist repression (1928-1941) and the ECB