- 14-1. Orthodox Christians. Catholics in Georgia. Adventists: Arrest of Shelkov
- 14-2. Pentecostals. Baptists. From the Soviet press
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1. Pentecostals
In March 1978, Muscovite Anatoly Vlasov (CCE 46.6, CCE 47.4) sent a statement to the Belorussian KGB, demanding the return of his property (13 items), confiscated during a search on 8 August 1977 (CCE 46.6).
The search record mentions anti-Soviet and libellous material, Vlasov points out in his statement, but this does not apply to the tape recorder, 20 cassettes (blank or with recordings of religious services), three Bibles and a notebook, which were confiscated from him.
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On 13 April 1978, officials of the Kaluga KGB, Yermachenko and Butarev, interrogated Ivan Fedotov (CCE 48.16) and his wife Valentina (CCE 47.4).
While in Anatoly Vlasov’s flat in Moscow, testified the Swedes Sareld and Engstrom [1], Valentina Fedotova gave them a letter from her husband, who was then serving a prison term (CCE 34.12, CCE 36.8, CCE 41.5). The letter described the administration’s treatment of prisoners.
In autumn 1977 during an interrogation in Minsk (CCE 47.4) Valentina had already been questioned about this. This time the investigators told Fedotova that she had given ‘libellous material’ to ‘foreign security agents’. The Fedotovs were given a formal warning in accordance with the unpublished 25 December 1972 Decree.
Ivan Fedotov told the investigators that he had served 10 years on a charge of inciting people to sacrifice a child to God, and three years under Article 190-1 (RSFSR Criminal Code). He asked if the people who had fabricated these charges against him would be made to answer for them.
The Fedotovs refused to sign the text of the ‘warning’.
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The Kozino village soviet authorities (Rovno Region, UkSSR) tried to stop the religious funeral of G. N. Trotsky. People who had assembled for the funeral were driven away. The funeral was held up for four hours. The presbyter of Dubno congregation received threats that he would “come to a bad end”.
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On 13 May 1978, in western Russia, in the village of Izbichnya (Komarichi district, Bryansk Region), a prayer meeting at the flat of Maria Voronina was broken up.
The local authorities and vigilantes used violent measures, paying no attention to the age of believers: a number of Pentecostals were dragged out by the arms and legs into the roadside mud.
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Since the beginning of 1978, the authorities of the city of Chernogorsk [2] in central Siberia (//Krasnoyarsk Region), have constantly put pressure on the Pentecostal congregation, trying to make them abandon their wish to leave the USSR, and force them to register the congregation.
Since 22 January 1978 officials of the city soviet executive committee, policemen, teachers and representatives of ’public opinion’ have been turning up at religious services.
Officials call the believers’ meetings unlawful and demand that the congregation register in the near future. If this does not happen, all the members of the congregation, in their words, will be subject to criminal charges. Roman Roda, presbyter of the congregation (CCE 45.15), preacher Ruts and the believers Klimentenok, Luzgin and Usenko have been constantly summoned for ‘chats’ — with Andryushchenko, the soviet executive committee’s deputy chairman; with Montorova, an official for religious affairs; with the procurator’s office; and with the administrative commission.
Between the end of January and the end of April 1978, Presbyter Roda was fined 50 roubles four times for holding religious services; the owner of the house where the services were held, L.I. Klimentenok, was twice fined 25 roubles; while other Pentecostals (Usenko and Luzgin) who let their houses be used for meetings, were fined 50 roubles each.
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2. Baptists
Events in Rostov-on-Don
(continuation of report in CCE 47.6).
In March 1978, the city’s Baptist congregation was practically deprived of the possibility of holding prayer-meetings.
The believers were trying to meet on a plot of land belonging to N. Zakharova (CCE 47.6), where a tent demolished by the authorities used to stand. On days when meetings were held, special constables led by the city soviet executive committee’s deputy chairman Arutyunov and police chief Likhobaboi would arrive there ahead of time.
Sentries would detain believers while they were still out on the street and push them into buses marked with signs saying “Welcome!’” The Baptists were then taken to the police station, where they were charged with breaking the law: making an attempt on the life of a policeman, for example, disobedience to the authorities, and so on. This was followed by detention for 10-15 days or fines. Those detained at the police station were put in the cooler, and some were beaten up.
In March over seventy members of the congregation were jailed for 10-15 days.
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At the beginning of May 1978, the Rostov Baptist congregation notified the chairman of the city soviet executive committee [3] about a forthcoming important prayer-meeting. On 7 May, two days before the meeting was due to take place, mass arrests of believers began in the city.
Believers were roused from their beds by people climbing through their windows and breaking down their doors. Searches were conducted and involved the confiscation, without the sanction of the Procurator’s office, of religious literature and ordinary objects. The Baptists were even pulled off suburban trains.
Altogether about two thousand people were arrested.
Many were sentenced to 10-15 days in jail. In the special reception centres some people had their hair cut off, others were taken to the venereal disease clinic and forced to give blood samples. Lyubov Ovchinnikova was detained in the clinic, though the doctors declared her to be healthy.
After the Baptists complained to Moscow, the local authorities began to release those imprisoned without waiting for their sentences to end.
On 13 May 1978, the Christian Committee sent a letter to I.A. Bondarenko, first secretary of the Rostov Region Communist Party committee, demanding that he end these illegalities.
***
On 10 March 1978, Pyotr Danilovich PETERS (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-4) was sentenced to 2.5 years’ imprisonment under Article 190-3 (RSFSR Criminal Code: “Organizing or actively participating in group activities which contravene public order”).
Only the father of the accused was able to attend his trial. His friends and fellow-believers who tried to get into the courtroom were pushed into buses and taken to the police station, where they were held until evening.
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VALENTIN NAPRIENKO
On 5 March 1978, traffic police detained Baptist Valentin Yerofeyevich NAPRIENKO in the town of Chuguyevo (Kharkov Region, UkSSR).
His Zhiguli car was searched without a procurator’s warrant and 460 copies of the book Homiletics, reproduced from the official edition by the Christian publishing house of the Baptist Council of Churches, were confiscated. Naprienko was also deprived of his driving licence and even of his car, without being given any documents about their confiscation.
Naprienko was given a certificate stating he had been detained for three days, stamped by a sobering-up station [вытрезвитель], a document which his place of work in Donetsk refused to accept. He was sacked from his job. Naprienko’s complaints have resulted in the Procuracy threatening him with criminal charges.
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DJAMBUL[4]
1,350 religious books have been confiscated from Andrei Vibe and Andrei Petker (CCE 48.16-4) who were detained in the city of Dzhambul (Kazakh SSR) in December 1977. They were held for 10 days on the premises of the town department of internal affairs, then released.
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NOVOSIBIRSK
Novosibirsk Baptists Zherebnenko, Karman, Kreker and Yakimov, detained in December 1977 (CCE 48.16-4), have also been released. (The surnames Vibe and Zherebnenko were wrongly spelt in the CCE 48 report.)
On 3 February 1978, a search was carried out at Zherebnenko’s home in Novosibirsk, “to confiscate illegally produced religious literature and means of publication”. The search was carried out by the Novosibirsk Regional procuracy (led by Senior Investigator Bashutin) at the request of the Kazakh SSR procurator’s office.
180 large-print, unbound Bibles were confiscated, as well as about one hundred small-print Bibles published in 1968 by the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists; 54 copies of a German psalm-book; 216 copies of the journal Herald of Truth (issue No. 1), 200 copies of issues 2 & 3 of the same journal; a large number of bulletins and pamphlets typed in blue print, and some cardboard and paper. Although Zherebnenko stored all the religious literature openly, the searchers examined and sounded out not only the cupboards but all the walls, attics and cellars in his home.
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MOSCOW REGION
On 13 February 1978, a search was carried out at the home of Baptist V. Ya. Smirnov in Dedovsk (pop. 29,641 1979), a town in the Moscow Region. Bibles, Gospels, hymn books and money belonging both to the church and to himself were confiscated. Later his own money and some copies of the Bible were returned to Smirnov.
On the same day, searches were also carried out at the flats of other believers belonging to the Moscow Baptist congregation. Religious literature was confiscated.
In 1977 the Moscow congregation had received a document allowing it to purchase a house for prayer meetings. Smirnov was then entrusted with the safekeeping of donations for the building of the prayer-house. In February 1978 about 9,000 roubles of church money were confiscated from him.
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KOKCHETAV
After serving a term of imprisonment of 2 ½ years under Article 130, pt 2 (Kazakh SSR Criminal Code = Article 142, RSFSR Code) “for religious propaganda and teaching minors religion”, the Baptist I.Ya. Pauls returned to the city of Kokchetav [5], Kazakhstan. The verdict provided for an additional punitive measure: deprivation of Pauls’ right to work as a doctor (he is an oral surgeon).
After Pauls complained the Kokchetav Regional Court cancelled this clause. Although there is a shortage of oral surgeons in the town, Pauls could not find work in his field. At the same time, he started to receive visits from police officials, who threatened to bring criminal charges against him for parasitism. Finally, Pauls managed to get work as a stevedore.
Because of the heavy work, he developed a lung abscess and was sent to hospital. The doctor treating him had to give an explanation to representatives of the district Party committee (they doubted if Pauls had been so ill that he had to be sent to hospital).
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LETTER
The “Council of ECB Prisoners’ Relatives” has composed an Open Letter addressed to Heads of State, the United Nations and all the world’s Christians. It is dated 19 March 1978. Since the new Constitution was adopted, it states, the Persecution of Believers in the USSR has increased.
It describes
- the violent dispersal of prayer-meetings and the many fines imposed in Omsk;
- the recent arrests and searches of Baptists in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, CCE 48.16-2);
- the sentencing of the Kingisepp printers in the Leningrad Region (CCE 48.16-4);
- the events in Rostov-on-Don (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-4, CCE 49.14-2);
- the Naprienko case (above);
- the prosecution for parasitism of members and clergy of the CCECB who are found living on the charity of their fellow-believers (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-4), and
- the position of Kryuchkov, Chairman of the CCECB, who has been forced to hide from the authorities for many years.
The members of the Council of ECB Prisoners’ Relatives write:
“You received hundreds of letters from believers when the draft Constitution was being discussed, asking that the law of the land be specifically defined to ensure that religious believers find it truly possible to consider themselves equal citizens of this country …
“Has the time not come, at last, to normalize relations with the believers of this country? God is waiting, He is not slow, but he is patient.”
The authors of the letter insist that the following demands must be satisfied at once:
- the legislation on religion is alien and unacceptable to believers: it must be abolished, and prosecution of believers for non-acceptance of this legislation must stop;
- all Christian prisoners must be released immediately;
- the constant interference in the internal affairs of the Church must cease;
- believers should not be prevented from maintaining clergymen through their own resources;
- Kryuchkov, head of the CCECB, must be guaranteed his freedom and given the opportunity of freely conducting services in church;
- immediate steps should be taken against the Council for Religious Affairs for its failure to carry out its primary task: the provision of buildings for use as prayer-houses by religious congregations;
- the confiscation of buildings assigned to believers for prayer-meetings should be forbidden and all fines imposed in this connection should be paid back;
- the money confiscated during searches in Djambul and Dedovsk must be returned to the churches immediately;
- all the religious literature confiscated during the searches in Kazakhstan in December 1977 (CCE 48.16-4) should be returned;
- the bugging of believers’ homes must be stopped;
- those who want to emigrate because of persecution for their faith should be given the opportunity to do so.
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[3]
From the Pages of the Soviet Press
KARAGANDA
On 16 March 1978, the Industrial Karaganda (Kazakh SSR) newspaper published an article by E. Shirokoborodov, “The Law Applies to Everyone”. According to the author, workers at the Maikudun mine had written to the newspaper that not very long ago in their district
“a so-called ‘Sunday school’ for minors was functioning. About one hundred children were studying at the school. The spiritual teachers were B.V. Enns, E.G. Frize, F.K. Frize and Z.P. Gertsen. They taught the children religious songs and poems and acquainted them with various chapters of the Old and New Testaments, organizing examinations with the help of special question-papers.”
After explaining that “in our country religious instruction is only possible in the family, conducted by parents”, Shirokoborodov writes:
“… religious extremists indulge in gross violation of Soviet laws. A few years ago, for example, an attempt was made to establish a ’Bible school’ for children in Temirtau. Of course, the school very soon ceased to exist. Now forbidden activities have again appeared, this time in Karaganda.”
The author quotes a letter from “extremist supporters of the so-called Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian & Baptists” (CCECBC), which has “taken it upon itself to collect hundreds of signatures from religious citizens living in Karaganda, Temirtau, Tokarevka, Kievka and even Dzhezkazgan”:
“We, Baptists of the Karaganda fellowship, having received news from our sister in the Lord, Nina Zakharova, who lives in the town of Rostov-on-Don at 14 Barkovsky Street, are greatly alarmed by the evil deeds of the local authorities …”
The believers’ letter reports that the Pervomaisky district soviet executive committee (under the Rostov city soviet) has deprived N.P. Zakharova of her rights as guardian over her sister Lena (CCE 47.6); Lena is going to be put in a children’s home; and Nina and Lena are forced to wander from one place to another, as their house has been confiscated.
Shirokoborodov writes:
“… there have been no evil deeds in Rostov, no trace of them. These provocative rumours have been spread by members of extremist groups of Baptist schismatics, including N.P. Zakharova herself. And now, as a result, the Party and Soviet authorities, even people abroad, have been inundated with letters and telegrams …”
Shirokoborodov asserts that “Baptists from registered congregations have no connection with the letter”. Basing himself on the Evening Rostov newspaper (13 October 1977), Shirokoborodov informs us that “no one has confiscated the Zakharovs’ house” and that “no one has ever established guardianship of Lena [Zakharova]”.
Shirokoborodov writes of CCECB supporters as follows:
“The unlicensed activities of the leaders of this movement are so inhuman that they do not even have the support of the World Baptist Alliance … However, White emigre reactionaries and foreign anti-Soviet and religious centres are in touch with the ‘schismatics’…. Freedom of conscience is interpreted by them as unlimited freedom of religious propaganda …
“Individual leaders of these congregations have been brought to book more than once by the administrative authorities. Other measures have also been taken with regard to them. For example, because of the efforts of the October district soviet and public opinion among the district teachers, the ‘Sunday school’ mentioned by the miners … was successfully closed. But the extremists don’t give up. In the private flats of believers, preaching activities among young people still go on …
“In the Kirov and Sovetsky districts a group of Baptist schismatics led by D. Lavrov is functioning. In Tokarevka a similar group is headed by hospital-worker P. Varkentin, I. Dik (caretaker at an official building) and L. Tsempel, an official of the district DOSAAF [the Voluntary Society for Assisting the Army, Air Force and Navy]. Their preaching is permeated with the idea of necessary suffering for Christ, and of readiness to make sacrifices in the name of God. For example, Lavrov, a man sentenced for criminal activities, now touches up his past, representing it as suffering for a religious ideal …
“What is the aim of supporters of the Baptist Council of Churches? Chiefly, unlimited religious propaganda … freedom to teach children religion.”
Shirokoborodov writes of the Temirtau congregation of believers:
“This is a registered congregation, but from the very beginning of its existence a group appeared which essentially supported the position taken by the ‘schismatics’. They mask their true feelings in various ways, but their actions speak for themselves.
“The leaders of the congregation (Pauls, the head of the church council, preacher Pankrats and others) summon members’ meetings and arrange prayer-meetings for minors without the necessary permission of the town soviet executive committee. A group of CECBC supporters, headed by Yantsen, who have infiltrated the ranks of the congregation, work among the believers to support illegal, anti-social activities. In particular, they organized the collection of believers’ signatures on a ‘protest’ against the alleged violation of the civil rights of the Rostov Baptists.”
Shirokoborodov writes:
“The voluntary commissions of the Lenin, October and Kirov district soviet executive committees have grown slack in their work. Only this can explain the activity of the Baptist schismatics, the fact that illegal assemblies of religious young people are taking place in private flats …
“It would seem the time has come … to remove Pauls and certain other members from their executive positions in the church and deprive them of registration.”
Shirokoborodov describes the work done by the atheists of Temirtau: when atheists “mobilized all their forces and means for the battle against religion”, ‘active atheist public opinion’ forced the Baptists to “transfer their activities to another district”. But even there they were not left unnoticed:
“As a result of efforts made in schools, labour collectives and public organizations, the role of sectarian families as sources for spreading religiosity is constantly discussed. Nevertheless, of course, complete victory over the sectarians is still far off.”
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VOROSHILOVGRAD
On 19 March 1978, the newspaper Voroshilovgrad Pravda (UkSSR) published an article in its court reports section, “Caught Stealing” by G. Dubrovin.
The article describes the trial on charges of “embezzling and stealing State property” (Article 91, pt. 1: UkSSR Criminal Code) of Vasily Andreyevich GOLUB, presbyter of the Baptist congregation, who was working as a gas-fitter at the Voroshilovgrad Vtorchermet production works.
Dubrovin reports:
“during the investigation, some rumours were spread that V.A. Golub was ‘suffering’ not so much for stealing, but ‘for the faith’…”
Golub was accused of deceiving the drivers E.P. Bobryshev and N.I. Daryushin — by saying he had permission from the management — and taking 5.2 tons of scrap metal out of the factory. Golub “committed such a grievous sin”, because he wanted to help the family of Alexei Timofeyevich KOZOREZOV.
In 1971-1976, A.T. Kozorezov served a five-year sentence under Articles 142, pt. 2, 190-1 & 227, pt. 1 (RSFSR Criminal Code), see also CCE 38.17 (his wife is mentioned in CCE 38.17 and CCE 41.5). Golub wanted to build the Kozorezovs a cellar, as they could not find the material to line it.
“The defendant… himself admitted he was a thief… In no way did he come to trial because he was a believer or was being persecuted in some way for this.”
The article states: “Soviet laws on religion are not to the taste of the Baptists and they often deliberately break them”.
“They try to avoid registering their congregations and hold prayer-meetings in defiance of the law. One such congregation in the regional centre is headed by Golub, Kozorezov, Butkov, Balatsky and others…
“What do they really want? They want to preach sermons wherever they like, engage in charitable activities, convert children and young people to ‘the faith’, and so on.”
Dubrovin states that Golub had served four years’ imprisonment in 1966-1970 and three years in 1972-1975 “for violating the Soviet laws on religious cults”.
“For the same crimes A.T. Kozorezov was twice sentenced and served long terms of punishment; earlier he had lived with his family in the city of Omsk and was famed there as a violator of Soviet laws. They present themselves as ‘martyrs for the faith’, supporting each other, hiding their true aims and deeds from the believers, and slandering Soviet law. They are hostile to the Soviet way of life and turn people away from active participation in social life.”
N. G. Stetsenko, the head of a workshop, who appeared at the trial in the role of public prosecutor, “tore the mask of holiness off” Golub’s face and revealed his ‘real personality’:
“… the court, taking into account the sincere repentance of the defendant, as well as his large family, gave V. A. Golub a suspended sentence of three years’ imprisonment. The defendant has made good the material damage he caused to the factory.”
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BRYANSK
On 24 March 1978, the newspaper Bryansk Worker (West-Central Russia) published an article by A. Makarov, the Religious Affairs Commissioner for the Bryansk Region. It is called “The Law and Freedom of Conscience”. Makarov writes:
“… in Bryansk, Suzemka, Komarichi, Trubchevsk, Pochep and a few other districts, sectarian associations which avoid registration are not being brought to book …,
“This allows the supporters of the so-called Council of Baptist Churches … to organize mass assemblies illegally and to demand completely unlimited religious propaganda …
“Individual extremist members of the Baptist community carry on religious rites outside the premises of prayer-houses and try to force their views on their neighbours. For example, uninvited visitors were haunting the thresholds of the villagers’ houses in Vygonichi, disseminating typed material of a religious nature, until they were stopped by the authorities. On the same day, a second group chartered a bus — supposedly for a ‘wedding’ — from the transport services centre and drove off to the village of Baklan (Pochep district), where they carried out similar illegal activities. Some time later, this group was detained as far away as the Seredina-Buda district in the Sumy Region (UkSSR).
“Naturally, the authorities… cannot and should not put up with such escapades. It can only be regretted that in Pochep district they are being sluggish about putting an end to them …”
The article says that the Baptists of Bezhitsky, a Bryansk city district, are trying to provoke conflicts with the authorities, so that they can keep their flock in ‘a state of constant tension’ and “propagate the idea that they need some kind of special rights, such as the right to conduct unlimited religious propaganda”. In conclusion, Makarov draws the attention of the authorities to the possibility of dissolving agreements granting believers the use of a prayer-house:
“These clauses of our law should be brought to the attention of the authorities, particularly in those districts where illegal activities on the part of fanatically inclined believers are most common.”
However, Makarov admits that:
“There have been cases where believers were refused registration of their religious community or repairs to their prayer-building without any cause, while students have had their religious affiliation mentioned in their reports.”
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NOTES
- On the Swedish Pentecostals Sareld and Engstrom, see CCE 46.6, CCE 47.4 [3] and CCE 48.16-2.
↩︎ - The city of Chernogorsk (pop. 70,000, 1977) is located in the Republic of Khakassia.
↩︎ - The city of Rostov-on-Don then had a population of 898,000 (1976), and was the administrative centre for a large region in southern Russia.
↩︎ - The population of Djambul [Taraz], a Regional administrative centre was 263,793 in 1979.
↩︎ - The population of Kokchetav, an airport city in northern Kazakhstan, was 103,162 in 1979.
↩︎
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A Chronicle of Current Events 