“Militant baptism” as evaluated by a group of researchers for the Propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union Communist Party

Abstract

Draft document, currently stored in a single copy in the personal fund of A.I. Klibanov in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is published in the article. The document consists of 31 sheets of typewritten text, prepared in June 1966 by a group of scientists (A.I. Klibanov, P.K. Kurochkin, L.N. Mitrokhin, E.G. Filimonov and G.S. Lyalina) for the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union Communist Party. The authors analyze a lot of material, on the basis of which the first part of the document gives an assessment of the internal schism taking place in the Soviet Baptist Church. A special narrative is given to the activities of Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (CC ECB) and its May protest action, held in the center of Moscow, in which several hundred believers took part. Emphasizing the anti-Soviet sentiments among the followers of the SC ECB, the authors of the document refer to this religious organization first as a «militant church», and later clarify this name in the form «militant Baptism». In the final part, the document contains nine constructive proposals to suppress the conflict between the CC ECB and the state, as well as to normalize interaction between the authorities and various religious organizations. The surviving copy of the document has several losses that could not be replenished. Attempts to find a complete document in various archives and personal funds did not bring any result. Parts of the published document have become the basis for a number of books, pamphlets and articles written by members of the research group who prepared the document. The May protest action and the document published in this article played an important role in the publication of the entire popular science publishing series «Library “Modern Religions”».