The Shtundists (Russian: Штундисты, Shtundisty; Ukrainian: Штундисти, Shtundysty; British English: Stundists) are the predecessors of several Evangelical Protestant groups in Ukraine and across the former Soviet Union.
[1] The Shtundists were heavily influenced by German Baptists, Pietists and Mennonites that settled in the southern parts of the Russian Empire, and somewhat by indigenous Spiritual Christians.
[2] A revival led to the formation of a denomination known as the Evangelical Christians (Евангельские христиане Yevangel'skiye khristane) which first appeared in 1909 when a British missionary, Granville Radstock, started preaching among the imperial Russian aristocracy.
Led by the engineer Ivan Prokhanov and mostly rooted in the Pietist tradition, they formed a nationwide association in St Petersburg, the All-Russian Evangelical Christian Union.
Prior to its independence in 1991, Ukraine was home to the second-largest Baptist community in the world, after the United States, and was called the “Bible Belt” of the Soviet Union.