Mission of Foreign Protestants in Russia on the Eve and during the Great Russian Revolution and the Civil War

Abstract

Based on the study of a wide range of sources (published and unpublished), the article explores the activities of foreign Protestant missions in Russia on the eve and during the years of the revolution, the Civil War and foreign intervention (1917—1922). The intensification of the bilateral process of interaction between Russian and foreign Protestantism during the years of the revolution, the Civil War and the intervention in Russia under the conditions of the proclaimed freedom of conscience and the absence of legislative restrictions on missionary activity, was associated, both with the global missionary designs of foreign, primarily American missionary and Christian humanitarian organizations, and with the internal trends in the development of the domestic Evangelical-Baptist community, which has set as its goal the large-scale evangelization of Russia. Using the example of the largest denominations — Evangelical Christianity and Baptism, the impact of foreign missionaries and missionary organizations on domestic Protestantism is studied, the main countries-“importers” of the mission, its goals, methods and forms of missionary work, the main directions of interaction with Russian believers are identified.