Features of emigrant Baptist communities existence in the west, north and northeast of China in the second half of the 1940s

Abstract

The paper analyzes the processes that took place in the emigrant religious groups of Baptists in western, northeastern and northern China in the second half of the 1940s. The authors note that the problems of the history of the existence and activities of the Baptists who emigrated to the West (in 19441949 the East Turkestan Republic), North-East and North China from the territory of Soviet Russia, the Far East of the USSR has not become the subject of a serious scientific analysis yet. There are not many scientific publications on the topic. This predetermined that the basis of the study was made up of archival sources. These are documents, documents of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (SA RF). It is noted that until the considered time the Baptist communities on the considered territories lived in isolation. The impetus for a change in the situation was the creation of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUCECB) in the USSR. This led to the stirring up of Baptist believers in the west, north and northeast of China. Some of the communities joined the AUCECB, some established contacts with it. There was correspondence with relatives and friends in the Soviet Union. There is a clear need for further study of the history of the emigrant Baptist communities in China.