Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia

The History of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia

The modern history of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia began more than one hundred years ago. The Watch Tower journal of February 1887 published a letter from a reader to Charles Taze Russell, the magazine's editor and first president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the publishing agency of Jehovah's Witnesses. The writer states: 'I shall also mail copies of the Watch Tower to different places, even Russia.'

Pavel Zyatek was born in 1905 and was baptized in Ukraine in 1925. He spent 20 years in prisons for being one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Curious to discover how much interest in the Bible message the Russian people had, Charles Taze Russell set sail for that vast country. The September 1891 issue of the Watch Tower published a report of an eventful meeting Russell had on Russian soil with a fellow believer who was busy as a missionary spreading Bible truth to others in Russia.

It was about the same time that Cimeon Kozlicki, a graduate of a Russian theological seminary, returned to Russia from the United States with the teachings of the Bible Students, as Jehovah's Witnesses were then known. Zealously he sought to bring the good news of the Bible to those who were searching for it. Even in western Siberia, where he later lived, preaching God's Word remained the most important goal in his life.

A letter was published in the Watch Tower of December 1, 1911, from R. H. Oleszynski, a traveling minister for the Bible Students in Eastern Europe. He reported that 10,000 copies of the booklet Where Are the Dead? had been printed in the Russian language and distributed publicly. Oleszynski wrote: "While it is true that there are many difficulties, nevertheless there are many souls longing after God."

'Publications That
Enlighten Are Needed'

After the revolution in Russia in 1917, the Watch Tower Society received a surprising letter from a teacher in Siberia who earnestly sought Bible truth. He pleaded for Bible literature. He wrote: "Here [in Russia] publications that enlighten are very much needed."

As a result of those early beginnings, small Bible study groups and congregations of Bible Students were formed in various parts of Russia and the other territories of the Soviet Union. In a letter published in the 1927 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, one Witness from Russia wrote: "We have ten believers on our farm here, also four at Kourgan, five at Sharapkino, and six at Pavlovka. . . . We are greatly in need of literature."

In 1928, George Young, a representative of the Watch Tower Society, came to Russia to help fellow believers. Included in his mission was a visit to Moscow in order to obtain permission to have Bible literature shipped into the country. Indication that legal recognition might become possible was on the horizon. In a letter dated February 14, 1929, to Joseph F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, Young wrote: "At Kursk, a city fifty miles [80 km] north of Kharkov, permission has been granted to print 15,000 booklets entitled Freedom and Where Are the Dead?" Young also sent a list with the names and addresses of over one hundred persons in various parts of Russia to whom The Watch Tower should be sent.

Congregation in Usolye-Sibirskoye in 1956.

Jehovah's Witnesses in sentralnyi Khazan, Irkutsk region, Siberia, in 1956

The second world war brought dramatic, unforeseen changes for Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, the February 1, 1946, issue of The Watchtower reported that more than a thousand of Jehovah's Witnesses who spoke Ukrainian and lived in the eastern part of Poland had been deported into the depths of Russia.

Witnesses in Concentration Camps

Many Russian citizens, along with millions of people of other nationalities, endured great suffering in concentration camps located throughout the territories under Germany's cruel totalitarian dictatorship. But these difficult experiences led to some unexpected blessings. Many prisoners met Jehovah's Witnesses in concentration camps and then became Jehovah's Witnesses themselves. In the Ravensbrück camp, 300 Russians became Jehovah's Witnesses, and in another camp, 227. When released after the war, all of them carried their newfound faith back with them into the vast territory of the Soviet Union.

Vitali Kostanda came in contact with Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

One Soviet citizen who suffered in several concentration camps in Germany but who also benefited from the experience is Witali Kostanda. As a young man of almost 18 years of age, he had been deported to serve under forced labor in Germany in 1942. Two years later he was arrested and put into the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he came in contact with Jehovah's Witnesses. He was greatly inspired by their uncompromising stand against the Nazis. He says: "I admired their courage to speak fearlessly to other prisoners about their faith and their hope although it was strictly prohibited. I was impressed by their strong stand against totalitarianism." He became keenly interested in their Bible teachings and later was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Included among the millions of people who suffered savage persecution in Hitler's concentration camps and prisons were Jehovah's Witnesses. According to historians, some 10,000 were imprisoned - hundreds of whom received death sentences and were executed. Clearly, Jehovah's Witnesses are far removed from any kind of totalitarianism, both in their thinking and in their actions.

Endurance Under Persecution

The ability of Jehovah's Witnesses to maintain peace and unity in their worship despite war and the fierce persecution that continued over many decades has won the admiration of many honesthearted Russians as well as other people throughout the world. Even back in 1946, in spite of persecution, 8,633 regularly attended the meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union. In 1956, more than 17,000 persons in the Soviet Union regularly worshiped with Jehovah's Witnesses at their meetings.

Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted especially in the years 1949 and 1951. Many of them were exiled to Siberia and the Far East. What, though, was the outcome? Walter Kolarz, in his book Religion in the Soviet Union, wrote: "This was not the end of the 'Witnesses' in Russia, but only the beginning of a new chapter in their proselytising activities . . . the Soviet Government could have done nothing better for the dissemination of their faith." Yes, as a result of being exiled, after 1951, Jehovah's Witnesses flourished not only in Moldavia, Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic States, and all of western Russia but also beyond the Urals, in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Far East, and even on Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula.

During all these trialsome years, Jehovah's Witnesses were looking forward to the time when they could once more freely worship God in their own country. They tried fearlessly again and again to receive legal recognition. For example, on June 9, 1949, Jehovah's Witnesses, acting in the name of their fellow believers in all the territory of the Soviet Union, addressed a petition to the Ministry of the Interior of the U.S.S.R. in Moscow. On August 16, 1949, a delegation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow personally submitted a copy of this petition to the vice-chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the U.S.S.R.

A few years later, from June 1956 through February 1957, a petition was unanimously adopted by 462,936 delegates at 199 conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses in many different countries. From each convention a copy of the petition was directed to Nikolai A. Bulganin, then premier of the U.S.S.R. Awake! magazine of April 22, 1957, wrote about this resolution: "It requests that an objective government investigation be made and that the Witnesses be freed and authorized to organize themselves according to the way they are in other lands. Also that the Witnesses in Russia be permitted to establish regular relations with their governing body in the United States and be allowed to publish and import such Bible literature as they need for their ministry."

Freedom At Last

By the end of the 1980's, a new period began for Jehovah's Witnesses in the territory of the Soviet Union - an era of freedom of worship. In 1989 and 1990, when the government authorities stopped viewing them as enemies, thousands of Witnesses were given the opportunity to go to Poland for their first Bible education convention. Millions of their fellow believers around the world watched with keen interest and anticipation and wondered: When will Jehovah's Witnesses be legally recognized in the Soviet Union? Soon it happened - in 1991 - exactly one hundred years after the visit of Charles Taze Russell to Russia! The "Administrative Center of the Religious Organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the U.S.S.R." was registered on March 27, 1991.

Certificate of registration.

Following this legal registration, a series of conventions were held in different cities throughout Russia and neighboring territories, and more than 74,000 attended during 1991. Freedom of worship made the Witnesses' hearts beat with new joy and greater zeal for Bible truth.

What Is Happening Today?

Today Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia enjoy their freedom of worship. Currently, there are some 1,100 congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the territories of the former U.S.S.R. More than 180,000 free courses in Bible education are being conducted regularly with interested people right in their own home, and in the early part of 1995, nearly 450,000 people were present at the annual celebration of the Memorial of Christ's death.

Jehovah's Witnesses hope that many more people in Russia will respond to their free Bible educational work and learn what marvelous prospects God has in store for mankind. Motivated by a genuine Christian love of neighbor, the Witnesses also hope that others will listen to their message of good news with an open mind, letting the facts of their public-service work and Christian conduct speak for themselves.

Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Usolye-Sibirsk.
A Bible education convention for Jehovah's Witnesses in St. Petersburg, 1992.