Section “Pentecostals” from a memo by Frolov, head of the instruction group of the Council for Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers

October 8, 2010 · Adam Bondaruk, Baptists, Victor Belykh, AUCECB, Persecution, Interview, KGB, Books, Unregistered Pentecostals, Nikolay Kotyakov, On Emigration, United Church of Evangelical Christians, Vestibule, Petr Saenko, Pentecostals, Religious Mafia, Slavik Radchuk, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services

Section II 156
To the Chairman of the Council I.V. Polyansky
(January) 1956
Pentecostal groups are widespread in the Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics; 296 groups are recorded in the former, and 70 groups in the latter.
Pentecostal groups in the Byelorussian SSR were formed mainly as a result of their breakaway from registered ECB societies.
The Council’s Plenipotentiary under the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian SSR reports in his semi-annual report for the first half of 1954 that by now almost every registered ECB society, under the influence of Pentecostal propaganda, has seen one, and in some cases several, Pentecostal groups break away.
For example, in the settlement of Cherikov, Mogilev Region, an ECB society was registered in 1946. In 1952, under the influence of Pentecostal preachers, a group of 20 Pentecostals broke away from the ECB society and began independently conducting prayer meetings.
Pentecostal groups exist in all regions of the Byelorussian SSR, but the largest number is in the Brest Region. In this region, there are more than 60 such groups with a total of up to 1,500 believers.
Judging by reports from Plenipotentiaries under the regional executive committees of the Byelorussian SSR, Pentecostal groups range in size from 12 to 50 people, hold prayer meetings in believers’ apartments, and have their own leaders.
For instance, in the Brest Region, Pentecostal groups gather for prayer meetings in private apartments. As the Plenipotentiary reports, each group has its own leader. The groups are located in villages and farmsteads.
In the village of Pogastishche, Vitebsk Region, a Pentecostal group of up to 20 people, uniting believers from several settlements, holds prayer meetings and has a certain Pavlyuchkov as its leader. In the village of Shankovo in the same region, a group of up to 22 people led by a certain Shman also gathers for prayer meetings.
The main body of Pentecostal groups in the Ukrainian SSR is concentrated in eight regions, namely: in the Vinnitsa Region — 77 groups, Transcarpathian — 11 groups, Volyn — 100 groups, Zhitomir — 13 groups, Kiev — 17 groups, Crimea — 12 groups, and Odessa Region — 8 Pentecostal groups.
Pentecostal groups in Ukraine, as in Belarus, are small in their numerical composition — from 12 to 40 people; they have no prayer houses of their own, conduct prayer meetings in believers’ apartments, and have their own leaders. The groups are mainly located in rural areas; there are also some groups in cities (Kiev, Kerch, etc.) and workers’ settlements, but such groups constitute an insignificant number.
To give a sense of their character, I provide below data on several Pentecostal groups that are typical for other groups of this cult.
A Pentecostal group of 25 people in the village of Burty, Kiev Region, gathers for prayer meetings at the homes of fellow believers, particularly at the home of a certain Beskrovnaya. The group leader Ivanchenko P.A. lives in the village of Burty.
A group of 27 people, uniting believers from three settlements — Obukhovo, Matyushevka, and Grigorovka, also in the Kiev Region — gathers for prayer meetings at the homes of fellow believers. The group leaders are Tilny Mark and Dykhnenko Petr.
In the Vinnitsa Region, in the village of Yaltushkovo, a group of 30 people, and in the city of Vinnitsa, up to 70 people, also have leaders: the former is a certain Libich, the latter — Bandar.
There are 3 groups in the city of Kerch, Crimea Region, uniting up to 80 Pentecostal believers. The leader of the groups is Vovk. The groups regularly gather for prayer meetings in believers’ apartments, etc.

State Archive of the Russian Federation. F.R.-6991. Inv. 3. File 112. L. 18-20. Original.

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