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6 Dashed Hopes 1910–1917 The intensification of government, church, and social pressure on Russian Baptists coincided with, and was fueled by, continued activism and increasing visibility of evangelical groups in the center of power in St. Petersburg . Although somewhat chastened by the 1910 regulations on congresses and prayer meetings, the Baptists’ seemingly irrepressible missionary spirit continued to promote expansion and institutional development in the years before World War I. When war against the Central Powers came in 1914, the Baptists at last saw a chance to prove their patriotic allegiances by contributing to the war effort. However, the chauvinistic upsurge of the first months of the war soon dashed their hopes of integration into the community of full- fledged Russian subjects. In the broader context of a rejection of all things German, accusations of Baptist “Germanism” rang out ever more loudly and the devastating effect of arrests, exile of leaders, and closure of prayer halls after the outbreak of war sharply curtailed evangelical activity. Thus the crisis of war encouraged the government to act on earlier suspicions about Baptists ’ national allegiances, dangerous organizational ability, and alleged pacifism. Like many other Russians by 1917, no matter what they had believed before the war, the Baptists would give up on the idea of reaching an accommodation with the imperial government. The period between 1910 and 1914 saw continued institutional devel109 Coleman, Russian Baptists 2/7/05 12:03 PM Page 109 opment of the movement. The evangelical press expanded, as Baptist and Khristianin were joined, in 1910, by Ivan Prokhanov’s new weekly newspaper addressing religious and political life, Utrenniaia zviezda [Morning star]. Other journals aimed at a national audience also appeared: in St. Petersburg Gost’ [Guest] began publication in 1910, edited by Vil’gel’m Fetler; a youthoriented Baptist journal, Drug molodezhi [Friend of youth], was published in Balashov from 1911 to 1916; and between mid-1913 and late 1914 Baptists in Odessa produced the weekly Slovo istiny [Word of truth]. In 1908 Prokhanov , together with a group of Mennonite Brethren, founded an evangelical publishing house that issued a steady stream of tracts and books. Soon thereafter they opened a bookstore in St. Petersburg. The following year Fetler organized his own competing publishing house that distributed between 90 and 180 titles annually.1 Russian evangelicals also took the first steps in establishing some sort of Biblical training in their own language. In the first years after the 1905 Revolution the St. Petersburg Evangelical Christians ran informal six-week training courses for preachers, attended by both Evangelical Christians and Baptists from across the empire. A few young Baptists also continued to attend the German Baptist seminary in Lodz, Russian Poland, until it was closed down in 1911. In 1912, the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians received government permission to establish a two-year Bible course in St. Petersburg . Nineteen young men came to the capital in February 1913 to begin their studies in scripture, exegesis, dogma, homiletics, comparative religions, philosophy, ethics, the history of Christianity, and church music.2 The Russian evangelical movement became increasingly visible to the central government and the broader public in these years. Between 1909 and January 1912 the Evangelical Christians held three congresses in the capital . Meanwhile, the Union of Russian Baptists, whose activities had traditionally been centered in the southern reaches of the empire, convened a national congress in St. Petersburg in 1910 and in Moscow in 1911. These conventions allowed the Baptist message to be heard and commented upon by the public, the national press, and government officials. On Christmas day, 1911, the proud dedication of a splendid Baptist house of worship in St. Petersburg also contributed to this growing visibility. Leading Russian Baptists, along with representatives of the capital’s Evangelical Christian and non-Russian Baptist congregations and several foreign guests, gathered for the festive opening of the new Dom Evangeliia [House of the Gospel] on Vasil’evskii Island. After a four-year fund-raising campaign throughout the empire and among Baptists abroad, the largest evangelical prayer house in Russia, with seating for two thousand people and lodging for visitors , opened its doors.3 Also in these years, more than ever before, the Russian Baptists enjoyed the support and attention of their foreign brethren. In particular, Baptists from the English-speaking world, both directly through their activities and the most dangerous sect 110 Coleman, Russian Baptists 2/7/05 12:03 PM Page 110 [3.145.156.46] Project...

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