Shtundists

The Shtundists (Russian: Штундисты, Shtundisty; Ukrainian: Штундисти, Shtundysty; British: 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.