The article deals with the Soviet national and religious politics in 1955-1957 between the two phases of religious persecutions of non-Orthodox Christian confessions. In conjunction with the big state politics, there existed actors of an intermediate level - confessional associations and organizations. The Soviet State promoted "struggle for peace" through confessional associations, and this policy implied international contacts. Mennonites, being marginal groups in both the USSR and in North America, benefited from fluctuations of the Soviet political course toward religion. Using the connections to the Evangelical Baptists, the North American Mennonites managed to establish first contacts with their brethren who at that moment were released from their deportation status and gained freedom of settlement. The North American Mennonites did not achieve their primary goal of complete recognition of the Soviet Mennonites but they managed to raise their political status and succeeded in positioning them as a confession that should be regarded alongside other legal confessions.

Keywords: Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, Mennonites, Mennonite Central Committee, Soviet religious politics.

In the first issue of the Canadian weekly German-language newspaper Mennonitische Rundschau ("Mennonite Review") in 1956, Willy's letter was reprinted

Dick J. Mennonites of North America and the USSR in the mid-1950s: small People and Big Politics.Gosudarstvo, religiya, tserkva v Rossii i za rubezhom [State, Religion, Church in Russia and Abroad]. 2017. N 1. pp. 123-146.

Dyck, Johannes (2017) "Mennonites in North America and the USSR in the Mid-1950s: Small People and Big Politics", Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 35(1): 123-146.

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Neufeld's letter sent from Ayaguz, Kazakhstan. Willy informs his Canadian relatives, Uncle Bernhard and brothers Johann, Jacob and Gergard, that together with his sister Anna, brother Dietrich and mother Anna, Bernhard's sister, he arrived in Kazakhstan on December 1, 1954 from the Kirov region. In May 1955, he married Maria, the daughter of Johann Leuven from his native village, who had previously lived in the Molotov region. The newlyweds lived in a state apartment consisting of two rooms, a storeroom, a kitchen and an entrance hall; in addition, they owned an outbuilding. Things hadn't been going well for a while after the wedding, but now everything was going to be all right. Dietrich had given them a heifer for their wedding, which was due to bring offspring in February. In Willie's opinion, the Canadian recipients of the letter should have known that two people could have a very good life with a cow. The letter lists numerous other relatives in the USSR and their places of employment, along with the quantity and quality of livestock. The author wrote: "Now we live well, and soon we will live even better." The letter, written in Russian, was translated into German and sent to the newspaper by the author's brother, Jacob Neufeld, a resident of Winnipeg1.

The war-torn Neufeld family - Mennonites of Russian origin2 - became part of a tangle of contradictions that began to unravel two years after Stalin's death. It turned out that the threads of the tangle did not close in the internal space of the Soviet Union, but led abroad, suddenly becoming part of big politics. Some of the threads led to religious organizations on both sides of the ocean, each with its own policies at lower levels. Small people suddenly began to play their own roles. The events in question focused on the Soviet national and, to an even greater extent, religious politics of the mid-1950s.

The participants in the events, first of all, should be attributed to the Soviet Germans. The turn of the Soviet national policy towards them can be illustrated by the fate of the family of V. Neufeld, who fought for survival in a small town near so-

1. Mennonitische Rundschau (1956) 1. S. 2.

2. About Mennonites, see for example: Dick Y. Historical roots and correlation of confessional and ethnic borders in Mennonite identity in the USSR / / State, Religion, Church in Russia and abroad. 2014. N 4. pp. 277-278.

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the Russian-Chinese border. The author of the letter was born on August 15, 1926 in the German Mennonite village of Izluchistoe, Dnipropetrovsk region3. In the first months after the outbreak of World War II, some Soviet Germans from the European part of the USSR, including Ukraine, were sent to rural areas of the eastern part of the country. All of them were assigned a special settlement regime under curfew supervision and were forbidden to leave their place of residence. Another part of the Germans during the retreat of the occupation forces was taken to the West, including 35 thousand Mennonites 4, of which about 12 thousand were able to stay in the West 5. Of these, 7 thousand people moved to Canada after the end of the war6. The remaining 23,000 Mennonites were repatriated back to the USSR. Many families, including the Neufeld family, were separated. All of them were looking for an opportunity to reunite with their relatives.

During the war years, there were significant changes in religious policy. The crushing struggle against religion, which reached its peak in the 1930s, was replaced by attempts to instrumentalize religion, for which, in particular, on May 19, 1943, the Council for Religious Cults (SDRK)was created in the executive branch of the Soviet government, under the Council of People's Commissars7. Its chairman until his death in October 1956 was I. V. Polyansky, in 1944-1947 at the same time head of the department of the 2nd directorate of the NKGB of the USSR 8. The religious policy of the state consisted, on the one hand, in the removal of communities from the underground, and, on the other hand, in the centralization of confessions and "a kind of standardization

3. "Akt. Nr. 1103, Neufeld Willi Dietrich", in Mennonite Central Committee Archive (MCCA). Akron, PA. Box. 38. Folder IX-19-16.5 "MCC: Europe & North Africa Refugee Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses PermskaMa Region - the end", Department of "SemipalatinskaMa O." Note: Author's note: The Mennonite archives of North America are departmental and lack the usual taxonomy for Russian historians. All references to sources from these archives have a minimal content sufficient for their unambiguous identification.

4. Loewen, H. (2006) Between Worlds: Reflections of a Soviet-born Canadian Mennonite, p. 65. Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press.

5. Epp, F.H. (1962) Mennonite Exodus: The Rescue and Resettlement of the Russian Mennonites Since the Communist Revolution, p. 351. Altona.

6. Loewen, R., Nolt, S. (2012) Seeking Places of Peace: Global Mennonite History Series: North America. Intercourse, p. 19. PA: Good Books.

7. Odintsovo M. I., Kochetova A. S. Confessional policy in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2014, p. 155.

8. Central Moscow Archive-Museum of Personal Collections: guidebook, Moscow: Publishing House of the Main Archive Department of the City of Moscow, 2008, p. 286.

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organizational and hierarchical structure and ritual" on the model of the Orthodox Church 9. Under this scheme, local religious communities and their leaders had to submit unconditionally to their own center, through which the SDRC conducted its policies.

A significant role in the fate of the Mennonites in the USSR was played by Evangelical Christians and Baptists close to them in terms of church structure and faith. At the height of the war, in 1942, "based on the political situation, a joint center was created without proper organization"10 of these two confessions. The passive voice used by the author of the quote Polyansky emphasizes the initiative of the state in the process of this unification. The new center's assets included at least three positions: patriotism, approval of military service (Baptist pacifism was greatly reduced by the beginning of the war, while the All-Russian Baptist Union was liquidated by the authorities in the mid-1930s for its anti-war attitude), and establishing links with related faiths in the countries of the US and British allies in the war 12. In 1944, the SDRC gave permission for the organization of the central organ of both groups, thereby uniting them into one denomination, 13 which soon received the final name of Evangelical Christian Baptists (ECB). Since 1946, their center has been called the All-Union Council of EXB-VSEKHB 14.

Since the state ultimately contributed in every possible way to the death of religion, everyone had to find ways for themselves and their communities to survive and some kind of legal political field. The "struggle for peace" has become such a field. The occasion presented itself in the autumn of 1950 in the form of the Second All-Union Peace Conference. The chairman of the All-Russian Orthodox Church, Ya. I. Zhidkov, not only participated in it, but also soon made an appeal on the radio to Baptists all over the world with a demand to support the movement

9. GA RF. f. R6991. Op. 3. D. 8. L. 102. This document, as well as some other documents cited in the article from the fund 6991, inventory No. 3, was selected by N. A. Belyakova for the project anthology of the Euro-Asian Accreditation Association in 2010, in which the author participated as a consultant. The author expresses his gratitude to her.

10. GA RF. f. R6991. Op. 3. D. 1. L. 12.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid., l. 12ob.

13. GARF. F. P6991. Op. 3. D. 47. L. 12-13.

14. VSEKHB archive. Folder 1.1. Circular letter dated 04.01.1946.

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supporters of peace. The struggle for peace in its Soviet interpretation became the fourth, and in reality the first, position in the political asset of the ALLKHB.

It was in this interpretation that peacemaking opened the door for everyone to communicate with believers in the West. The SDRC identified him as a worthy partner of the Methodists and Baptists of the United States, who advocated rapprochement with the USSR in contrast to the "militant and reactionary" current of the Vatican and the "anti-Soviet political orientation" of the ecumenical movement.15 The entire KGB did not really have the slightest freedom to communicate with religious circles in the West - even the text of an innocent Christmas telegram was being approved by the SDRC16. After 1948, VSEKHB's international contacts practically ceased.

Mennonites in the USSR remained outside the legal field. Many of them, such as the aforementioned Neufeld family, have moved away from the faith. Active believers from their midst in the 1920s were the only ones among the traditional denominations who consistently professed renunciation of weapons after the statement made at the conference in 1925, which the authorities remembered for a long time 17. After the war, this caused them to be classified as religious organizations that were not legally allowed to operate and were under the jurisdiction of state security agencies. 18 The intensity of the persecution of Mennonites in the post-war period is evidenced at least by the fact that in the Molotov (now Perm) region alone, in 1950-1951, 11 Mennonites were sentenced to long prison terms ranging from 10 to 25 years, 19 while six years later there were only 160-170 confessing representatives of this denomination in the region.20 Mennonites were marginalised after the war-

15. GA RF. F. P6991. Op. 3. D. 47. L. 139-141.

16. GA RF. F. P6991. Op. 3. D. 48. L. 30.

17. Reinmarus A., Friesen G. Mennonites (a brief sketch), Moscow: Bezbozhnik, 1930, p. 83.

18. GA RF. F. P6991. Op. 3. D. 47. L. 205.

19. Based on the materials of the List of citizens of German nationality who were repressed for political reasons in the Perm region in 1919-1959 (according to the documents of the GOPAPO, transferred from the RU of the FSB of the Russian Federation in the Perm region). The Germans in the Kama region. XX vek. Vol. 1. Archivnye dokumenty [Archival documents]. Book 2. Perm: Pushka Publ., 2007, pp. 144-222.

20. Ibid., p. 227.

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They have been displaced to the deep periphery of a society that is generally hostile to them.

The Mennonites of North America were also marginalised, but in a different world. They continued to practice the principles of renunciation of the world and renunciation of weapons, which their ancestors in Europe during the Reformation chose as their survival strategy. The first representatives of this denomination migrated to the New World from Northern Germany in 1683. Beginning in 1707, several thousand persecuted Mennonites from Switzerland and Southern Germany found refuge here. In 1874, avoiding the planned universal military service, 18 thousand Mennonites from Russia moved to the American continent, mainly to Canada. In 1923-30, another 24,000 Mennonites from the U.S.S.R. arrived there, 21 joined by the 12,000 Soviet war refugees mentioned above in the late 1940s. In Canada, there is a group of immigrants from Russia with strong family ties, united along confessional lines. In general, in 1950, there were 18 Mennonite associations in North America with the number of members from 1 to 64 thousand, in total-about 200 thousand believers. 40% of them were of Russian origin.

The Mennonite Central Committee (Mennonite Central Committee) played an important role. It was the only Mennonite organization in North America that was responsible for organizing aid and had sufficient resources (Mennonite church associations that dealt with religious and governance issues did not have substantial material resources). The CCM was established in 1920 to provide assistance to poor fellow believers in Russia.22 With the end of aid to co-religionists in the USSR in 1925, the CMC's activities practically ceased; it was continued in the 1930s and especially during World War II, when the CMC organized the emigration of Mennonite refugees from Europe to Latin America. The lion's share of CMC projects was carried out by volunteers who worked on a gratuitous basis. In Europe, volunteer units usually worked on housing construction or construction projects.

21. Loewen, R., Nolt, S. Seeking Places of Peace, p. 19.

22. Unruh, J.D. (1952) In the Name of Christ: A History of the Mennonite Central Committee and Its Service 1920-1951, p. 15. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

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23. The CMC's reputation among ordinary Mennonites was exceptionally high.

In 1942, the Peace Section was established in the CMC, which, combining the efforts and resources of all Mennonite groups, dealt with issues of refusal of military service based on religious beliefs, defending common confessional interests before the government, as well as developing its own materials on peace theology.24
The USSR was constantly in the center of attention of North American Mennonites. On March 18, 1953, the Mennonitische Rundschau not only informed its readers about Stalin's death, but also published a large report on his funeral.25 Regular reviews of the country's politics and economy were published, and rare letters from relatives were immediately reprinted. In 1954, the number of such letters increased dramatically, and in 1955 they were published almost every week. Two factors may have contributed to the increased flow of letters from the U.S.S.R. to Canada : the loosening of international postal censorship, 26 and the increased courage of the Germans in the U.S.S.R., who, after Stalin's death, began to re-establish written contacts among themselves.27
Against this background, on July 29, 1955, a telegram from Dr. Harold Bender, Chairman of the CCM Peace Section, unexpectedly arrived at the central office of the CCM in the small town of Akron, Pennsylvania. He excitedly reported on nothing less than a providential meeting with the Chairman and General Secretary of the All-KGB, which "opened a wide channel for a preaching mission" among Mennonites in the USSR.28 The meeting with the ALLHB delegation was held in Birmingham after the London Baptist World Congress. This news will be published immediately-

23. Ibid., pp. 294-306.

24. The Mennonite Encyclopedia. Vol. I-IV (1955-1959). Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House. Vol. V. 1990 [http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mennonite_Central_Committee_Peace_Section, accessed on 29.11.2016].

25. Mennonitische Rundschau. 18.03.1953. S. 13.

26. cf. Avzeger L. "I opened your letters' Memoirs of a former secret censor of the MGB'. // Source. 1993. N 0. pp. 41-57.

27. ср. Reimer, N. (1996) Nur aus Gnaden. Erinnerungen. Chişinău.

28. "Telegram 29.07.1955 from London, England, to Mencencom, Akron, PA", in MCCA. Box, 125. Folder IX-6-3-75 "MCC Correspondence Archives Material 1955. Bender, Harold S.".

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both German-language Mennonite newspapers in Canada were reviewed 29. Bender enthusiastically repeated the words of A.V. Karev, General Secretary of the VSEKHB, that there are about 20 thousand Mennonites in the USSR, who are mostly farmers (Der Bote corrected them - collective farm "farmers"), and that they are more affluent than their fellow villagers. Some Mennonites are employed in industry, and in Karaganda, among the thousands of Baptist congregations, there are 400 Mennonites, as well as Mennonite preachers who preach to them in German. Mennonites, according to Soviet interlocutors, are free to hold religious meetings and actions, although their communities are not registered with the authorities. To register, they must belong to an officially recognized all-Union religious organization; this step is being considered. Baptist leaders also expressed confidence that visits to the Soviet Union would now be possible at any time, with full freedom of movement, and that all Mennonite centers would be available to visit and preach in Mennonite communities. Karev's confidence and charm, which, like Bender, was fluent in German, were so great that the latter declared the conversation material the first authentic report on the situation of Mennonites in Russia after World War II.

The reaction of Bratsk Vestnik, the official organ of the All-Russian Security Service, was much more muted. Dr. Bender, "who expressed a desire to visit the Soviet Union,"was also briefly mentioned in a lengthy report on the visit of the All-Soviet delegation to the World Congress.30
Thus, the Mennonites of North America had a new source of information about their fellow believers, who presented a different perspective than the scattered, though numerous, letters - a perspective of accomplished religious freedom, a radiant and hopeful one.

The Baptist leaders were clearly wishful thinking. This included at least visiting Mennonites who lived under the supervision of the special commandant's office in remote regions of the country. How right was the leadership of the All-NHS to describe in glowing terms the life of Mennonites, whom it had barely met in the previous decade?

29. Der Bote. 17.08.1955. S. 3; Mennonitische Rundschau. 17.08.1955. S. 2.

30. Bratsky vestnik. 1955. N 5. pp. 5-13, 11.

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They had reason to be optimistic. After a slight zigzag in Soviet religious policy, the persecution of believers actually subsided, and on July 07, 1954, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a "Resolution on major shortcomings in scientific atheist propaganda and measures to improve it." 31 It was not published, but it may have formed the basis of an editorial in Pravda on July 24.32 It seems that the post-Stalin "thaw" should not have affected this most important area of ideological work. However, only four months later, the whole country could read in Pravda the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of 10.10.1954 on mistakes in conducting scientific and atheistic propaganda among the population.33 Perhaps the key message of the second decree was: "It is stupid and harmful to put certain Soviet citizens in political doubt because of their religious beliefs." 34
After such contradictory signals, the SDRC commissioners could not "find a partisan middle ground on this issue"for a long time, 35 and did not put obstacles in the way of illegal communities. After this decree of 1954, those convicted under article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR also began to return from prison (the above-mentioned Mennonites from the Molotov region were reduced to 5 years in prison) .36
In the same year, 1954, the door to international politics was once again opened for VSEKHB. March 9, 1954 Ivan Polyansky appealed to the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev, with a request to authorize the visit to the USSR of the chairman of the Baptist World Union (ALL) Townley Lord and the Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Soviet Walter Lewis. Their names were determined by VSEKHB. The trip was approved by the party leadership. N. V. Koltsov, head of the SDRC department, previously drove along the route planned by VSEKHB, inspected all the houses of worship and made sure that in each community there was a full-fledged service center.-

31. CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee. Vol. 8. 1946-1955. Moscow: Publishing House of Political Literature, 1985. pp. 428-436.

32. cf. GA RF. f. P6991. Op. 3. d. 102. L. 316.

33. CPSU in Resolutions, vol. 8, 1946-1955, pp. 446-450.

34. Ibid., p. 447.

35. GA RF. f. P6991. Op. 3. D. 165. L. 52.

36. Nemtsy v Prikamye [Germans in the Kama region], vol. 1. Book 2. Tab before p. 160.

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a small circle of interlocutors for distinguished guests is marked 37. The visit took place in June 1954. The delegation visited a number of cities that were closed to foreign tourists, and even used a special airplane 38 to travel around the country. At the end of the visit, TASS issued a statement by T. Lord that Baptists in the USSR "enjoy complete freedom of religion", and numerous conversations "in prayer houses showed that people in the Soviet country are full of a pronounced desire for peace" 39. The success was clear. As many as 10 people participated in the VSB return visit, which took place at the VSB congress in London in the summer of 1955 and made it possible for Karev and Bender to meet.

The process of normalizing the Mennonite situation continued. On December 13, 1955, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR removed the special settlement from the Germans. Finally, Germans were able to leave their places of forced residence and even freely choose their place of residence, although there was an unspoken ban on returning to their native places in the European part of the country. Germans, including Mennonites, finally felt free. Gradually, internal migration began to gain momentum. In their old and new places of settlement, new churches will spontaneously arise. All of them were illegal, but were not prosecuted by the authorities.

Karev's optimism and Bender's enthusiasm, however, were not shared by Karev's colleagues in the CMC, nor by the Mennonite press. William T. Snyder, Assistant Executive Secretary of the CMC, considered Bender's report to the press premature: "We cannot be sure that the Russian Baptists represent a reliable channel through which to reach the Mennonites in Russia ... From a single visit, we cannot assess the degree of their reliability. "40 The Mennonitische Rundschau prefaced Bender's article with a warning:" This information... they cannot be called exhaustive and are absolutely reliable-

37. GA RF. F. P6991. Op. 3. D. 102. L. 143, 185-198..

38. Bratsky vestnik. 1954. N 3-4.

39. Ibid.

40. "Snyder to Bender, 05.08.1955", in MCCA. Box 125. Folder. IX-6-3-75 "MCC Correspondence Archives Material 1955. Bender, Harold S.".

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neither the sender nor us, but they are important enough to share with other readers. " 41
The news of the revival of the Mennonite community in the USSR has encouraged fellow believers in North America to become even more active. Everyone was ready to help their brothers and sisters in the faith, and often relatives by blood. The delay of the Central Committee in helping Mennonites in the USSR threatened to lose credibility. In the United States, the idea of helping Mennonites in the USSR began to take on concrete content. Back in January 1954. Snyder asked a prominent Mennonite figure of Russian origin, K. F. Klassen, who worked in Germany and had a lot of contact with refugees and prisoners of war arriving from the Soviet zone, for material about life behind the Iron Curtain and information about Mennonite places of residence there.42 It turned out that the Central Committee workers in Germany had already begun to keep a file of Mennonites in the USSR, considering it "an important preparatory work for aid actions at the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain." 43
The card file has become one of the main tools for organizing assistance to co-religionists. Looking ahead, it was conducted until 1979. By that time, it contained 17,719 names of 44, including the name of Willy Neufeld mentioned at the beginning of the article. The card file primarily included information received by mail from relatives, although information was also drawn from other sources, including the German family search service Heimatsortskartei, the Red Cross, and the Soviet newspaper Neues Leben ("New Life"). The file cabinet hardly adequately reflected the actual geography of Mennonite settlement in the USSR. It primarily reflected information about families torn apart by the war and repatriates born in Ukraine. Residents of Russian Mennonite settlements in Siberia and the Southern Urals, as well as families who did not have direct relatives in the West, in Kartota-

41. Mennonitische Rundschau. 17.08.1955. S. 2.

42. "Snyder to Klassen, 28.01.1954", in Mennonite Church Archive (MCA). Goshen (Indiana). Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/48 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

43. "Klassen to Snyder, 21.01.1954", Ibid.

44. The calculation was made using the card file stored in MCCA: MCCA. Box. 36. Folder IX-19-16.5 "MCC: Europe & North Africa Refugee Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses Akmolinskaja - KemerowskaMa"; MCCA. Box 37. Folder IX-19-16.5"MCC: Europe & North Africa Refugee Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses KiMewskaMa - PawlodarskaMa"; MCCA. Box 38. Folder IX-19-16.5 "MCC: Europe & North Africa Refugee Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses PermskaMa Oblast - the end".

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kes are presented much worse. In addition, the card file almost did not take into account the migration flows that began after the abolition of the special commandant's office.

The issue of assistance to Mennonites in the USSR has become a priority for the CMC. In organizational terms, this section of work was designated as the Peace Section, and the conceptual basis of Project 14 on November 11, 1955, was Paul Peachey's proposal to form a goodwill team for Russia and the East.45 The concept was approved by an authoritative group of American Mennonites, although they were not at all familiar with Soviet realities.

Peachey proposed sending a goodwill group of four to six Mennonites to the USSR through the Association of Historic Peace Churches, which included Quakers who were allowed in the USSR. (In 1951, VSEKHB was visited by a delegation of Quakers who came to the USSR through the Soviet Peace Defense Committee; 46 in 1953, a delegation of VSEKHB visited Sweden at the invitation of Quakers. 47) The group was supposed to make a six-month trip to the USSR and the "countries of Soviet influence" China, Japan, India and other East Asian countries. According to the author, it was intended to dispel distrust and bring a message of goodwill to ordinary people through personal and group contacts; the Christian message in its presentation should consist of love and reconciliation. The team's goal was to support non-resistance churches and missionaries, and its testimony was non - political. It was also proposed that five Mennonite volunteers from the United States should work for one year in agriculture or industry of the Soviet authorities ' choice, accompanying their work with prayer, testimony of Christ, and a message of repentance and reconciliation.48
45. "Paul Peachey. Proposal for a Goodwill Team to Russia and the Orient", in MCCA. Folder IX-12 (#1) "Russia Goodwill Team". Paul Peachey came from the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church, worked in Europe as a housing volunteer in 1946, became CCM's director for Germany in 1950, and began studying sociology at the University of Zurich in 1952, earning his Ph. D. in 1954. См. "Peachey, Paul (1918-2012)", Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online [http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Peachey,_Paul_(1918-2012), accessed on 01.12.2016].

46. Fraternal Messenger. 1953. N 1. pp. 13-15.

47. Fraternal Messenger. 1953. N 2-3. pp. 45-53.

48. "Minutes of a Meeting for Consultation. West Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 14.11.1955", in MCCA. Folder IX-12 (#1)"Russia Goodwill Team".

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To what extent these proposals could be translated into reality, only time could show. Bender continued to radiate optimism. At the beginning of January 1956, the CMC decided to send a delegation to the USSR, where Bender and possibly Snyder were to represent the Mennonites of the United States, and J. I. Thyssen, an emigrant from the USSR, the head of the Canadian Mennonite Colonization Council, who at one time negotiated with the Canadian government about the settlement of Mennonites, was to represent the Mennonites of Canada. It was intended to visit regions with a significant Mennonite presence. These included 18 cities from Vorkuta to Stalinabad 49. Thyssen declined the trip, but secured the support of the delegation in the Canadian government 50. 14 02.1956 The Canadian Embassy in Moscow assessed the chances of success of the delegation as low. The Embassy was also unable to obtain any information about Mennonites in country 51.

On April 1, 1956, the Central Committee applied to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa for a visa for its delegation. The CMC included Mennonite settlement sites in the itinerary, which, however, were closed to foreigners.52
Bender also informed about the visa request to the ALLHB, whose management brought the issue up for discussion personally with the chairman of the SDRC Polyansky. It was too late to retreat, and Karev was asked to reply that Mennonites could visit the country as tourists.53
In the same letter, Bender invited Zhidkov and Karev, who were about to travel to the United States via the VSB, to a separate meeting with Mennonites in the small town of Goshen. The authorities of the USSR and the United States to some extent acted symmetrically: the US State Department added Goshen to the list of places closed to Soviet citizens 54; the meeting was postponed

49. "Snyder to Bender. 09.01.1956", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82 "MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Bender H.S."

50. "Bender to Thiessen. 21.01.1956", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82 "MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Bender H.S."

51. "Embassy Moscow Feb 14/56 Restricted to External Ottawa 28 Sub Mennonites in Russia", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

52. "Miller to Chuvahin, 04.04.1956", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 61/49 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

53. GA RF. f. R6991. Op. 4. D. 61. L. 198-201.

54. "Denny to Snyder, 04.05.1956", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82 "MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Baptist World Alliance"

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in Chicago. The authorities also demanded that the Supreme Security Council set an hourly schedule for guests to stay in the country, minimize press coverage of the visit, and limit public contacts with guests from the USSR.

On May 28, 1956, a large meeting of the VSEKHB delegation with the Mennonite community was held, which was attended by over 200 people, and the next day - with a narrow circle of the CMC leadership and Mennonite associations of Russian origin. Despite the wishes of the American authorities, the Canadian German Mennonite press published both a CMC press release about the meeting [55] and a detailed report [56]. The meeting with the Mennonites was also mentioned by the Fraternal Messenger 57.

For the Mennonite community in North America, the meeting was unique. She was primarily interested in the question of religious freedom in the USSR, which was answered in the affirmative, although it was recognized that religious legislation had not changed since Stalin's death and that communities had certain restrictions on the use of houses of worship. Karev, a member of the delegation, attributed the brutal suffering of Christians in the USSR to the name of Beria, after whose death much has changed in the country, and that many preachers convicted on political charges have returned home. The guests noted that Mennonites as a religious group are not registered with the authorities, which deprives them of the right to their own houses of worship. They gather either in private homes, or - in Central Asia, Siberia and the Urals-together with Baptists. When asked about the prospects of self-registration of Mennonites, Karev, soberly assessing the chance of registering a separate Mennonite community association, said that the answer is to unite with ALL the Mennonites. In a private conversation with J. I. Thyssen, who was also present at the meeting, the guests advised organizing their own church and registering its members. The participants of the meeting were very impressed by the report that it was possible to refuse military service in Soviet Russia, although Karev, who answered the question, actually said that the law of 1919 on refusal of military service on religious grounds had not been revoked-

55. Der Bote. 06.06.1956, S. 3.

56. Der Bote. 20.06.1956, S. 1, 3-4.

57. Fraternal Messenger. 1956. N 3-4. pp. 4-23, 12.

58. "Evaluation of Russian Baptist Delegation Meeting, May 29. P. 23", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-12-4"Russian Baptist Delegation to U.S., 1956".

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He also cited himself as an example during the Civil War.59 Wishful thinking was taken for granted. Even when asked about the possibility of participation of representatives from the USSR in the Mennonite peace conference, Karev did not answer negatively, advising the Americans to send an invitation to 60.

The VSEKHB delegation won over the audience with its charm. The streamlined wording in their responses was explained in the special circumstances of the country. WSS representatives accompanying the delegation noted that "nowhere did the Baptist delegation speak more openly about the circumstances in the Soviet Union than to the Mennonites in Chicago." 61 In a burst of good feelings, the planned Mennonite delegation to the USSR was advised to rely on the leadership of the VSEKHB in everything for the upcoming trip.

The leadership of VSEKHB was playing a double game. All members of the VSEHB delegation submitted travel reports to the SDRC upon their return from the United States. Only Zhidkov mentioned the Mennonites in the style of dismissive rhetoric: "[The Mennonites] are eager to send a delegation of Mennonites to the USSR... The VSEHB delegation explained to them that... their route, which they have planned for themselves, will be made in vain... However, our words had little effect on them " 62. The very detailed report of the CMC on the meeting did not contain warnings from the leadership of the All-Russian Security Service.

Soon, a series of disappointments awaited the participants of the upcoming Mennonite delegation to the USSR. The Soviet authorities initially delayed issuing visas, 63 and then announced that entry to the Asian part of the country was closed.64
As a result, two people went to the USSR on a tourist visa - Bender and David Vinet, a native of the USSR who spoke fluent Russian. The delegation secured support at the level of big politics-

59. "The Russian Baptist Delegation Meeting, Mennonite Biblical Seminary, May 28, 56, 7:30 p.m. P. 6", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-12-4 "Russian Baptist Delegation to U.S., 1956".

60. "Evaluation of Russian Baptist Delegation Meeting, May 29. P. 25", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-12-4 "Russian Baptist Delegation to U.S., 1956".

61. Der Bote. 20.06.1956. p. 1, 3.

62. GA RF. f. P6991. Op. 4. D. 64. L. 88.

63. "Snyder to Bender. 28.06.1956", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82 "MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Bender H.S.".

64. "Bender to Snyder. 09.07.1956 (letter N 2)", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82"MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Bender H.S.".

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key - First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada A. Day, former Ambassador of Canada to the USSR Watkins 65, as well as the Ambassadors of Canada and the United States in Moscow 66. The Central Committee on the Mennonite file of the USSR prepared for the delegation a list of 20 regions of the USSR with Mennonite populations. Information, for example, about the Aktobe region was as follows: "Religious freedom; there are no ministers, but young brothers who have converted to the faith in recent years are diligent in witnessing, and people repent before God through them. We created a community ... Just like in 1933; except for the terrible famine. They really want to emigrate. " 67
Bender and Vinet arrived in Moscow on 26.10.1956, where they were disappointed for the first time: The Intourist refused to visit their planned regions and offered them a tour of several cities, including Alma-Ata - the only city that had at least some relation to the Mennonites. From the hotel, they telegraphed invitations to several Mennonite preachers either to Moscow or Alma Ata. 68 In VSEKHB, on the contrary, they were greeted warmly. Here they presented plans for comprehensive assistance to the CMC for the USSR, including programs for the construction of houses of worship by teams of volunteers from the United States. There was also a detailed conversation with Karev about the registration of Mennonites in the authorities. Bender and Vince noted with satisfaction that Karev and Zhidkov even went to an appointment with the SDRC to help with a trip to the Mennonite regions of 69, although it was not difficult for the leadership of the VSEH to foresee a negative result.

Bender and Vince did have meetings with Mennonites outside of the VSEKHB. On November 4, 1956, at a hotel in Moscow, they met with Johann Bellk, a preacher from Borovsk, Molotov Oblast, and Heinrich Fot, a spiritual elder from Krasnovishersk, Molotov Oblast. Fot became the most authoritative Mennonite that the delegates met. He became

65. Mennonitische Rundschau. 31.10.1956. S. 1, 4.

66. "Snyder to Bender and Wiens. 20.10.1956", in MCCA. Box 135. Folder IX-6-3-82"MCC Correspondence. Archives Material 1956. Bender H.S.".

67. "The Following Copies of the Comments we have Selected on Life of Mennonites in Russia", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/53 MCC, 1953-62, Russian Reports".

68. "Itinerary-Russia Trip of H.S. Bender and David B. Wiens, October 22-November 18, 1956. Pp. 1-4", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/53 MCC, 1953-62, Russian Reports".

69. Ibid. P. 1.

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He became an elder in Ukraine in 1925, was exiled to the Urals in 1931, spent 18 months in prison in 1938-1939, but survived. In Krasnovishersk, he led a small Mennonite community and, in addition,made long trips around the country, visiting scattered groups of co-religionists and approving new elders. 70 The three - hour meeting in a hotel room with Fot in the presence of Belk was the most important meeting for the delegates-they were still able to communicate with one of the few Mennonite leaders and hear from him independent and real information about the state of Mennonism in the country.

Meetings with several Mennonites were also held in Alma-Ata.71 Bender and Vince couldn't even imagine that their meetings with Soviet citizens were being closely monitored by the authorities. Among their interlocutors in Alma Ata was Philippe Cornis, who came from Arykbalyk in the Kokchetav region, 72 who in the 1920s was a member of the leadership of the Union of Citizens of Dutch Origin, which organized the emigration of Mennonites from the USSR in the 1920s. Just before the meeting with the foreigners, Kornis had an eight-hour preventive interview; Bender was presented with a routine background check.73 However, Cornice took the conversation without much emotion - by this time he had already served several sentences of 74.

Bender and Vinet left the Soviet Union on November 16, 1956, and returned home full of hope. Both spoke enthusiastically about their trip in the Mennonite communities of Canada and the United States; their reports were heard by 40,000 people.75 Even more people read about it-

70. Heidebrecht, H. (1999) Ein Hirte der Zerstreuten: Das Leben des Ältesten Heinrich Voth 1887-1973. Bielefeld: Christlicher Missions-Verlag; Akt. Nr. 378 (2361). Voth Heinrich Peter MCCA. "MCC Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses KiMewskaMa-Pawlodarskaja", A Branch Of "FrunsenskaMa O.".

71. "Itinerary-Russia Trip of H.S. Bender and David B. Wiens, October 22-November 18, 1956. Pp. 2-3.", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/53 MCC, 1953-62, Russian Reports".

72. "Akt. Nr. 1931. Cornies Philipp David", in MCCA. "MCC Files SUCHDIENST. Addresses Kijewskaja - Pawlodarskaja", Отделение "Koktschetawskaja O.".

73. "Harold S. Bender to C.H. Blaauw. 01.01.1957", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 61/49 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

74. "Cornies, Philipp David (ca. 1884-1942?)", Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online [http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Cornies,_Philipp_David_(ca._1884-1942%3F), accessed on 29.11.2016].

75. "Bender to Zaroubin, 06.03.1957", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/52 MCC".

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The ly-Information service of the CMC has published a series of materials for the Mennonite press 76. Based on the results of the trip, the Central Committee adopted a strategy for the USSR. Taking into account the importance and prospects of this direction, it was decided to organize a separate office for Mennonite affairs of the USSR in the structure of the CMC. In addition to the annual delegations, he was supposed to be responsible for family reunification, a peace certificate, aid projects, and the organization of a peace conference in Europe. All contacts between Mennonites of the West and the USSR were to be carried out through the channels of the CMC. In 1957, a large delegation to the USSR was planned with the participation of 15-20 immigrants from Russia. To prepare it, Bender was going to visit the USSR in April 1957. It was also intended to maintain close contacts with ALL the SB 77s.

Thus, the Central Committee took on the main burden of working with Mennonites in the USSR. Undoubtedly, he had enough resources for this - both human and financial.

The CMC and Bender, however, did not take into account one important circumstance - the Soviet government's willingness to authorize the implementation of Mennonite projects in the country. In addition, the American Mennonites did not suspect the extent to which their partners in the form of the VSEKHB were actually ready to cooperate with them.

Two weeks after the delegates left, Karev sent the SDRC a detailed report on Bender and Vince's stay in the USSR. Karev reported on the purpose of their visit - visiting Mennonites, getting acquainted with their living conditions and religious activities, as well as inviting representatives of Mennonites and Baptists of the USSR to the Mennonite World Conference in 1957 in West Germany and the Peace Conference in Holland. Karev informed Bender and Vince that " Mennonites in the USSR are very active, correspond with each other, arrange meetings of leaders and activists, and create an association on an all-Union scale. The Mennonites they met told them that the Mennonite union in the USSR would be established regardless of whether the government registered it or not."78 The last sentence was underlined by an unidentified SDRC reader in the text-

76. "Russia Visit, 1956 (Bender, Wiens)", in MCCA. Box 17. Folder IX-12-2.

77. "Recommendations Regarding Future Contacts with Mennonites in Russia", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/53 MCC, 1953-62, Russian Reports".

78. GA RF. f. 6991. Op. 4. D. 66. L. 36.

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He crossed it out in the margin: the state's plans to organize a new confessional center were not part of it. Karev conveyed to the leadership of the SDRC views that Bender himself did not share with his colleagues in the CMC; in any case, it is not included in the confidential 16-page report. 79 The idea of a separate union of Mennonites of the USSR is also absent in other documents of the Central Committee. Karev continued: "Speaking about Mennonites in the USSR, they expressed the following wishes: if it is impossible to allow Mennonites to form their own union, then can Baptists accept them into their Union without depriving them of the features that are inherent in Mennonites, especially Mennonites who perform baptism by pouring, and not by immersion, as is customary among Baptists?" 80. Thus, for the first time, the idea of joining Mennonites to ALL the NHS was presented to the SDRC.

For Bender and Vince, such information about their trip to the USSR would be a complete surprise. Bender hardly suspected what he was being accused of; in any case, he had nothing to do with it.

Thanks to Bender's persistence, the story was continued the following year. On March 15, 1957, Zhidkov and Karev informed the acting Chairman of the SDRK, V. I. Gostev, that Bender was going to the USSR again, and asked that the Foreign Ministry not grant Bender a visa. " 81 Gostev nevertheless asked the ECB leadership, through their elders, to gather information about Mennonites in the country and "to provide Mennonite believers with the opportunity to attend prayer meetings of ECB societies." 82
Bender did not receive a visa, and the Central Committee, under a plausible pretext, refused to participate in Mennonite events in Europe. 83 The Central Committee did not return to the issue of Mennonites in the USSR until 1958, but not with Bender as the driving force and main performer.84
Bender's initiative had an unexpected follow-up, which neither he nor VSEKHB knew about. 17.01.1957 to Gostev's address at-

79. "Preliminary Report on the Trip to Russia", in MCCA. Box 17. Folder IX-12-2 "Russia Visit, 1956 (Bender, Wiens)".

80. GA RF. f. 6991. Op. 4. D. 66. L. 37-38.

81. GA RF. f. 6991. Op. 4. D. 74. L. 97.

82. Ibid.

83. "A, Karev to Dr. Harold Bender. [March 1957]", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 61/49 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

84. "Snyder to Miller, 01.07.1958.", in MCA. Folder "HIST-MSS. 1-278 H.S. Bender 61/48 MCC, 1953-62, Russia".

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a secret, single-copy report from the head of the department was released. Koltsov's report on a hasty business trip to the Orenburg region on the issue of Mennonites 85. In an environment of maximum secrecy, he collected and summarized numerous data on Mennonites, their number, mutual contacts, and connections with foreign countries. Believers already knew about the arrival in the USSR of the leaders of the World Union [sic! according to local comrades, this contributed to the activation "not only in the religious sphere, but also in the sphere of 'repatriation' and travel abroad "86. The comrades also confirmed their intention to hold a congress of Mennonites in the USSR in Solikamsk in January 1957. Koltsov mentioned in his report on the application for registration signed by 513 people. 87

The SDRC continued to work on its own Mennonite database. In July 1957, the new chairman of the SDRK, A. A. Luzin, received a report with a detailed geography of the settlement of Mennonites in the USSR - a total of 55 groups with a total number of 10 thousand members in five republics and thirteen regions of the RSFSR. 88 The main motive for collecting their own statistics was the same Bender, this time in connection with an attempt to come to 1957. 89 The memo lists many names of Mennonite leaders and analyzes the relationships between different groups. The report also addressed the issue of Mennonite attitudes to military service. As in Gostev's report, Bender's arrival is associated with an increase in emigration sentiment; there is also the theme of the congress, which was replaced by a secret meeting in January 1957 in Solikamsk.90 One of the suggestions of the report was to provide information about Mennonites to policy makers.

Puzin, having received the report, did not make an unambiguous decision. On the one hand, he gave instructions to prepare an informational and instructive letter for the SDRC commissioners not only about Mennonites, but also about all believers of German nationality; on the other hand, the letter was not signed by him, and even more so by the RA-

85. GA RF. f. R6991. Op. 3. D. 145. L. 31-41.

86. Ibid., l. 38.

87. Ibid., pp. 39-40.

88. GA RF. f. R6991. Op. 3. d. 132. L. 150-164ob. p. 151, 162.

89. Ibid., p. 150.

90. Ibid., p. 161.

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zoslano 91. Apparently, the question of German believers in general and Mennonites in particular in decision-making bodies is not yet ripe. Puzin did not take the initiative into his own hands, but everything was ready to give the necessary orders to the places in the shortest possible time.

Most likely, the decision-making bodies at that time hesitated, not yet deciding in which direction the party center should move in relation to both religion and religious Germans. In 1958, the religious policy of the state took another turn towards a noticeable tightening, and only in 1966 did the Mennonites become a legal denomination. The respite of 1955-1957 for Mennonites and other faiths is over. At the same time, thanks to Bender, they were again in the field of view of the authorities, and it was impossible to discount them, if only because of the international attention to them.

The Mennonite episode also came as a big surprise to ALL of them. It clearly showed its complete lack of independence and dependence on the SDRC in relations with foreign religious communities. The leadership of VSEKHB has achieved a major success in promoting the new religious freedom with Bender, who has great authority and resources, but is just as persistent as the naive one. Bender, who sincerely believed in the freedom that Karev described, who knew its real boundaries better than many others, could also cause a lot of trouble in his hard-started international activities. One official invitation already 15-20 illegal (unregistered!)people. It would have seriously undermined the position of the All-KGB before the SDRC if Bender had invited the leaders of equally illegal Mennonite communities to the Mennonite World Conference in 1957, which Bender intended to apply for on his next visit. This fully explains the initiative of VSEKHB to ban the arrival of Bender.

Bender also brought the idea of an institutional union of the Mennonites of the USSR to the attention of the All-Russian Orthodox Church. This was fundamentally contrary to the state policy of uniting all Baptist-like denominations under the auspices of the ALLHB, and to the desire of the ALLHB to maintain leadership over all ecb-like denominations, which undoubtedly included Mennonites. The creation of a separate Mennonite association was favored by all the NHS over their joining their own structures, which was exactly what happened during the First World War.

91. Ibid., l. 1500b.

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the first opportunity was when the question of Mennonite membership was resolved positively at a conference-congress in 1963 (however, this is a topic for a separate study). The same extreme dependence on the state can be explained by the fact that the SDRK heard from Karev what it wanted to hear about the hypothetical role of external enemies of Bender and the CMC in the creation of the Mennonite union in the USSR.

Let's sum up some results. The short period of 1955-1957 was a unique period of freedom for the non-Orthodox Christian confessions of the USSR, including the Mennonites. Fluctuations in the party line led to the fact that the SDRC commissioners on the ground eased the pressure on religion. The end of the post-war repressive policy led to a significant increase in the activity of communities, including illegal ones, which, in the absence of force restrictions, tried to determine their real borders by trial and error. New ways were also sought by the leaders of large legal associations of communities of the USSR, who, however, felt the guardianship of the authorities more strongly than others. They tried to expand their real borders by joining the official "struggle for peace", which without foreign contacts did not make sense. Against this background, marginal religious communities in the West saw their chance to help marginal fellow believers in the East. In this situation, the American Central Committee of Mennonites tried to build a stable system of assistance to their fellow believers in the USSR. In the end, the Committee remained very far from fulfilling its maximum program, but the result of its first action was unexpected: American Mennonites were able to lead their fellow believers out of the zone of political oblivion into the public space, where their religious specifics and interests could no longer be ignored.

Bibliography / References

Archive materials

State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF). F. R6991-Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Op. 3. Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, 1944-1960.

Op. 4. Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Inventory of documentary materials of permanent storage for 1944-1965

page 144
The VSEKHB archive.

Folder 1_1. Circular letter dated 04.01.1946.

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State archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF). Fund. R6991. Council on religious Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers.

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Epp, F.H. (1962) Mennonite Exodus: The Rescue and Resettlement of the Russian Mennonites Since the Communist Revolution. Altona.

Heidebrecht, H. (1999) Ein Hirte der Zerstreuten: Das Leben des Ältesten Heinrich Voth 1887-1973. Bielefeld: Christlicher Missions-Verlag.

KPSS v rezoliutsiiakh i resheniiakh s"ezdov, konferentsii i Plenumov TsK. T. 8. 1946-1955 [CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee. Vol. 8. 1946-1955]. M.: Izd-vo politicheskoi literatury, 1985.

Loewen, H. (2006) Between Worlds: Reflections of a Soviet-born Canadian Mennonite. Kitchener. ON: Pandora Press.

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Nemtsy v Prikam'e. XX vek. T. 1. Arkhivnye dokumenty. Kn. 2 [The Germans in the Kama. XX century. Vol. 1. The archival documents. KN. 2] (2007) Perm': Pushka.

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