V. Franchuk. Zionist Pentecostals of the Khmelnitsky Region and Leonty Melnik

September 1, 2011 · Persecution, KGB, Books, Pentecostals, Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers, Ukraine

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that one of the reasons for such fierce persecution of evangelical believers in the Khmelnytskyi region was the illegal activity of the so-called “Zionists”. (We are forced to use this conventional name here as well, because this movement never had its own recognized self-designation.)

This movement arose from the activities of Leontiy Melnik in the Khmelnytskyi region — and it must be said that, for a number of objective reasons, it spread quite widely at one time.

On the khutor of Pustyak, neighboring the villages of Bolshaya Bubnovka and Sergeyevka, not far from Narkevichi station, two brothers grew up in a Polish Catholic family — Leontiy and Adam Melnik. Their paths diverged very significantly. While Adam genuinely belonged to the Pentecostal movement and labored in its ranks until his advanced old age (incidentally, his son Nikolai Adamovich Melnik was elected the first chairman of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Pentecostals, restored in 1990), the fate of Leontiy Melnik had nothing in common with the history of the Pentecostal movement proper, with which (and this is a documented fact!) the “Zionists” themselves never identified, rightly emphasizing certain incompatible doctrinal differences. Moreover, the origins of these movements had nothing whatsoever in common.

And it was only because of the perverted policy of hatred toward believers in the Soviet era that this movement was labeled “Pentecostal-Zionists,” to which both Pentecostals and “Zionists” always objected.

In a memorandum signed on August 20, 1950, by the head of the KGB department for the Khmelnytskyi region, Colonel D. Fedorov, it is stated:

The Pentecostal-Zionist sect is one of the youngest, mystical, reactionary sects currently operating illegally. It is an offshoot of the Pentecostals. Sometimes its members call themselves members of the “party of God.”

This sect arose after the Great October Socialist Revolution in the Cherno-Ostrovsky district of the Khmelnytskyi region. Its organizer and one of its leaders is Leontiy Vikentievich Melnik, born in 1897, a native of the khutor of Pustiaki in Chernoostrovsky district, and Pelageya Vasilyevna Konenkova, born in 1887, a native of the Ryazan region, who last lived in the town of Podolsk, Moscow region (died in 1957).

At one of the Pentecostal sectarian gatherings, he claimed that he had received the “Holy Spirit,” i.e., the Holy Spirit descended on him, and at that moment God told him that he, Melnik, would lead his people (the sectarians) to Palestine, to Mount Zion, where an earthly paradise would be for God’s people (i.e., the sectarians). After that, Melnik laid the foundation for the creation of the Pentecostal-Zionist sectarian movement. In this he was assisted by Kochenkova, who enjoyed great authority among the sectarians.

In the post-war period, this movement spread to the territory of many regions of the Soviet Union.

At present, the activity of this sectarian movement is headed and directed by Leon Melnik, who is in prison, and Daniil Samoilovich Chaika, who has returned from prison.

Especially affected by the sectarianism of this movement are: Yarmolinetsky, Volochissky, Chernoostrovsky, Ruzhichnyansky, Teofipolsky, Belogorsky, Bazaliysky, Mikhailovsky, Gorodoksky, and Satanovsky districts of the Khmelnytskyi region.

The total number of Pentecostal-Zionist sectarians in the Khmelnytskyi region is approximately 1,300 persons, united in 15 illegal sectarian communities, consisting of about 45 groups. The leadership of these communities at the local level is carried out by individuals from among the active sectarians. They are called Pentecostals because they believe that on the fiftieth day after the “resurrection of Christ” the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, and that this same Spirit can now descend on any believing sectarian. They call themselves Zionists because, according to their interpretation of the Bible, their homeland is Mount Zion in Palestine, where there will be an eternal kingdom, to which they aspire and for which they pray.

To “attain” this, at their gatherings the sectarians pray to the point of frenzy, to fits, entering such a morbidly nervous state that they begin to shake; shrieks, senseless babble, groans, and weeping are heard.

Such a state is considered a gift received from the descended “Holy Spirit” and is called “speaking in other angelic tongues,” which are translated specially by “interpreters” and prophets. “Tongues” and “prophecy” are central for them during prayer.

Under the guise of religious affiliation, members of the Pentecostal-Zionist sect oppose the sacred duty enshrined in the USSR Constitution to defend their Homeland in the event of an enemy attack, and they categorically refuse to take up arms. Members of the sect do not join trade unions, the Komsomol, or other public organizations; they do not attend meetings, movies, clubs, theaters, or other cultural and educational institutions; they do not participate in public life.

The leaders, or so-called “elder brothers,” of this sectarian formation are engaged in producing and distributing among the sectarians and other backward segments of the population various kinds of reactionary psalms and poems; they carry out work to draw new members into the sect by giving them what is called “water baptism.”

The sect has certain financial resources (from monetary collections conducted at gatherings), which are mainly used for the organizational needs of the underground and for missionary work.

At the illegal sectarian gatherings (which mainly take place at night), preachers, “prophets,” and “prophetesses” deliver anti-Soviet sermons in which they slander Soviet reality, call on their fellow believers not to obey the laws of Soviet power but to follow only Biblical laws, and slander the measures carried out by the Communist Party and the Soviet government.

Considering Palestine their homeland, they instill in believers not to worry about material goods but to prepare to go out to Mount Zion, since supposedly the destruction of Soviet power will soon come.

Considering communism a “deceptive paradise,” the preachers point out in their sermons that those who now rule over us will perish by sword and fire, while instilling in believers that there is supposedly no peace and security on earth, about which so much is now said, that the end of the world is approaching, unbelievers will perish, but believers (sectarians) will remain and be led out of this “sinful” land to Palestine — to Mount Zion. Some preachers tell the sectarians that the question of their going out to Palestine, at the insistence of England and the USA, is being decided in the United Nations.

Calling the sectarians to steadfastness in faith, they declare that “Satan torments us” with his politics, persecutes us. Persecution was, is, and will be upon us, but if we are soon arrested, America will intercede for us and allow us to leave to join them. Then we will unite with the American “brothers.”

Preachers instill fear in the sectarians and force them to declare frequent fasts and daily prayers. Preaching an imminent departure to Palestine, they intimidate the sectarians by saying that only those who observe all dogmas, and whose entire family members are sectarians, including youth and children, will go to Palestine.

The sect of Pentecostal-Zionists, as reactionary and mystical, is banned by Soviet laws and is not registered with the organs of Soviet power.331

In what the “Zionists” were indeed right — communism turned out to be a “deceptive paradise.” To their misfortune, they had the courage to speak of this openly. And that was already “politics,” and the Soviet power headed by a godless totalitarian government, of course, could not tolerate it. In the archival investigative file one can also find an attached reference from the Council for Religious Cults, signed by Vilkhov. It is shorter in length, but its content is practically the same.332

During interrogations at the GPU, Leonty Melnik told how until 1921 he nominally belonged to the Catholic Church, and then he truly accepted the evangelical faith, received baptism, and became a member of the Church of Evangelical Christians. Until the end of the 1920s he was not particularly well known; then in 1929 he was arrested for, as one document gracefully put it, “engaging in Dukhobor activities,” was tried by the Special Conference of the GPU “for counter-revolutionary sectarian activity,” and was sent to a concentration camp for three years in the era of the beginning of collectivization.333 To his misfortune, when the term of exile ended, he returned home — and soon afterward he was arrested again.

According to the protocol, during the interrogation on March 23, 1933, Melnik testified:

God revealed to me that God would lead his people to Palestine and that Palestine would be earthly, not heavenly. Subsequently our sect spread in the following villages: Bubnovka, Sergeevka, Baglai, Kupel, Cherepovaya, Ruzhichanka, and other villages. I do not consider myself a prophet, but the brothers call me a prophet. I am also not the senior leader of the sect, such leaders we do not have in the sect. I am also not a presbyter, we have no presbyters in the sect.”334

(In the conclusion of the expert examination of July 12, 1958, there is a reference to “The Great Revelation about Palestine,” found in one of the notebooks seized during a search in Khmelnitsky region. In this “revelation,” Leonty Melnik claims that the teaching about the departure to Zion was given to him by “an Angel of God riding on a white horse” back in 1922–1923.)335

According to a document stamped “Top Secret,” signed by the head of Department “O” of the UMGB of Kamenets-Podolsk region, Major Gapon, and the senior operative of Department “O,” Major Nakonechny (whom believers in the Khmelnitsky region remember as their main persecutor), on June 10, 1933, Leonty Vikentyevich Melnik was “sentenced by the Judicial Troika of the Collegium of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR, as part of a group of 67 people, to 10 years in corrective labor camps (ITL).”336

The “peak” of his activity came in the post-war period, when in 1946 he returned to Khmelnitsky region from the Far East, where he had served his sentence. (His prison term expired in 1943; he was allowed to leave Kolyma for Khabarovsk Krai, where he was detained and forced to work as a “free hire” on the Elgen state farm for another three years). He was free for a short period — from 1946 to 1950, when he was again arrested and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment together with thirty (!) other defendants involved in investigative case No. 5178. In these 4 years of freedom, having only less than a full first-grade education at a church parish school, a stove-maker and cobbler by trade, grey-eyed, with a simple round face distinguished by wide eyebrows and a red birthmark on his left cheek, he managed to create a rather large movement centered on the teaching of the “departure to Zion.” However, if we recall that it was precisely at this time that the question of creating the state of Israel in Palestine was being agonizingly difficultly resolved for the whole world, that the eyes of very many Jews were turned toward the “exodus to Zion,” and for evangelical believers the establishment of the state of Israel signified a great miracle of the fulfillment of the great prophecies of the Bible, if we recall with what inspired enthusiasm the news of the restoration of the state of Israel was met, if we recall that the last, concluding words of the great document of human history, the “Declaration of the Independence of Israel,” which was solemnly proclaimed by the first president of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, are: “God once again reigns in Zion!” — there is no reason to be surprised that such a resonant, phenomenal religious movement as the “Zionists” in Khmelnitsky region took place. In these 4 years alone, the number of adherents of this movement increased to 500.337

In 1958, Leonty Melnik was again brought to Khmelnitsky by escort from the Ozerlag archipelago near Taishet, where he had been imprisoned. (Previously he had already been in camps in Karaganda and Sovgavan). He was again tried in another trial with fellow believers who remained at large, and he was again given a long term — 25 years of imprisonment. Here is the court verdict for 1958.

VERDICT

IN THE NAME OF THE UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

September 19–22, 1958.

The Criminal Division of the Khmelnitsky Regional Court, consisting of:

Presiding: PECHERSKY
People’s Assessors: BRYUKHOV, GAIDENKO
With the Secretary: CHENASH
With the participation of the Prosecutor: ZARUBIN
With the participation of the defense attorneys: CHERNETS, CHETVERTNYKH

considered in a closed court session in the city of Khmelnitsky the case against:

MELNIK Leonty Vikentievich, born in 1897, native of the village of Sergeyevka, Cherno-Ostrovsky district, Khmelnitsky region, Ukrainian, non‑party, with elementary education, twice convicted under Article 54‑10, part 2, of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1932 and 1950; in 1950 sentenced to 25 years of deprivation of liberty in correctional labor camps; in 1956 the commission of the Supreme Soviet reduced the sentence to 15 years; has been serving the sentence since May 7, 1950.

CHAYKA Daniil Samoylovich, born in 1902, native of the village of Kupel, Volochisk district, Khmelnitsky region, Ukrainian, non‑party, elementary education, married, without a fixed place of residence or work, convicted in 1932 and 1949, released from places of detention in 1956 on the basis of the Decree of March 24, 1956.

PENDELYUK Pyotr Pavlovich, born in 1899, native and resident of the village of Khomentsy, Cherno-Ostrovsky district, Khmelnitsky region, semi‑literate, Ukrainian, non‑party, collective farmer, married, convicted in 1950 under Article 54‑10, part 2, of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, sentenced to 25 years of deprivation of liberty in correctional labor colonies, released from places of detention in 1956 on the basis of the Decree of March 24, 1956.

PETISH Valentina Mikhailovna, born in 1922, native and resident of the village of Kupel, Volochisk district, Khmelnitsky region, Ukrainian, non‑party, 6‑grade education; in 1950 convicted under Article 54‑10, part 2, of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, sentenced to 10 years of deprivation of liberty in correctional labor colonies. Released from places of detention on the basis of the Decree of March 24, 1956.

MILITZIN Anisim Avvakumovich, born in 1922, native of the village of Voloe, Kirovsky district, Kaluga region, resident of the city of Khmelnitsky, same region, Russian, non‑party, 7‑grade education, worker; in 1947 convicted under Article 54‑6 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to 25 years of deprivation of liberty in correctional labor colonies, released from serving the sentence under the Decree of September 17, 1955, “On Amnesty” —

all 5 accused of the crime provided for by Articles 54‑10, part 2, and 54‑11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR.

Having examined the case materials, heard the explanations of the defendants, the testimony of witnesses, and the arguments of the parties, the Criminal Division of the Regional Court established:

The defendants Chayka, Pendelyuk, Petish, and Militzin, having returned from places of detention at various times, maintaining written criminal contact with the serving leader of the anti‑Soviet sectarian underground of Pentecostal Zionists, Melnik, renewed and under his leadership conducted hostile anti‑Soviet activities on the territories of Khmelnitsky, Ternopol, and other regions; they gathered and held illegal assemblies at which they read anti‑Soviet handwritten literature received from their preacher, the senior “brother” Melnik.

Thus, Melnik, having been convicted in 1950 for anti‑Soviet sectarian activity, while in custody did not cease his criminal activity or his organizational criminal ties with the leading participants of the underground, and up to the moment of being charged in the present case continued to head and exercise leadership over the activity of the anti‑Soviet sectarian underground operating on the territory of the Soviet Union.

Defendant Melnik, heading this underground, at the end of 1955 received information about the forthcoming release from detention of his like‑minded co‑participant in criminal activity — Chayka, with whom he had previously maintained organizational written contact. He appointed him, for the period of his own incarceration, to lead the sectarian underground operating in various parts of the Soviet Union, granting him the right to travel among the communities of Pentecostal Zionists in order to strengthen their organizational activity and to perform all sectarian rites.

Exercising leadership of the sectarian underground, defendant Melnik systematically wrote letters to the illegally operating sectarian communities of Pentecostal Zionists in various parts of the Soviet Union, with appeals for their organizational strengthening and instructions to intensify their activity.

Defendant Melnik systematically wrote and sent in mass quantities to the communities so‑called “revelations,” “verses and psalms” of anti‑Soviet sectarian content, which were duplicated and distributed among the participants of the anti‑Soviet sectarian underground. He wrote and dispatched to the addresses of Petish, Pendelyuk, and Militzin over sixty handwritten sectarian writings — “revelations, verses and psalms” — which were seized upon the detention of Petish, Pendelyuk, and Militzin.

According to the expert conclusion, the verses and psalms seized from the said defendants are, by their content, anti‑Soviet, reactionary, and filled with attacks against Soviet power and its laws. Defendant Chayka, while serving his sentence in camps for anti‑Soviet sectarian activity, and also after release from detention, continued his anti‑Soviet activity; he maintained written contact with the incarcerated leader of the Pentecostal Zionist sectarian underground, Leonty Melnik, from whom he received instructions on organizational matters and on directing the activity of the anti‑Soviet sectarian underground on the territory of the Soviet Union.

According to the directive of Melnik, the defendant Chayka headed the organizational activities of the sectarian underground from 1956 until the day of his arrest, systematically traveled to cities of the Soviet Union, where he carried out organizational work to strengthen sectarian communities, organized illegal gatherings of sectarians, at which he delivered anti‑Soviet sermons of reactionary content, and performed water baptism for persons newly joining the sect.

In the period 1956–1958, defendant Chayka at various times visited sectarian communities illegally operating in the territories of the Moscow, Tula, Smolensk, Kharkov, Lugansk, Ternopol, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Khmelnitsky regions, as well as in the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories, where he conducted illegal gatherings, at which he delivered sectarian sermons, performed water baptism; there he baptized over 300 persons, performed wedding ceremonies for 14 persons, performed the breaking of bread and other sectarian rites.

On the territory of Khmelnitsky region, defendant Chayka visited sectarian communities of the illegal underground operating in the villages of Volochisk, Cherno‑Ostrovsky, Shepetovsky, Bazaliysky, Yarmolinetsky districts, where he also delivered sectarian sermons, in which he called not to join public organizations, not to attend meetings or cinema, and conducted anti‑Soviet agitation against service in the Soviet Army.

At the end of 1956, defendant Chayka at night performed water baptism in the village of Kupel for four persons newly joining the sect, including the ten‑year school graduate Voznyuk Nadezhda, who, becoming a sectarian, left the Komsomol, and Skorobogatova Lyubov, who previously, according to doctors’ prescriptions, was undergoing treatment, but having joined the sect, refused treatment, and discord arose in her family because her husband and mother categorically objected to her joining the sect.

In the village of Cherepovaya, defendant Chayka performed a sectarian wedding for Gaidaichuk Pyotr and Anna, and in Khomentsy — for Bratsky and Stetsyuk Nina.

In Chayka’s leadership of the sectarian communities, anti‑Soviet reactionary literature was used, which was seized during the arrest of Militsin, Pendelyuk, and Petish, who had criminal connections with him. Defendant Pendelyuk, having returned from places of imprisonment in 1956 to the village of Khomentsy, Cherno‑Ostrovsky district, resumed his sectarian activity, established an organizational‑criminal connection with other participants of the sectarian underground, including the leading “brother” Chayka, received from the latter the appointment as leader of the community in the village of Khomentsy, which numbered up to 20 sectarians.

Being the leader of the community in the village of Khomentsy, he repeatedly visited other communities in the territory of Khmelnitsky region, delivered sectarian anti‑Soviet sermons in the villages of Cherno‑Ostrovsky and Yarmolinetsky districts, performed weddings, the breaking of bread, and other sectarian rites.

Defendant Pendelyuk kept and used in his sectarian activity anti‑Soviet reactionary handwritten sectarian literature, parts of which were authored by defendant Melnik. Defendant Petish, while in prison, had connections with other participants of this underground, received from them sectarian manuscripts of anti‑Soviet content for reading and copying, which she brought home after her release from places of imprisonment.

Having returned from prison in 1956 to the village of Kupel, Volochisk district, Petish resumed her anti‑Soviet sectarian activity, established an organizational connection with other leaders of the sectarian underground, including the underground leader Chayka, who had also returned from places of imprisonment.

Having taken over the leadership of the sectarian community in the village of Kupel, Petish systematically held secret gatherings of Pentecostal‑Zionists at her apartment and at the homes of other underground participants, at which she delivered sermons of anti‑Soviet reactionary content, using the anti‑Soviet reactionary literature kept by her, recruited new members into the sect, whom she previously processed in an anti‑Soviet sectarian spirit, at various times involving into the sect Voznyuk Nadezhda, who had completed ten‑year school and was a member of the VLKSM (Komsomol), and as a result of her recruitment, she left the Komsomol; also processed and recruited were Skorobogataya Lyubov, Nagurnaya Domnikiya, Nagurny Dementiy; she also processed other persons, including adolescent school students.

To all the above‑mentioned processed and recruited persons, Petish together with Chayka gave water baptism at night on the river beyond the village of Kupel at the beginning of 1957.

In spring 1957, defendant Petish received from the imprisoned senior leader of the sectarian underground, preacher Melnik Leonty, a letter of sectarian content, and twice organized its reading at the illegal gatherings of Pentecostal‑Zionists she conducted. In addition, until the day of her arrest, she kept and used in her sectarian activity anti‑Soviet handwritten literature, including literature authored by Melnik.

Defendant Militsin, having been convicted in 1947 and serving his sentence in Karaganda camps, in 1950 joined the underground sect of Pentecostal‑Zionists and was baptized there. Having returned from places of imprisonment in 1955, Militsin did not cease his sectarian activity; living in Kaluga region, he engaged in the reproduction of sectarian literature and mailed it to participants of the sectarian underground.

Having contact with the leader of the illegal underground, Melnik, at the end of 1956, Militsin, with Melnik’s permission, traveled from Kaluga region to Khmelnitsky region, where he met with the leader of the sectarian underground, Chaika, and together with him participated in illegal gatherings in the village of Staromyshchino, Ternopol region, where Chaika preached and performed other sectarian religious rites. After that, in early 1957, Militsin returned to Kaluga region and wrote a letter to Melnik in prison, informing him of his sectarian activities.

At the beginning of 1958, the defendant Militsin again arrived in Khmelnitsky region, where he established contact with an active sectarian community in the city of Khmelnitsky, systematically participated in holding illegal gatherings at which he repeatedly preached sermons of anti-Soviet content.

In his practical activities, Militsin used handwritten sectarian literature of anti-Soviet content kept by him, including “poems from grandpa,” authored by Leonty Melnik; this literature was discovered and seized from him during his arrest.

The charges brought against defendants Melnik, Chaika, Pendelyuk, Petish, and Militsin are confirmed by the case materials, by the physical evidence of anti-Soviet literature seized at the time of arrest, by the expert examination, by the testimony in court of witnesses Stepan Melnik, Domnikiya Nagurnaya, Skorobogaty, Elizaveta Triska, as well as by the defendants’ own admission of keeping sectarian literature and conducting sectarian rites. In addition, Melnik and Chaika admitted the fact of participating in the organizational activities of the Pentecostal-Zionist sects, and Melnik — the production and distribution of anti-Soviet reactionary literature.

Based on the foregoing, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases found Melnik, Chaika, Petish, Pendelyuk, and Militsin guilty of the crime provided for by Articles 54-10, part 2, and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR.

In determining the measure of punishment, the Collegium finds it necessary to apply to Melnik and Chaika, as organizers, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 26, 1947, “On the Abolition of the Death Penalty.” Therefore, guided by Articles 296 and 297 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Ukrainian SSR,

HAS SENTENCED:

MELNIK Leonty Vikentyevich, CHAIKA Daniil Samoilovich, on the basis of Articles 54-10, part 2, and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, and with the sanction of Article 54-2 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, applying the Decree of May 26, 1947, to be confined in corrective labor colonies for a term of TWENTY-FIVE (25) years each, with deprivation of rights under paragraphs “a,” “b,” “c” of Article 29 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR for 5 years each. Count for Melnik the time served from May 7, 1950, and for Chaika from June 5, 1958.

PETISH Valentina Mikhailovna, PENDELYUK Pyotr Pavlovich, and MILITSIN Anisim Avvakumovich, on the basis of Articles 54-10, part 2, and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, and with the sanction of Article 54-2 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, to be deprived of liberty in corrective labor colonies: Petish for TEN (10) years, Pendelyuk for EIGHT (8) years, and Militsin for SEVEN (7) years, with deprivation of rights under paragraphs “a,” “b,” “c” of Article 29 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR for 5 years each.

The term of punishment shall be calculated with credit for pre-trial detention: Petish and Pendelyuk from July 17, 1958, and Militsin from July 12, 1958.

The measure of restraint for all convicted persons shall remain the same — detention in custody.

The “Molnija” watch seized from Chaika shall be confiscated and turned over to the state revenue. The 520 rubles seized from Melnik shall be confiscated to the state revenue.

Pendelyuk, Petish, and Militsin shall be considered sentenced without confiscation of property due to its absence.

The sentence may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the USSR within 5 days from the day the copy of the sentence is announced to the convicted persons through the Khmelnitsky Regional Court.338

In 1961, Leonty Melnik was “honored” in absentia with the title of “especially dangerous recidivist.” The elderly and seriously ill Leon apparently gained freedom only in the mid-1970s. According to the testimony of Pastor Rudolf Rink, now living in Germany, Melnik died on February 2, 1980, near Alma-Ata in the city of Kaskelen, in the home of his followers, surrounded by the care and guardianship of Ivan and Zoya Ledovsky, who, however, only allowed the most devoted supporters “to see Grandpa Leon himself” and only after a thorough check of the arriving pilgrims.339

Thus, Leonty Melnik’s active activity “in freedom” falls on the four-year period of his liberty in Khmelnitsky region in 1946–1950. In total, he served about 40 years in Soviet prisons. Until the last day of his life, he did not renounce his convictions. Including his clearly false convictions and heretical teachings. And until the last day, he denied any connection to the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostals deny it to this day.

However, regarding steadfastness of convictions — including false convictions. In my childhood, I knew people from the circle of Pelageya Kochenkova — “Sister Polya,” as she was usually called. (By that time she was no longer alive; she died at the age of 70 in Podolsk near Moscow in 1957, having lost her only son Mikhail during the war.)340 These people, who liked to visit Khmelnitsky region, confidently assured me in the mid-1960s (me, a young first-grader!) that the exodus under the leadership of “the messenger Leon” would happen soon, but first it would be an exodus into the Arabian desert of Rub’ al Khali. And they even showed me on a map this neutral zone on the borders of Arab states. How amazed I was when I came to America in the early 1990s and heard among our “orthodox” Slavic Pentecostal immigrants the same tales about the “exodus” into the Arabian desert of Rub’ al Khali. Talk circulated that there was only one obstacle — Saddam Hussein had not yet agreed… About bin Laden, in America at that time, they had the privilege of knowing nothing.

False beliefs about going out to Zion or the Arabian desert proved tenacious. And in religious studies literature, the tall tales that “Zionists” are a variety of Pentecostals also proved tenacious. These tales wander and migrate from one reference book to another, from one book to another. The migration and emigration of false beliefs continues.

The tragic epic of the “Zionist” movement (a tragedy social, spiritual, and theological!), attracting special attention, to some extent distracts researchers from the actual Pentecostal movement in the Khmelnitsky region. And it had its own history and its own sufferers for their sacred convictions, who went their own way — the way of Christians of the Evangelical faith.

*****

Now outside the window of my study in Mariupol is New Year’s Eve. Last preparations are underway in the church where our youth have gathered for an “all-night vigil” — to welcome the New Year 2003. Together with them is my older daughter Svetlana, who helped me for two weeks in Khmelnitsky to gather all this information bit by bit, when I worked there in the former KGB archive and conducted many interviews with those witnesses who are still alive on this earth.

And I now recalled the last day of my work at the SBU Directorate for the Khmelnitsky region. By barely perceptible signs I understood that the officers of this service were preparing for a funeral. They were burying that day an old veteran of that organization. And that old man was that very Major Nakonechny, whom Christians of the Khmelnitsky region considered their chief persecutor. Before closing and handing over to the vigilant officers the last volume of the archival files I had studied, I stared long at Nakonechny’s signatures under the interrogation protocols. And it seemed to me then that God also has books in which everything is recorded, and which will be opened at the judgment of God.

The New Year 2003 is coming. I want to wish the future readers of the future last volume of my book “Russia Asked the Lord for Rain” a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Happiness to you all, peace, tranquility of heart, health, abundant blessings from the Lord!

For me this will be a very important year — it will be exactly 20 years since the Lord laid it on my heart to write this book. I very much hope that this year my readers will receive the fruit of my 20 years of labor. And I also very much hope that this labor was not in vain.

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