Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905-1929

7. The Revolution of the Spirit

7 The Revolution of the Spirit In the first weeks after the collapse of the tsarist regime in late February 1917, Moscow Baptist Evgeniia Ofrova took up her pen to describe the exciting vision of a world of engaged citizenship, of class reconciliation, and of liberty, equality, and fraternity in Christ that the revolution had unleashed: Like a crash of thunder, the nationwide news Has spread across great Rus’ That powerful song of great freedom Has rung out like a war cry. The heartless hangman is dismissed forever, The age-old fetters have snapped . . . But the dawn of freedom will begin to burn, When people come to know the fundamentals, The fundamentals that Christ commanded us, That people should love one another . . . And then the peace question will be solved; Only if the commandment of the Lord is preserved. No longer will people stagnate in an iron grip The death penalty will disappear, like a legend; 127 Coleman, Russian Baptists 2/7/05 12:03 PM Page 127 Russia will no longer see the Jew in tears, In the desecration of expulsion. The rod will no longer whistle in policemen’s hands Casemates will no longer hide the innocent. And the most simple will become dignitaries If their genius is apparent. “Bourgeois” and people [narod] will merge into one family, The days of equality and brotherhood will come. And now there will be no division of races, And you won’t buy a title with wealth. People-brothers, citizens of great Rus’! May Christ now govern all! Rus’, offer up a prayer of petition to Him, May He Himself appoint the authorities. Rus’, declare him your leader and Sovereign, May everything be placed under His command. And under the power of Christ’s great love Our Rus’ will blossom, it will not wither.1 Meanwhile, in distant Baku, the local Baptist pastor and veteran missionary , Vasilii V. Ivanov, expressed similar wonder and excitement at the civic upsurge around him in frequent letters to his son, Pavel, a lawyer then working for the city council in the Crimean city of Evpatoriia. After the dark days of wartime repression, his first thoughts, not surprisingly, were of possibilities for the Baptist movement. “No one knows what will happen next, but now all political prisoners will probably be freed, and our brother-sufferers will leave the prisons and return from exile and our gatherings will open!” he rejoiced on March 4. Two days later he reported that the Baptists had elected representatives to the newly formed Baku executive committee. In later letters Ivanov described the new revolutionary Baku: “Now there is a new world, now there are no different estates, but all are free citizens of the great Russian land. . . . All power has been given by God to the people.” Ivanov was eagerly attending public lectures on literature, on humanity, on the purpose of life—and lectures where he listened to “such things about the tsar that are terrible to hear.” The police had been dismissed, and, in the streets, “people of all kinds walk[ed] with red flags and [sang] revolutionary songs,” and the Baptists preached openly. Ivanov urged his son to action, writing, on March 9, that “a wide door for civic activism is opening up for all citizens. . . . Now all the most unreliable have become the most reliable.”2 For both Ofrova and Ivanov, the February Revolution was at once a political and a religious experience. Just as Ivanov echoed the biblical teaching that “the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone” in describing the reversal of social positions wrought by the revolution, so he used the Bible a spiritual revolution 128 Coleman, Russian Baptists 2/7/05 12:03 PM Page 128 to interpret the revolutionary events. On March 17, he sent Pavel a postcard, which read: “The prophetic words have been fulfilled in all ways: Psalm 149: 4–9, read it.” Psalm 149 paints a picture of social inversion, where God “crowns the humble with salvation” and allows them to “bind their kings with fetters.”3 It was God who had granted the new experience of citizenship and the collapse of old hierarchies. And God had not finished His work. As Ofrova pointed out in her poem, the revolution now opened up the possibility, indeed the necessity, for a further revolution, a revolution of the spirit whereby Jesus would solve Russia’s problems of war...