V. Franchuk. The Pentecostal Church in Eastern Ukraine, the Don, and Kuban — The Revival under the Germans in 1941-44
Partial Restoration of the Activities of the Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Faith in Eastern Ukraine
In the Soviet Union up until 1938, the implementation of state policy toward the church was entrusted to the Commission on Religious Affairs under the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. From 1938 onward, the only departmental structure dealing with problems of religion and the church remained a special department within the NKVD. In the ideological work of party organs at that time, the building of a “religionless society” was still declared one of the priority tasks. The chairman of the League of Militant Atheists, E.M. Yaroslavsky (1878‑1943), called for vigorous, offensive actions on the “anti‑religious front,” asserting the following: “Enemies of socialism operate through religious organizations. And in areas where there are no religious organizations, quite often there is a ‘wandering priest’ moving from place to place, a ‘priest‑perdvizhka,’ or former occupants of monasteries have settled there, and defrocked leaders of religious sects hold sway…”
The state tried by coercive methods to make sure that millions of “Soviet” believers were simply physically unable to exercise their right to freedom of conscience. If, even after the great upheavals at the turn of the 1920s‑30s, there were still more than 30 thousand religious organizations in the USSR in 1936, by 1940 there were only 8,296, and of these, in reality only about one‑third were actually functioning. In 25 regions of the Russian Federation there was not a single functioning church. In another twenty, from one to five. As for Ukraine, in the Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Khmelnytskyi regions all churches without exception were closed. Only one church was functioning in each of the Luhansk, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions.
On the eve of the war, church public associations were being liquidated, nearly all monasteries and church printing houses were closed, the property of religious societies was nationalized, and clergymen were deported.
“Godless” and “churchless” villages, settlements, cities, districts, and even entire regions numbered in the tens and hundreds. The plan was to close the last church by 1942.
A most gruesome, bloody war disrupted those plans. During the day on September 4, 1943, at his “nearby dacha” in Kuntsevo, I.V. Stalin held a short meeting “on the question of religion.” Present were G.M. Malenkov, L.P. Beria, and a less well‑known figure, G.G. Karpov, a colonel in the People’s Commissariat of State Security of the USSR, who shortly before had been detached from the partisan staff in Ukraine and appointed head of the department responsible for monitoring the activities of religious organizations. At the dacha Stalin discussed practical issues of settling state‑church relations. It was decided to create, under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, a special organ for liaison between the government and the church, with Karpov at its head. Late that evening, hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church—Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), and Metropolitans Alexius and Nicholas—were invited to the Kremlin for a meeting with Stalin. Also present were V.M. Molotov and G.G. Karpov.
A Christian researcher from Kharkiv, A. Likhosherstov, writes the following in his article “The Church in the Years of War”:
“At the beginning of the conversation, Stalin said that he knew about the extensive patriotic work being carried out by the church and that in numerous letters arriving at the government from the front and from the rear, Soviet people (believers and non‑believers) attached particular significance to the role of the church at this critical time for the country. He then invited his guests to speak. The metropolitans raised the questions of electing a new patriarch, opening churches and theological schools, publishing a monthly magazine, organizing candle factories, granting freedom in the management of religious societies’ funds, and providing premises and church buildings for the needs of the church. Stalin did not object and promised to help. In the course of the conversation, which lasted almost two hours, Stalin repeatedly stressed that ‘the church may count on the government’s all‑round support in all matters relating to its organizational strengthening and development within the USSR.’ At the end of the meeting, the ‘uncomfortable’ questions also surfaced: the fate of hierarchs, priests, and other believers who had been convicted at various times and were imprisoned at that moment. Stalin promised to look into it and instructed Karpov to deal with it personally. Soon afterwards many clergymen were indeed released from the GULAG.”
After that, Stalin continued to take a personal interest in questions of church life, demanding regular information about the situation in the Orthodox and other churches.
The government’s new course and the implementation of Stalin’s model of ‘freedom of conscience’ required a change in the legal framework. In November 1943, a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR “On the Procedure for Opening Churches” was approved. In August 1945, all religious societies were granted partial rights of a legal entity with regard to renting, building, and acquiring as property houses, structures, transport, and utensils for church needs; local authorities were instructed not to hinder the activities of religious societies. In May 1944, the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR was created, and in July it began its practical work, entrusted with the task of “ensuring liaison” between the government and all religious organizations except the Orthodox. Its first chairman was Ivan Vasilyevich Polyansky.
During the war, the Council supported the petitions of many religious centers and believers connected with the “religious revival.” In his general line on church matters, Polyansky proceeded from the necessity of “centralizing cults”—that is, strengthening them organizationally and identifying (or creating) a religious‑administrative center with which the Council would directly interact. Researcher A. Likhosherstov continues:
Within the framework of such a policy, in 1944‑1946, permission was granted for holding Muslim congresses; with the Council’s assistance, an alliance of Evangelical Christians and Christian Baptists was achieved into a single union, numbering about 200,000 members who had not renounced their faith during these years of persecution; centers of Seventh‑day Adventists, Old Believers, and the Catholicosate of the Armenian Gregorian Church were organized anew and resumed their activities.
As G. G. Karpov wrote in a secret memorandum marked “Top Secret” addressed to V. M. Molotov on October 5, 1944, according to data as of August 1, 1944, there were a total of 8,809 functioning churches in the USSR, of which: in the Ukrainian SSR — 5,206, in the RSFSR — 1,907, in the Moldavian SSR — 1,100, in the Byelorussian SSR — 550, and in other republics — 46. By the end of 1945, the Council had registered over 5,000 religious societies with subsequent permission for practical activity, including: Roman Catholic — 1,704, Muslim — 500, Evangelical Lutheran — 433, Old Believer — 415, Jewish — 105. Undoubtedly, these data were preliminary and included an incomplete list of actually functioning societies.
It should be noted that 75% of the churches mentioned by Karpov had been opened on the territory of Ukraine, Belorussia, and several regions of the RSFSR during their temporary occupation. Therefore, in the areas and regions that had been occupied, the number of churches was quite significant. This can be seen from the following table:
in Odessa region — 500, in Krasnodar territory — 229,
in Vinnytsia region — 400, in Stalino region — 222,
in Kiev region — 370, in Rostov region — 149,
in Chernigov region — 370, in Kharkov region — 155,
in Zhitomir region — 300, in Orel region — 108,
in Kursk region — 283, in Kalinin region — 80,
in Rovno region — 258, in Voronezh region — 80,
in Poltava region — 258, in Crimea — 60.
In Kharkov region, out of 155 functioning churches, half were located in public buildings. In Kiev region, 30%, and in Poltava region, about 40% of all churches were housed in school buildings, clubs, and other cultural and economic institutions.
It is perhaps impossible to characterize the failure of the anti‑religious campaign of the atheist state more accurately than A. Likhosherstov, who justly and significantly remarks the following.
For the communist regime itself, this was an alarming sign: after more than 25 years of rule, atheistic ideology had borne no fruit. In Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia, with the departure of Soviet power from the German‑occupied territory, millions of believers organized hundreds of new churches of various confessions, and the authorities themselves, fearing this force, made certain concessions.
What happened to the churches of Christians of the Evangelical Faith of Ukraine during the occupation? Gavriil Gavrilovich Ponurko returned home to Pyatikhatki in May 1941, literally just before the war. A few months later, the territory of Ukraine and Belarus was occupied by German troops.
A great calamity came. The long months of occupation dragged on.
For his spiritual work, Ponurko greatly missed his old friend and co‑worker Mikhail Sidorovich But. But had been arrested a second time and on September 15, 1937, sentenced by the Troika court to 10 years. (He returned to the Dnepropetrovsk region only in 1944.) Due to the war, the communities of CEF had even fewer ministers. As a result of evacuation, many church members left their native villages and cities, while at the same time, believers displaced by evacuation from the western regions of Ukraine settled in these places. G. G. Ponurko understood that it was extremely necessary to take under control and pastoral care the churches and groups of Pentecostals on the territory of Central and Eastern Ukraine; some kind of organization and church discipline had to be established; urgent measures had to be taken to root out heresies and errors in some cases. In certain communities, it was necessary to debunk the cult of personality of some leaders who sowed unsound teachings and created problems in churches already burdened with various difficulties. All these negative phenomena had a steady tendency to increase, especially under those conditions, and Ponurko understood that to leave the life of CEF churches to drift meant to allow it to head toward complete spiritual catastrophe.
It was necessary to begin immediately the work of spiritual care in the Pentecostal communities. At that time, Dmitry Ivanovich Ponomarchuk and Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash became close co‑workers and like‑minded associates of G. G. Ponurko.
Dmitry Ivanovich Ponomarchuk was an old co‑worker and friend of Ponurko from the All‑Ukrainian Union of CEF. He was born in 1892 in the town of Berezovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province, into a poor lower‑middle‑class family. In 1902, his mother, and then all the children, including Dmitry, turned to the Lord. In 1913, when he turned 21, Dmitry Ponomarchuk moved to the city of Nikolaev and became a member of a Baptist church, took an active part in youth work, and sang in the choir. Here, in Nikolaev, he married in 1915 and began preaching. In 1918, he moved to the village of Zelenoe, to the homeland of his wife Natalya Kondratyevna, where he organized an Evangelical church. In 1922, Dmitry Ivanovich became a resident of the town of Pyatikhatki, then moved to Dneprodzerzhinsk.
Apparently, while still in Nikolaev, he heard about the movement of Christians of the Evangelical Faith. Soon this movement made itself known there, in the Dnepropetrovsk region. Dmitry Ivanovich Ponomarchuk accepted the teaching of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and joined the Pentecostal movement.
From discovered archival documents it follows that already in 1925 he was among the guests of the second regional congress of CEF together with G. G. Ponurko. In his autobiography, D. M. Ponomarchuk wrote that at this congress he “was ordained to the ministry of senior presbyter (or, as they were then called, union evangelist — V. F.) in order to plant churches and ordain ministers for these new local communities” (which is confirmed by the record in the minutes of the Second Odessa Regional Congress of CEF — V. F.) and after that “served as an evangelist of the Gospel and chairman of the Krivoy Rog, Zaporozhye, and Mariupol district associations of CEF,” which were under his supervision.
Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash was born on January 15, 1901, in the village of Zelenoye, Kirovograd Oblast. In Soviet literature one can find a characterization that he came from a kulak family, but documents from the criminal case initiated against him indicate that his father’s wealth consisted of 1 house, 1 barn, 1 stable, 1 horse, 1 cow, a plow, and a seeder that he co-owned with a neighbor. Afanasy’s parents joined the evangelical church, where Afanasy was also raised from an early age. Bidash joined the Pentecostal movement in 1924, and from 1926 he became a preacher. It is known that in 1926–27 he took a trip to the Kuban region and preached in the Pentecostal church in Bataysk, Rostov, and other places. In 1929, Afanasy Bidash, together with his family, moved to Pyatikhatki and began working on the railroad in a traveling brigade. Soon the church in Pyatikhatki elected him to the presbyterial ministry, and M.S. But ordained him in 1931. Energetic and multi-talented, A.I. Bidash managed to work as a warehouse manager, carry out pastoral ministry in the church, lead the choir, and conduct special meetings for children and teenagers, in which he instilled in them a love for God and God’s commandments.
In the spring of 1933, he and several other brothers were arrested for “anti-Soviet activity,” but after two and a half months they were released, as no evidence was found.
When the war began, he was not conscripted into the army due to his health and remained in Pyatikhatki. He worked as a salesman, cashier, then as head of the timber warehouse of the Rayupolsoyuz. His whole life was an example of energetic and devoted service to the church and the Lord. Gavril Gavrilovich Ponurko found in Afanasy Bidash an active helper.
The former premises of the prayer house after the closure of the church in Pyatikhatki in 1932 were taken over by the town council and used for storing and drying crops. (Recently, Pavel Nikolayevich Dobrogorsky, the son of the union evangelist Nikolay Dobrogorsky who was shot in the 1930s, showed me the place where the prayer house once stood. On that spot in the town center a nice shop has now been built; I told its owner that her shop stands on a blessed place.) After that, the church held its illegal meetings in the private homes of believers. As of January 1, 1942, the church numbered 150 members. Having learned from posters on poles that the German authorities were permitting the legal conducting of religious rites and church services, the church applied to the local Gebietskommissar, who immediately issued such permission and allocated the premises of a former shoemaker’s workshop (Sadovaya, 57) for a prayer house. This happened in January 1942. Soon churches were opened in Dnepropetrovsk, in Dneprodzerzhinsk, in the settlements of Lozovatka, Shvarts, Zheltoye, and other places.
The church in Pyatikhatki became the center of spiritual work, and its ministers became active helpers of Ponurko. In addition to Bidash, the deacons of this church labored much: Zhuravel Ivan Timofeevich, who was a teacher of theology in the Sunday school; Nasteka Porfiry Vasilyevich; Kapinus Kalenik Nikolaevich; preacher Shepovalov Timofey; youth leader Chelpanov Vladimir Alexandrovich.
Soon the presbyter of the Karnavatka Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith (KhEV) in Krivoy Rog, Filipp Pavlovich Shokalo, came into contact with them. Assisting the leading brothers in carrying out work in the local congregations, much labor in word and deed was done by Grigory Antonovich Zhuravel, Vladimir Savvich Shepel, Nikolay Petrovich Dorunov, Pyotr Sergeyevich Taranenko, Ivan Alexandrovich Poddubny, Demyan Nikolaevich Poddubny, Filipp Semyonovich Sanzherovsky, and many other ministers, whose names today are remembered with love, respect, and gratitude in the churches.
In connection with the opening of churches, the question of restoring the activities of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith quite naturally arose. On behalf of the leaders of the KhEV churches, as a recognized and authoritative minister, Gavril Gavrilovich Ponurko filed a petition with the German occupation authorities for the restoration of the Union’s activities. Gebietskommissar Publikh personally met with Ponurko and questioned him in detail about the activities of the KhEV Union and his own biography. A certain impression on him was also made by the fact that by that time Ponurko had spent 9 years in Soviet prisons. After permission was granted by the Gebietskommissariat, in October 1942, a congress of representatives of the churches of the Dnepropetrovsk region took place in Dnepropetrovsk, which was preparatory and organizational in nature. The congress was held under the leadership of the pastor of the Dnepropetrovsk church, Dmitry Fomich Boyun. It was decided to begin restoring the Union’s activities. For this purpose, a congress was scheduled in Pyatikhatki.
On November 1, 1942, the presbyters and preachers of the congregations of Christians of Evangelical Faith gathered in Pyatikhatki. Bidash dealt mostly with organizational matters, and was in charge of the premises and meals. Ponurko and Ponomarchuk drew up the agenda and prepared the spiritual side. The congress was called the Regional Council of the Episcopal Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith. D.I. Ponomarchuk was elected chairman of the congress.
Ponurko’s report “On the Condition of the Former Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and Its Churches over the Last 13 Years” revealed a picture of the systematic and brutal destruction of the Pentecostal union. At the same time, Ponurko aptly noted that the churches driven underground still continued to exist.
At the congress, Bidash spoke about organizing groups for the purpose of youth education. It was decided to open children’s Sunday schools at prayer houses everywhere, to open youth groups, sisters’ circles, and much more. In addition, a whole series of organizational issues was resolved, including a resolution to take measures and seek funds for the acquisition of Bibles, New Testaments, and other Christian literature.
At this congress, the restoration of the activities of the KhEV Union was proclaimed, and a governing council was elected consisting of:
Ponurko G.G. – chairman of the episcopal college, bishop
D.I. Ponomarchuk – Deputy Chairman of the Episcopal Board, Bishop
A.I. Bidash – Second Deputy Chairman, Presbyter-Evangelist,
D.F. Boyun – Presbyter-Evangelist
S.P. Gulyaev – Presbyter-Evangelist
D.D. Trukhanov – Presbyter-Evangelist
A.I. Poddubny – Secretary
I.T. Zhuravel was elected treasurer of the union fund.
In order to represent themselves before the German occupation authorities, the first leader of the Pentecostal brotherhood needed to hold a rank that was familiar to the German authorities (which were not at all inclined to preserve the originality and previous order in the occupied territories, of course) and also to use their terminology, adapted to the system of ministry in the Lutheran church, to which the majority of Germans nominally belonged, or at least were aware of its order and ministerial offices. This was the reason why the decision was made to rename the title of union evangelist (or senior presbyter) held by G.G. Ponurko into the title of bishop. (Since then, in the Eastern Pentecostal brotherhood, senior presbyters came to be called bishops.) Thus the Episcopal Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith was established, with its center in Pyatikhatki, which was called the Episcopal Board of the Episcopal Church of the CEF in Ukraine.
Churches were actively operating in Pyatikhatki (200 members), Dnepropetrovsk (400 members), Dneprodzerzhinsk (about 100 members), Sinelnikovo (70 members), Mariupol (300 members), Krivoy Rog, and many other cities. G.G. Ponurko frequently traveled to various congregations and provided active pastoral assistance to local churches. In addition, he directly led the Dnepropetrovsk church. D.I. Ponomarchuk was the pastor of the church in Dneprodzerzhinsk, F.P. Shokalo – in Krivoy Rog, and A.I. Bidash served as pastor in Pyatikhatki. To organize the congregations and groups of Christians of the Evangelical Faith into a centralized brotherhood and to open prayer houses everywhere – this was the task of the union. In 1943, the union united up to 200 CEF churches.
The next congress took place on September 1–2, 1943, in Dneprodzerzhinsk. At this congress, the Statute of the union of churches was adopted, in the drafting of which A.I. Bidash actively participated. The College of Bishops was also further elected – A.I. Bidash (Pyatikhatki), F.P. Shokalo (Krivoy Rog), and Kh.I. Petukh (Novopushkarevka) were elected bishops. Their solemn ordination took place half a year later, already after liberation from the Germans.
Bidash was constantly traveling. During the occupation, he visited Mariupol, Melitopol, Pologi, and many other places. As new settlements were liberated from German occupation, he visited them and established or restored contacts. The trips were not safe, and solving issues was sometimes difficult. For example, in the summer of 1943 in Nikopol, the occupation authorities banned the activities of the local CEF church. Ponurko went there to resolve the matter. The local Gebietskommissar nearly arrested him, claiming that the Pentecostals were an organization that supported the communists – and as proof he waved the magazine “Evangelist,” in which the well-known resolution of the 1926 congress on the recognition of military duty, equally with all citizens of the country, was printed. It was not possible to obtain permission.
Another worker of the former All-Ukrainian Union of CEF, Nikolai Vasilievich Kuzmenko, actively joined the ministry of these leaders.
He was born in a small settlement in the territory of the Odessa region in 1903. In early youth, Kuzmenko turned to God and received water baptism by faith in 1922 in an evangelical church. In 1923, he became acquainted with the young Pentecostal movement and joined it. At the suggestion of I.E. Voronaev, who immediately appreciated the 20-year-old preacher, he moved to the settlement of Mayaki, Belyaevsky District, Odessa region, and there the believers in the same year elected him as their presbyter. His love for the church was evident to all, his preaching ability left no doubt, and therefore in 1925 N.V. Kuzmenko was elected regional evangelist, and in September 1926 – at the First All-Ukrainian Congress – evangelist of the Union. Then Kuzmenko was arrested in 1933 and tried in one court case together with Voronaev’s wife, Ekaterina Afanasyevna, I.I. Slavik, and other leaders of Christians of the Evangelical Faith who had remained free after the trials of 1930 and 1932.
From 1936, N.V. Kuzmenko lived in Kirovograd, where he was exiled, like the former secretary of the Union, I.I. Luchinets, who had been arrested in 1930 together with Voronaev. Before the war, there were no Pentecostal churches in Kirovograd. During the occupation in 1942, Kupriyan Ivanovich Lisovsky moved to Kirovograd, and with his arrival a CEF church began to form. Soon it was registered and held its services on Industrialnaya Street in Nikolaevka. The church quickly grew to 50 members. The presbyter was I.I. Luchinets, the deacon was K.I. Lisovsky, and the preacher and church council member was N.V. Kuzmenko.
Under the conditions of German occupation, Ponurko convened another congress on May 20, 1943, in Alexandria, in the Kirovograd region. The congress was led by former Union evangelist from Nadezhda, Demyan Danilovich Trukhanov, who had been tried together with V.S. Pavlov in 1932 and was also later sent into exile in the Kirovograd region after serving his term, and also N.V. Kuzmenko.
In the same year, 1943, an attempt was made to hold a congress in Nikolaev, but the German authorities dispersed this congress. The Germans insisted that the Pentecostals unite with the Baptist congregation operating in Nikolaev. After their refusal, Ivan Luchinets and the presbyter of the Nikolaev church, Fedor Sherstyuk (who in his time had been the founder and first pastor of the Pentecostal church in Kiev), were arrested by the Gestapo. Others managed to avoid arrest and dispersed. Luchinets and Sherstyuk were freed from prison by Soviet troops during the liberation of Odessa. N.V. Kuzmenko became the presbyter of the church in Kirovograd and led it until 1945.
The practical work of communication between the churches was carried out by the constantly traveling evangelists of the union, Grigory Antonovich Zhuravel, Mikhail Zakharovich Khlusov, Filipp Semenovich Sanzherovsky.
(It is interesting that it was in Dnepropetrovsk during the war that the activities of the Union of Baptists of Ukraine were also restored, and a center of Christians in the spirit of the apostles called the “Church of Christ the Savior” was re-established.)
Very much has been told and written about the hardships of people’s lives during the terrible Second World War. When the First World War ended and shocked humanity realized the scale of this universal catastrophe and the number of war victims, which, according to incomplete data, reached 15 million people, humanity said that this madness must never happen again. But this madness did happen again, and probably never in history and people’s memory will the bloody traces of the unprecedentedly horrible Second World War, which claimed more than 50 million lives, be erased. Almost half of the dead were our compatriots. For some, this war was one of aggression; for others, defensive; for some, this war served as a means of personal enrichment; for others, it was a continuation of politics by other means. And for humanity as a whole—a nightmarish horror of suffering, blood, and death. In the face of death, it is quite natural for a person to think about himself, about the purpose of his life, about his sins, about eternity, about God.
Soviet researcher V.E. Titov says the following: “By 1932, according to the data of the League of Militant Atheists, about 25 million people were leaving religion. This process continued actively until 1941. It was precisely in these years that religious communities intensively disintegrated, the church apparatus was reduced, and the number of Orthodox church parishes decreased almost twentyfold.” In the same book, supplementing himself (or contradicting himself?), the author asserts that religious communities, which supposedly “intensively disintegrated due to the mass voluntary departure of believers from religion,” again began to grow rapidly in the occupied territories: “During the war, the Germans opened about 10,000 churches in the occupied territories.”
Of course, the churches in those places where they had been forcibly closed during Soviet times were not opened by the German occupation administrations (they had a great many other matters—and, moreover, matters of a completely different nature). However, the immutable fact remains that the German authorities accommodated the numerous requests of people and, indeed, permitted the opening of churches. (In parentheses, we note that for the Gestapo it made absolutely no difference to seize, send to a concentration camp, or simply shoot without trial or investigation any person on the slightest suspicion, whether he was an underground worker or a priest, a partisan or a church pastor, a locksmith or a preacher.) And the fact that in a year or two of German occupation about 10,000 (!) churches were opened testifies to the true picture of people’s attitude toward God and the church.
Of course, later all this would be blamed on the leaders of the churches; many of them would be sentenced to long terms as “accomplices of the Hitler regime,” and the mass media would viciously begin a persecution against them, appealing to the natural feelings of people who had suffered from the cruel war. For example, like this:
“During the years of the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet people were fighting against German fascism, the leaders of the Pentecostals established close contact with the occupation authorities. In that difficult period, many Pentecostal holy men launched active propaganda directed against the Soviet people and their heroic Red Army. With the direct support of the German fascists, they held conferences of their active members three times and each time began them with thanksgiving prayers to the German occupation authorities.
“In the days of the heroic battles on the Volga, in November 1942, the upper echelon of the Pentecostals gathered for their council in the town of Pyatikhatki, in Ukraine. The bishops, presbyters, and missionary preachers who spoke at this council, choking with satisfaction, said that their ‘council was sanctioned by the general commissariat and the gebietskommissar’ and ‘that no obstacles from the authorities were encountered anywhere, and assistance was even provided.’ The main task set before this council by the Pentecostal leadership was the creation of a governing center, the broad development of propaganda among the population, and the intensification of recruiting Soviet people into their communities. Under occupation conditions, the Pentecostal leaders sought to take maximum advantage of the favorable situation for them, particularly the incredible difficulties and grief that the German fascists brought to the Soviet people. At the council, the Pentecostals adopted a special resolution: ‘On the organization of spiritually edifying and educational talks in communities,’ on the opening of children’s Sunday schools, and on the creation of Christian youth circles and sisters’ circles. At the same council, the Pentecostal leaders did not neglect such matters as salary scales for workers of the episcopal college administration and employees, the collection of funds for special purposes, and even the acquisition of stamps and seals for the administration of the episcopal college and its dioceses.
“Their thoughts and concerns were not for their homeland, but for spreading their influence among the population of the temporarily occupied territories. That was what most agitated these holy men during the harsh time of the Patriotic War. As the materials of this council show, the Pentecostal leadership was quite satisfied with the situation that had developed. The Pentecostal upper echelon was clearly bowing and scraping before the fascist occupation authorities. In June 1943, in Alexandria, Kirovograd Region, a council opened with a thanksgiving prayer for the ‘granted freedom of religion’ received from the German-fascist invaders. The anti-Soviet participants in the gathering rose to greet the Hitlerite occupation authorities in the person of the authorized representatives of the gebietskommissar, who were present in the room.”
Here is another document that is very interesting to read between the lines: “When the Great Patriotic War began and the territory of Soviet Ukraine was temporarily occupied by Nazi-German invaders, the leaders of the Pentecostal sect crawled out from the underground and rushed to restore their center… In order to dissociate themselves from the All-Ukrainian Council of Christians of Evangelical Faith (CEF), which had compromised itself in the eyes of ordinary believers, the latter was renamed in 1942 into the ‘Episcopal Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith.’ The newly formed supreme body — the ‘Episcopal Collegium of the CEF Church’ — was located in Pyatikhatki, Dnipropetrovsk region. It was headed by presbyter Ponyrko, who at one time was one of Voronayev’s close associates.
The sect leaders made great efforts to replenish their congregations. In 1942, the council of the Episcopal Church proposed that presbyters, preachers, and believers show ‘ardent Christ-like love in all manifestations of life toward brothers and sisters of other unions and intensify daily prayers, so that the Lord would reveal His word to them about baptism in the Holy Spirit.’ In realizing their intentions, the sect leaders relied on the assistance and support of the occupiers: they used passes to travel from one city to another, received premises for prayer houses, and so on. In Podolia, for example, Pentecostals occupied the premises of the party office of the Chernоostrovsky district party committee, and in the village of Kupel, Volochysk district, they took over the Lenin room of the Machine and Tractor Station (MTS). The intensification of sect activity led to the emergence of many new communities. If in 1942 there were about 200 communities of the Voronayev trend in Ukraine, with a total number of believers of 5,000, then in just one year of 1943, 152 more communities were established, which united 6,600 believers.
These data are based on the official statistics of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults and are greatly underestimated. However, if we accept these statistical data of Yuri Ivanovich Tereshchenko (who is by no means interested in exaggerating them), then even in that case it is absolutely obvious that the Union of Churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith, despite the most difficult time of wartime hardship, in an unprecedentedly complex situation, with the incredible suffering and poverty of the people (it is known that the churches passed a special resolution to buy a suit for their leader G.G. Ponyrko so that he could properly perform the representative functions of the Union chairman, as he did not even have a suit), despite the fact that the war and occupation had uprooted many people from their settled native places, despite the fact that many church pastors, preachers, Union leaders, and active church members continued to languish in prisons and camps in the North, Siberia, and Kolyma, despite the fact that it was very difficult to travel and maintain contacts between churches — despite all this, an incredible but obvious fact is observed: in two war years the brotherhood restored its organizational ties between local churches by 50 percent! During the war! In two years!!! Gradually, the conclusion again suggests itself (although, as is known, history does not tolerate or allow the subjunctive mood) — if the church had the freedom to unhinderedly carry out its ministry and develop normally further, in the post-war period, what enormous growth of the church could have been observed.
Alas, after the war there would be no freedom for the church. The Soviet authorities would persistently pursue their line of irreconcilable struggle against all religion, hypocritically declaring that people themselves are abandoning religion and leaving the churches. In fact, it is absolutely obvious that as soon as any glimmer of freedom for the church’s ministry, for preaching the Gospel, appeared, a large number of people came to God, came to the churches. Thus, during the war, in 1942–1943, the activities of the CEF Union were restored to a certain extent.
By the winter of 1943/1944, the entire Left-Bank Ukraine was liberated from German troops. In 1944, another congress of CEF leaders took place in Dnipropetrovsk, where G.G. Ponyrko had moved with his family by that time. In 1944–1945, believers’ meetings took place in his house at the address: 12 Novokozlovskaya Street (present-day address: 38 Kyivska Street).
Slowly and gradually, despite the horrendously unfavorable circumstances, the Pentecostal brotherhood strengthened and gained strength. In the CEF Union, a system of ministers gradually took shape again; prayer houses were acquired, adapted for worship, or reconstructed. However, in April 1945, the Pentecostal brotherhood was once again left without a chairman. Gavril Gavrilovich Ponyrko was again arrested and convicted. This time, as chairman of the Union of Churches that had been active during the occupation, he was accused of collaboration with the German authorities.
As G.A. Zhuravel recalled, shortly after G.G. Ponyrko was arrested, D.I. Ponomarchuk and N.V. Kuzmenko were invited to Moscow, where by that time the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians and Baptists (AUCECB) had been created. In Moscow, the leaders of the Pentecostal brotherhood were offered to unite and merge into this union. Of course, behind all this there was harsh pressure from the Council for Religious Affairs on both sides, for neither one nor the other had very great desire for such a union, since the doctrinal basis was not the same. Both sides understood well that such a union was a ‘marriage’ not quite out of love. However, no one asked them about ‘love’ in that sense. It was not that kind of time. There was only one thing left — to come to an agreement, based on the natural sense of cooperation and mutual assistance among all Christians. In the course of lengthy discussions, doctrinal and organizational provisions on the unification of the church unions were worked out, which were of a preliminary, preparatory nature.
In order for the unification agreement to be officially signed on behalf of the churches of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, their approval had to be obtained. D.I. Ponomarchuk and N.V. Kuzmenko, having returned from Moscow, convened a fateful meeting of ministers in the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk. On the agenda of this meeting was a great and difficult question — the unification and merger with the union of churches under the leadership of the AUCECB. As a result of lengthy discussion, the majority of ministers expressed the need to join a common union with Evangelical Christians and Baptists, for the survival of the brotherhood, on terms that had been previously agreed upon between Ponomarchuk and Kuzmenko on one side and the leadership of the AUCECB on the other, and which, as it seemed to the Pentecostals at the time, guaranteed the brotherhood of Christians of the Evangelical Faith a full and equal life in the united union.
It was decided to sign the unification agreement. The Dneprodzerzhinsk meeting of ministers authorized Dmitry Ponomarchuk and Afanasy Bidash to seal this agreement with their signatures on behalf of the brotherhood of Christians of the Evangelical Faith.
August 1945 was coming…
Related articles
- The Pentecostal Church in Ukraine in the 1970s-1980s The history of the Pentecostal movement in Ukraine has always attracted the attention of researchers. In their works, the main circumstances have been identified…
- V. Franchuk. The Consistory of the Church in Belarus under the Germans and the Diaspora The recommendation of G. Schmidt was understandable, and, apparently, for the conditions of Germany this was the only way to preserve…
- Franchuk. The History of Pentecostals in East Prussia Unfortunately, not much is known about the history of the Pentecostal movement in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad…
- V. Franchuk. The Church in Western Ukraine and Belarus in 1944 and until August 1945 upon the return of Soviet power In 1944, the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was liberated from Nazi troops. Spiritual…
- The Pentecostal Church in Romania after the War Pentecostal churches initially received temporary permission to operate, with the promise that subsequently all…
- V. Franchuk. The UCEF and Other Pentecostals in the 1990s The United Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith. Until the end of the 1980s, the brotherhood of unregistered churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith, despite its illegal…
- V. Franchuk. The Soviet Government Herds Protestants into the AUCECB On January 7, 1930, the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, after the arrest of its leadership in Odessa…
- Harbinger of Persecution in Ukraine: Yanukovych Wants to Eliminate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate by June 2011 Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate announced the authorities’ intention to eliminate this church by…
- Report of the Union Commissioner for Religious Cults on the Fight against Pentecostals in Ukraine in 1950 Document No. 48/s of March 20… provides an eloquent description of the situation of Christians in that terrible time.
- Letter to Brothers in Argentina from Ukraine about Persecution in the 1950s A new wave of persecution of Christians came. By some miracle, news of the believers’ situation came through the ’iron…
- V. Franchuk. Pentecostals in the Time of War 1939-1945 And they did not say in their heart: let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early rain…
- The Council for Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers and the Evangelical Movement in the Soviet Union. 1956-1965 The political changes that followed in the Soviet Union after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, and the beginning struggle against the cult…