Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists

The union has its origins in an Evangelical group in 1867 and its leader Nikita Isaevich Voronin who was baptized in the Kura river in Tbilisi, Caucasus, in present-day Georgia.

[1] German Mennonites in Ukraine and Lutherans in the Baltic coast started a revival that became known as "Stundist", which led to the formation of churches composed of baptized adult believers.

[2] After coming to power, the Soviet government attempted to weaken the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church by encouraging Baptist and Methodist missionaries.

Laws passed in April 1929 declared that "the activity of all religious units be confined to the exercise of religion, and be not permitted any economic or cultural work which exceeds the limits of their ministry to the spiritual needs of Soviet citizens" and prevented churches being used by anyone outside the community served.

[3] In July 1929 Russian Baptists conducted a mass baptism in the Moscow River, a month after the Soviet Congress had passed a resolution limiting religious propaganda.

Despite the differences and theological disagreements, many of these churches came to recognize the need to cooperate with each other in the hostile atheistic society and tried to build friendly relationships between their respective communities.

In 1959 an article in the official organ Izvestia said that "The Baptists and other evangelical sects mislead people with high-flown words and try to divert them from an industrious life and from the enlightened happenings of our great era.

The most important distinctives of "Unregistered Baptists" in the 1960-1970s were: In the last decades of Soviet history, many youth began to take an increasing interest in learning about religion, to the dislike of the state.

[7] Baptist communities in different corners of Russia have experienced state harassment in recent years[12] The UECB is multiethnic, consisting of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, Latvians, Armenians, Georgians, Ossets, Moldavians, Chuvashes, Komi, and other nationalities.