Siberian Seven Revised 2

WHEATON COLLEGE

The Siberian Seven Fleshing-out Pentecostalism

Severson, Lane

4/17/2009

1

Introduction

Between 1978 and 1983 Time, Christianity Today, Christian Century, and other major

publications ran a handful of stories about a group of seven Siberian Pentecostals that had rushed

the U.S. Embassy in Moscow hoping that the American Government would help them emigrate. 1

This group became known as the “Siberian Seven.” The group, which consisted in parts of two

families, stayed in the embassy for five years, after which the Soviets released them to immigrate

to Israel. But none of these publications ran any articles discussing the terms of the release or

that it had occurred.2 Kent Hill, a scholar of Russian History from Washington University, who

was intimately involved in the release of the Seven discussed the release in his book Soviet

Union on the Brink.3 Aside from Hill‟s treatment of the story and a handful of magazine articles,

there are only a couple of books that discuss the Seven.4 This is despite the fact that there are

more that 225,000 pages prepared by the Seven (letters, journals, etc) and two books written by

members of that group chronicling their stay in the American Embassy and their struggle with

the Soviet state that forced them to engage in such a desperate measure.5

This is no mere case-study for the sake of case-study. Pentecostalism is currently one of

the fastest growing Christian movements throughout the world. As Phillip Jenkins has written,

1“Moscow Pray-In.” Time, 23 April 1979; available from

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920260,00.html; “The „Siberian Seven‟ completed two years of

refuge in the US Embassy in Moscow.” Christianity Today, 18 July 1980, 59; Fritz, Esther. “New Hope for the

Siberian Seven: A Show of US Support might persuade the Soviets to Let these Pentecostals Emigrate.” Christian

Century, 97 no 35 (November 5 1980): 1064-1066; Hill, Kent R. “After three long years : glimmers of movement in

„Siberian Seven‟ impasse.” Christianity Today, 18 September 1981, 32-37; “Deadly Game in a U.S. Embassy.”

Time, 25 January 1982; available from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925232,00.html; Genet,

Harry. “Siberian 7 : a desperate situation: two threaten to starve, and US diplomats finally pay attention.”

Christianity Today, 5 February 1982, 76-81; 2 In fact only a handful of regional papers seem to have produced any follow-up articles on this case. See

The Seattle Times (Seattle) 22 November 1984; Idaho Press Tribune (Nampa) 21 November 1984. 3 Previously titled The Puzzle of the Soviet Church

4 See John Pollock. The Siberian Seven (Waco: Word Books, 1979) and William C. Fletcher. Soviet

Charismatics: The Pentecostals in the USSR (New York: Peter Lang

Publishing, 1985) 5 See Lida Vashchenko and Cecil Murphy. Cry Freedom (Ann Arbor: Vine Books/Servant Publications,

1987) and Timothy Chmykhalov with Danny Smith Release! (Basingstoke : Marshalls, 1984)

2

The theological coloring of the most successful new churches reminds us once more of

the massive gap in most western listings of the major trends of the last century, which

rightly devoted much space to political movements such as fascism and communism but

ignored such vital religious currents as Pentecostalism. Yet today, fascists or Nazis are

not easy to find, and communists are becoming an endangered species, while Pentecostals

are flourishing around the globe…according to current projections, the number of

Pentecostal believers should cross the one billion mark before 2050.”6

The story of the Seven represents this very contradiction. The writing on the Soviet

Union is prolific while there is only a single book devoted to the Pentecostals in Russia.7 This

paper will then seek to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be Pentecostal by

focusing on the story of one family in the “Siberian Seven” the Vashchenkos. In many ways the

Vashchenko family resembles the pietism of reformation era groups such as the Moravians or

Anabaptists more than the post-Azusa street churches that have come to dominate this category

in the US. Their religious observances were simple, and yet incredibly deep and centering for

their lives. And it was ultimately because of their belief in a God of love who can be experienced

through daily prayer and Biblical study that they were sustained through prison, torture, and the

kidnapping and eventual murder of a family member.

Baptism by Fire and the Spirit

In 1951, in Chernogorsk, a small coal-mining town in Siberia, Peter and Augustina

Vashchenko gave birth to their first child. Lida, named after Lidia of the Bible, would be the first

of thirteen children born over the course of twenty years to the Vashchenko‟s. Peter and

Augustina were second generation Baptist Christians. Their church community was filled with

likeminded believers and was relatively at peace because of the religious “tolerance” of the late

6 Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford University

Press, 2007), 8-9. 7 See Fletcher, Soviet Charismatics.

3

years in Stalin‟s administration. Stalin‟s initial campaigns against the church, from 1928-38 had

“reduced [the number of churches] from 40,000 to less than 1,000.”8 But after Germany attacked

in 1941, Stalin turned his attention from attacking the Churches and indeed began some

measures to support them in their efforts, at least insofar as he felt it would help add solidarity to

the country. For instance he permitted the office of the patriarch to be filled for the first time in

sixteen years.9 A policy of Vospitanie, the belief that religious superstition would be

extinguished through proper education, had created a spirit of ceasefire since Stalin‟s early years

as an active persecutor of religion. But, when Nikita Krushchev took power in 1955, just as Lida

was turning four years old, the tide turned once again towards systematic persecution of

churches, especially fringe sects who were considered illegal like the Pentecostals, Seventh Day

Adventists, and Jehovah‟s Witnesses.10

Shortly before Krushchev took power, Peter‟s brother Grigory joined him in Chernogorsk

from Anzhero-Sudzhensk where he had joined a Pentecostal church and received the gift of

tongues, a spiritual anointing which was an indication of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Peter

initially resisted Grigory‟s beliefs, but in 1954 he converted to Pentecostalism.11

By 1961 they

had split from the Baptist congregation and formed a Pentecostal church of approximately 200

members in Chernogorsk.12

It was at this time that Krushchev‟s anti-religious campaigns were increasing in their

aggressions. Krushchev followed Marx‟ notion that religion is a symptom of the broken capitalist

society, and wrote, “[religious ideas] are rooted in the modes of life and in the consciousness of

8 Denis R. Janz. World Christianity and Marxism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 38.

9 Ibid.

10 See Michael Bourdeaux and Michael Rowe, ed. May One Believe- In Russia? (London: Darton,

Longman, & Todd Ltd., 1980), 64 and Keston College. Religious Prisoners in the USSR. (Keston: Greenfire Books,

1987) 11

Vashchenko, Cry Freedom, 21. 12

Ibid. Lida describes this as a small church.

4

millions of people long after the economic conditions which gave birth to them have vanished.”13

He outlined a plan of attack that would destroy this final vestige of capitalism at the roots. A

large part of this plan focused on preventing the religious education of children. He incorporated

atheism into every part of the school curriculum and began enforcing Stalin‟s 1929 laws that

children under 18 could not attend religious services. He also added that it was illegal for parents

to give their children religious education at home.14

This was enforced by his attacks on

unregistered churches. Registration required that a church submit to:

a ban on organized charitable activity, a ban on organized religious education for the

children and on their attendance at church or participation in service…a requirement to

report any visitors from other congregations to the authorities and not to allow them to

preach and the submission of all office-bearers to the local authorities for vetting.15

Peter and Grigory were faced with the requirements of registration in order to be

recognized as an official church. If they did not register, their meetings would be illegal and they

would be fined or imprisoned. Peter was especially adamant that the church not register with the

state. Even after Grigory‟s arrest he encouraged the church that “unless they kill all of us, they

cannot kill the Church.”16

Although the church ultimately rejected registration for many reasons,

the ban on the education of children was a direct violation of Peter‟s understanding of scripture.

He believed that he could read the Bible plainly. His daughter Lida described his understanding

of the text: “My father had no real theological education and as I look back, I can see that he read

everything and believed it in a simple manner. If the Bible said the words he did not try to figure

out any hidden meanings or question whether it applied to our time. His attitude said, „If the

Bible commands it, I obey it.‟”17

He pointed to Deuteronomy 6, which commands parents to

teach the law to their children, and Proverbs 22:6: “Train a child in the way he should go, and

13

Janz, World Christianity and Marxism, 40. 14

Ibid. 15

Bourdeaux, May One Believe in Russia, 64. 16


Ibid., 25.

5

when he is old he will not turn from it.” This reasoning also informed his decision to remove his

children from school. Initially he was unaware that the schools had incorporated Krushchev‟s

policy of teaching atheism in every subject. But after hearing Lida singing songs about the

greatness of the communist party he inquired into the details of the curriculum. He told Lida that

she was not allowed to sing the songs, despite the fact that other Christian children would sing

them to avoid ridicule, because it would be “living a lie.”18

Lida was often faced with the

difficult decision of running home in the Russian winters without a coat (temperatures were often

35 degrees below zero)19

or being attacked by classmates.20

When Peter told the school officials

that he wanted his daughter to be exempt from singing in the classroom they replied that they

were only trying to teach her truth and values. To which he responded, “The truth, we teach her.

You teach her to read and to write.”21

When Peter withdrew Lida from the school system he

wasn‟t simply choosing an alternative educational path for his child. He was declaring war on the

Soviet state and the anti-religious campaigns. He signaled his understanding of this greater battle

by the fact that he began to refuse the state allowances he was entitled to as a Soviet citizen who

had several children.22

This level of active defiance was not common, but neither was it

completely unique.23

18

Ibid., 26. 19

Ibid., 27. 20

Lida writes of that time that, “[e]ach day on the way to school I prayed, „please God, don‟t let the teacher

laugh at me or the other children beat me today.‟ Some days they did not – those were the best days.” Pollock,

Siberian,27 21


Vashchenko, Augustina, Interview by Kent Hill, 12 March 1979, Folder 7, SC#52, Box I A #1,

Billy Graham Center Archive, Wheaton. He tells Kent Hill that while meeting with the state officials they informed

him that subsidies are given by the state to parents with big families and since they were taking the money and not

teaching them atheism the state was going to take the children. After being told that, “After this we refused

monetary subsidies and said: „these are our children and not the state‟s. We will bring them up without your help.‟” 23

“On March 1983 we sent our Soviet passports, together with a declaration renouncing our Soviet

citizenship, to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.” in “Persecution of Pentecostals wishing to

emigrate.” Religion in Communist Lands 12 no 3 (Winter 1984): 323.

6

During this time, the Chernogorsk authorities began attacking the Pentecostal worship

services. In one of the more elaborate attacks they had a truck from the mine come and ram the

house in which the church was meeting. At other times they would throw rocks through the

windows or send town people into the service to shout and disturb the worship.24

During the

time of these attacks Peter continually reminded his children, “God is with us. Never forget

that.”25

Members of the church, tired of the persecution, began to argue that Romans 13 instructs

believers to respect the government and that their proper Christian witness was to follow the

laws of the Soviet State. Peter said that the State had gone too far and referred to the first century

Christians resisting Roman persecution. John Pollock‟s description of Peter‟s response to the

Romans 13 argument is worth quoting at length because it illustrates his exegesis.

[H]e argues from logic that it is inconceivable that God would ordain or institute a power

which opposed Himself… he looks at the word which is translated in English “ordained”

or “instituted,” and in Russian as ustanovleny, from the verb ustanovit, to establish or

install. He expounds this as if it meant “established on God” rather than by God. He asks,

“Is there a godly establishment (ustanovlenie) in this Soviet power which muffles and

eradicates every religion and terms it „the opium of the people‟? Peter concludes that

there is not. God foresaw it, but it is not established on Himself. No State which rejects

God can be built on His foundation.26

Peter‟s church thought that he was being fanatical in his response and so he parted ways with the

Pentecostal church in Chernogorsk and began meeting in his own house with his family and a

handful of friends who shared his commitment.27

Lida remembers that after their departure from

the church Peter told the family, “God sends only good. Sometimes God allows evil to chastise

us, to strengthen us, or even as a way to guide us from our evil ways back to the good. We must

fight this evil from the godless Kremlin. And we fight to win. With God‟s help, we can.”28

24

Pollack, Siberian, 58-59. 25


Pollack, Siberian, 82. 27

Vashchenko, Cry Freedom, 38. The family provided its own choir according to Lyuba in a letter to Rev

Follock, in which she outlines the various roles each person plays. 28

Vashchenko, Cry Freedom, 36.

7

In response to Peter‟s defiance, the State ruled that Peter and Augustina were not fit

parents and ordered that the children who were of school age be removed from the home for

reeducation in the internat (a boarding school for orphans).29

Peter initially tried hiding the

children at friends or relatives houses where the authorities wouldn‟t think to look for them.30

Then he hollowed out an area underneath the floor of the house where the children could hide

from the police when they came.31

Eventually the police did find the children and had them

placed in Abakan Children‟s Detention Center. Lida, the oldest of the three, would serve five

years in the detention center between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Lida writes of her abduction

and incarceration at Abakan that it was an existential experience of the presence of God that gave

her hope and strength to continue, “If I had not sensed his hand near me I would not have been

able to bear it; my heart would have stopped or burst asunder from the insufferable loneliness

and grief which had fallen on an eleven-year-old child and which have accompanied me all my

life.”32

But even though the State had taken his children Peter did not give up on his

responsibility to teach his children the law of God. They eventually found where the children

were located and Peter and Augustina would take weekend trips to visit them secretly. Lida

describes the visits,

Each time they came, they shared family news and listened while we told them about

everything in our lives. Yet, no matter how many things we had to talk about, they never

left without talking about God and how deeply he loved us. They prayed for each of us

and reminded us that the whole family and the church members in Chernogorsk prayed

for us every day.”33

29

Jenz, Marxism, 41: The „taking‟ of children for reeducation was an unprecedented act not done since the

czars. And Bourdeaux, May One Believe, 66: “The Soviet Union is for us a vast concentration camp. Here we are

prosecuted because we are believers and because we bring our children up in the faith.” 30


Ibid., 31. 32



8

In spite of the overwhelming difficulty that had been placed on the family, Peter refused to give

up in his belief that God loved them. He was determined to see the children as often as possible,

and spent a large portion of his income on transportation to the Detention Center and on presents

for the children.34

We cannot know whether Peter‟s relentless insistence on meeting with his

children, praying with them, and reinforcing the message of God‟s love was inspired out of an

understanding of the pedagogical need to constantly re-enforce values and practices on his

children while they were being subjected to what amounted to low-grade brainwashing,35

or if he

was being extremely literal in his understanding of scripture, or, and this was certainly the case,

was just expressing love to his children. But, even though the girls each accommodated the

pressures of the communist education system in different ways, all of them ultimately retained

their belief in God and commitment to the family despite the daily assaults from their teachers

and classmates.36

Under the targeted influence of one of the internat teachers, Lida admits that she began to

doubt her faith. She was deeply attracted to the communist rhetoric of social justice for all men.

During a visit with her parents she expressed concerns about their Christian beliefs. In response

her parents quoted scripture “(b)ut more than their arguments for God, they reminded me of

many times when we prayed and God answered. I remembered that during the days when the

government harassed us and our lives were constantly threatened, they had never given up. „It is

our faith that keeps us going,‟ they had said.”37

Ultimately it was the example of Jesus as one

34

Pollack, Siberian, 79-80. 35

Vashchenko, Cry Freedom, 45-55, Lida describes this process. 36


Ibid., 54.

9

who could put the needs of others above his own and that convinced her of the truth of

Christianity.38

While the three girls were at the detention center the rest of the Vashchenko family was

continuing in daily practice of prayer and reading the scripture together.39

Peter continued to

argue with government officials about his rights to educate his children and demanding that they

be released from the internat. But the common response was that he no longer had any rights to

those children. It was during one of these meetings, according to Lida‟s account, that a state

official suggested that if Peter disliked the Soviet Union so much, why didn‟t he emigrate?40

Pollock‟s account is slightly different, though not incompatible with Lida‟s. He says that Peter‟s

inspiration came through an experience that he had in prayer. Each time that he would pray the

word “road” would “come to him.” This is a common aspect of Pentecostal spiritual life. Often a

word or a phrase will be re-occurring in prayer or worship. Depending on the circumstances, that

word might be taken as being spoken by God. In this case Peter understood it as a sign that he

was supposed to take the road out of the Soviet State through emigration.41

The Road

In 1962, Peter and Augustina left for Moscow to apply for emigration. Since their local

government officials had proposed it they felt that it would be a straightforward and simple

process. But after attempting to visit the American Embassy during their application process

Peter and Augustina were labeled as “crazy” by the KGB and escorted back home. One year

38

Lida writes, “He gave because he wanted to help others in their suffering and because he loved people.”

Cry Freedom, 55. 39


Ibid., 57. 41

Pollock, Siberian, 82-3: points to their reference of Rev 18:4 and 2 Corinthians 6 which Peter took to

mean that they should depart from the evils that surrounded them and go to a place where they could train their

children in their religion.

10

later, Augustina returned to Moscow with thirty-two other Pentecostals. This time they rushed

inside the embassy but were informed by the Americans that there was nothing that they could

do and that they would all have to return home and apply for emigration at their local

government offices. Augustina wrote concerning that experience:

To remember this is like reliving a scene from the past which is buried deep within the

heart, and if the Lord did not comfort us with His Word and did not support us by His

strength it would have been impossible to continue this path to the present day. Jesus

said, „Let him take up his cross and follow Me,” and therefore it is our desire to follow

the Lord wherever He leads.42

Similarly to Lida, who felt that she could not continue without a constant re-enforcement of

God‟s presence with her in times of loneliness and despair, Augustina describes her own

sufferings as being overcome by “His Word” and “His strength”.

In 1968, the Vashchenko family decided to attempt another visit to the American

Embassy. This time Peter, Augustina, and four of the daughters made the trip. This trip would

prove to be disastrous. Their attempt to enter the embassy failed. Only the youngest girls made it

in, and none of them spoke English. The group was split and sent to different parts of the

country. Peter was labeled as psychologically dangerous and was admitted to a psychiatric

hospital; Augustina was given a three year sentence at a labor camp; and the girls were

transported to Danilovsky Children‟s Center, another reeducation facility.

Although Peter had spent a couple of years in labor camps prior, he had never been

labeled as psychologically dangerous or received psychological evaluations of any kind.

Although the Vashchenko writing doesn‟t indicate a specific diagnosis, it is likely that Peter was

labeled with “sluggish schizophrenia” which had become a commonplace diagnosis in the Soviet

42

Ibid., 96.

11

Union.43

Its only symptom was political dissidence so it made it easier to detain political

prisoners without staging a trial. According to His case file the official reason for Peter‟s

“dangerous” psychological status was that he wanted to emigrate, so he must be crazy.44

Lida

says,

I know few details of his time in the psychiatric hospital except that they labeled him as

dangerous, forced him to take various kinds of medication every day, and gave him

terrible treatment. I have always believed that they did something to him at the hospital

that no threats or punishment had ever managed to do before. Whatever they did, it

finally affected him. They never destroyed his faith; they did steal his courage.45

Lida felt that Peter continued to stay committed but that his previous defiance had ameliorated.

Peter said of the psychiatric prison, „if you only depended and relied on your own strength, then

it would not be possible to bear all these sufferings without God. As is written in Philippians

4:13: „I can do all things because Jesus Christ strengthens me.‟”46

Augustina also found a sustaining power through prayer and hymns while she was in

prison. She was extremely weak and wrote to the family that if they ever wanted to see her alive

again they should come and visit her in the work camp.47

She wrote of the difficulty of praying,

“You can pray in the cell only at night, because there are so many people and it is crowded.

When everyone has gone to bed, that is when you can pray.”48

Lida could not be held in the internat with the other girls because of her age; so she

returned home to take care of the family. She got a job working in the coal-mines full-time and

took care of the children at night. She was seventeen at that point. She described having feelings

of guilt for not being able to care for the family as well as she would have liked.49

As she

43

Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 396. 44

Need citation 45



Ibid., 153. 48

Ibid. 49


12

reflected on her anger towards the towns people and others who treated them badly she wrote, “It

makes no difference what a man does, he will give an account to that image which he bore on

earth, as to whether he justified in life that name by which he was called and evaluated – man.”50

During this reflection she also compared her own suffering and that of her family to Christ who

was abused without reason and interrogated violently.

“Deeper Than the Depths of Hell”

By 1970 the family was back together in Chernogorsk. And by 1975 Lida had begun

working in a Maternity ward in Chernogorsk. Nearby there was a “dirty” abortion clinic, which

permitted abortions to be conducted even after the first two months, which was allowed by law.

Several times while Lida was working at the maternity ward babies that had survived a late term

abortion would be brought into the hospital. But they were generally weak and died soon after

arrival. Lida ended up adopting a baby that had been brought in March 31st 1975 and naming him

Aaron. She described how unlikely this adoption was in a letter to the United Nations “But this

happened against the whole Soviet structure. Aaron turned back history – this baby went from a

family of Atheists to a family of Believers.”51

Even though he had been adopted the hospital staff

still treated him poorly. “His little buttocks were so pricked that the syringe needle would go in

with a crunch like wood, and when it was pulled out, the medicine would stream back out

because there was no place for it to go.”52

So Lida removed Aaron from the hospital, against the

States wishes, and took him home on May 10, 1975. But on July 17 1975, the Police arrived at

the Vashchenko house with the birth mother claiming that she wanted her son back and that they

50


Lida Vashchenko, to United Nations, Draft from 31 March 1978. Transcript in the hand of Billy Graham

Center Archive, Wheaton, 11. 52

Ibid.

13

were afraid the Vashchenko family was intending to sacrifice the child.53

The police forced

themselves into the house and attacked Lida. “In one arm I held my son Aaron. The other arm

was put behind my back by one of the men. The other grabbed hold of my hair and beat my head

against the wall.”54

That was the last day that Lida would see her son alive. A month later, after

receiving no information from the authorities on his whereabouts, she wrote an appeal to the

United Nations. On September 18th

, she was told by local authorities that he had died and was

buried. The officials wouldn‟t tell Lida where he had been buried. But there was a graveyard

north of town. So, one morning at five o‟clock, Peter and Lida drove to the cemetery to see if the

staff could tell them any information. The coffin maker informed them that “It was impossible to

make out what he had looked like because his body was badly decomposed. There was no nose

and his eyes had disappeared.”55

They exhumed the body and were able to identify it by the

fingernails. Kent Hill, described pictures of Aaron‟s exhumed body, “Aaron was at least

neglected to death. An operation had been performed sometime near the end of his life and a

piece of rag was stuffed in the incision. His body was covered with needle marks. His chest bore

scratch marks from his long, untended fingernails.”56

It was the Vashchenko‟s custom to stay up

in prayer and singing hymns if there was a dead body in the house.57

One hymn that played on

the radio during the night sang:

The Sons of all the earth

Cannot describe Christ’s Love,

‘Tis higher than the furthest stars

Deeper than depths of hell.

53

Ibid. 54

Ibid. 55

Vaschenko, Cry Freedom, 104. 56

Kent R. Hill, The Soviet Union on the Brink (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1991), 28. 57

Lida Vashchenko Interview with Kent Hill, 2 Jan 1979, Folder 24, SC # 52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham

Center Archive, Wheaton. Lida said “if there is a deceased person at home we do not sleep at night.”

14

Lida, “began to cry during the singing of this hymn and I thought – then why, if he loves, did he

allow this to end in death?” 58

But she was comforted by knowing that Aaron suffered and died in

innocence and on behalf of God. She describes him as a martyr.

The Vashchenko‟s were pacifist, so when Sasha, their oldest son turned 18 and refused to

serve in the armed services, he was put on trial. Many of the Christians in Chernogorsk had

compromised their views on serving in the armed services just as they had on the issues of

education. For Christians that still refused, the Soviets claimed that they could serve their time in

the military in “non-combat” duty. Sasha had found from others who served that there was no

“non-combat” duty, so he refused enlistment and was put on trial. In December of 1977, a group

of church members surrounded Sasha in court to show their support as he was sentenced to

eighteen months in a labor camp. Augustina described the event, “The police used force on

whomever they pleased in pushing people away from the exit. One policeman hit our son Jacob

(fifteen) in the chest and our daughter Dinah (twelve) was hit in the teeth with a fist. But since

believers cannot use physical force the police had a „good time of it‟ as they say.”59

Despite their

children being attacked the believers suffered gently.

The Long Wait

In 1978, the family received an official invitation or vyzov from Reverend Cecil J

Williamson, Jr. a pastor at the Hill Presbyterian Church in Selma, AL. He heard about them

through the Tolstoy foundation in New York. By this time Peter and Augustina had had thirteen

children. But they decided that it would be impossible for the entire family to safely get into the

Embassy. Peter, Augustina, Lida, Lyuba, and Lila, were chosen to leave by train, and John was

58


Pollack, Siberian, 235.

15

going to follow behind in his motorcycle. Two family friends also joined them. Ultimately

everyone except John made it into the American Embassy. John was tortured by the police and

returned home. So on June 27, 1978, Five Veschenkos and two Chmykhalov began their stay at

the American Embassy.

The Americans urged them to leave, but did not force them out of the building. The

Vashchenkos had prepared 1,500 pages of documentation concerning the abuses they had faced

in their struggle for emigration.60

They submitted it to the Ambassador but it was quickly

returned to them. For two months they stayed in the lobby with no access to showers or sleeping

area. They attempted to keep themselves clean by using the sinks in the embassy bathrooms.

There were “[t]hose who viewed the Vashchenkos as nuisances, religious fanatics engaged in a

hopeless venture, and others who admired their courage and tenacity.”61

Public action on behalf

of the Siberian Seven began throughout the world, including an all night prayer vigil in front of

the Russian Embassy in England and a chapel service and campaign to petition for permanent

resident status held at Wheaton College.62

But many prominent religious voices in America did not speak out on behalf of the

Seven. Hill writes, “Although the Siberian Seven were Pentecostal, the largest Pentecostal

denomination in the United States, the Assemblies of God, was almost entirely silent and

inactive during the entire Siberian Seven drama. There was great fear that public defense of these

unregistered Pentecostals would endanger their relations with registered Pentecostals in the

Soviet Union.”63

Also, as we have already seen from the Vashchenko‟s personal experiencing

60

Hill, Soviet Union, 26. 61

Ibid., 33. 62

For the Prayer Vigil see Hill, Soviet Union, 34; for the Wheaton College Chapel see Genet, Harry.

“Siberian 7 : a desperate situation: two threaten to starve, and US diplomats finally

pay attention.” Christianity Today, 5 February 1982, 81. 63

Hill, Soviet Union, 32.

16

being expelled from their church, registered Churches often labeled the unregistered churches as

“extremist and lawbreakers.”64

The Conference of Religious Workers for Saving the Sacred Gift

of Life from Nuclear Catastrophe in May of 1982, which included the likes of Billy Graham and

Arie Brouwer, chair of the National Council of Churches (NCC), did not even address the issue

of the Seven who had been in the American Embassy for four years by that time. Graham, who

actually met the Seven during his trip, replied to questions by the press regarding religious

persecution by stating “I have seen no religious persecution during my stay in Russia.”65

Arie

Brouwer, mentions the Seven in his comments on the conference, “at that very time the United

States was exploiting religious belief for political advantage, making the most of „the Siberian

Seven,‟ a group of Pentecostalists who had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy.”66

Victory through Weakness

On Christmas day of 1981, after nearly four years of waiting for Russia to approve their

emigration, Augustina informed the family that she was going to begin fasting until something

happened. She said that God had called her to fast while she had been praying.67

Lida joined her

in this fasting and says that they were not doing it for the government but in order to give

themselves wholly to God.68

She referenced the Jew‟s fasting in the Old Testament during

desperate times.69

She even acknowledged that because she was already only 105 pounds when

she began the fast that she could easily die during this fast. Augustina was forty pounds heavier

and so there was less concern for her health. When an American doctor expressed concerns that

64

Hill, Soviet Union, 33. 65

David Aikman, Great Souls: Six Who Changed a Century (Lexington: Lexington Books, 2003), 52. 66

Arie R. Brouwer, Ecumenical Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 44. Brouwer doesn‟t explain

what “political advantage” there was to gain. 67

Vashchenko, Cry Freedom, 4 and 7 respectively. 68

Ibid., 13. 69

Ibid., 15.

17

she was losing too much weight and was in serious danger of dying she told him “If I die God

can make me alive again.”70

Lida‟s fast lasted 28 days during which she lost nineteen pounds.

She had to leave the embassy during the fast and receive care in a Soviet Hospital.

Even though Lida describes the event in very spiritual terms in her account, most of the

magazine stories concerning the fast call it a hunger strike. Christianity Today even says that the

women “launched into a hunger strike” because of “depression.”71

Even Kent Hill, who spent

much time studying the Vashchenko‟s writings and worked personally to secure their release,

wrote about the “hunger strike.” It is possible that when Lida wrote her book she felt more

comfortable talking about the spiritual reasons for her fasting than when she was being

interviewed by the press corp. This sort of shyness regarding spiritual experience is exhibited by

her sister Lyuba when answering a question from Kent Hill regarding her habit of randomly

picking a Bible verse before a trip to the Embassy. At first she refuses to address the question but

she finally writes, “It is simply my strange habit. Sometimes I even do this here in the embassy

in the morning. What does God have to say to me about the new day. (sic) There will be a verse

which accuses me of some incorrect action or warns me about something or teaches me

something, or it will simply be a verse which praises God. I orient myself according to this

verse…”72

Or, it may be that the journalists and even Hill are not entirely comfortable with the

spirituality of the Vashchenkos. In questions to Augustina Hill asked about the formation of the

Pentecostal Church in Chernogorsk and about her beliefs concerning Baptism, she described her

experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and then states that she speaks in tongues.73

And

70

Ibid., 16. 71

Genet, “Desperate Situation”, 76. 72

Vashchenko, Lyuba, Interview with Rev Follock, Feb 5, SC #52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham

Center Archive, Wheaton. Lida also describes using this method of seeking guidance, “Wearily I grabbed my Bible.

In the past when I have been confused and God has not given me an answer, I have opened my Bible at random and

read the first verse my eyes fell upon. In desperation, I decided to try it again.” Cry Freedom, 142. 73

Vashchenko, Lyuba and Augustina Vaschenko, Interview by Kent Hill, March, Folder 8,

18

yet none of the accounts of the Siberian Seven, Hill‟s writing or Pollack‟s book, which uses

those interviews, ever discuss them speaking in tongues.

After she recovered, Lida was allowed to return home to Chernogorsk where the Soviets

expected she would be less trouble. This was exactly the opposite outcome. In April of 1982,

Lida and the other Vashchenko children organized a rally (consisting of only their family)

complete with signs, one which read “Leonid I. Brezhnev, When are you going to allow us to

emigrate”, homemade American flags, and a tape player playing hymns. They marched in front

of a political building in Chernogorsk attracting a large crowd until the police came and forced

them into vans.74

After that they were put on house arrest until Augustina‟s health took a

dramatic turn for the worse and the whole family left for Moscow. Once in Moscow, Lida

convinced her siblings to hold another protest in front of the KGB Headquarters where they once

again carried signs with Bible verses and sang hymns.75

After they were detained in the KGB

headquarters they sang hymns in their holding cell until finally they were sent home.

In April of 1983, five years after the Siberian Seven began their protest at the American

Embassy, Lida Vashchenko received her exit visa and was flown to Israel. On June 29th

, the rest

of the family, both those in Chernogorsk and Moscow, joined her in Israel. They stayed in Israel

on visitors‟ visas for several months and finally ended up in Washington State.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude with a few summary statements on the Vahschenko‟s theology

and a final thought concerning the difficulty of communicating this story. The Vashchenko

SC #52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham Center Archive, Wheaton. Augustina writes that she prayed with Grigory‟s

mother, Aunt Fekle, who had received the Holy Spirit and tongues but it wasn‟t until she read Acts 19 when Paul

Baptizes the Corinthians in the Holy Spirit that she received the gift. “I prayed in this manner (that which Paul

commended the Corinthians) and received the Holy Spirit and know I pray in other languages (tongues) as is written

in God‟s Word in Mark 16:17…” 74


Ibid., 136.

19

family was deeply devoted to a regular (if not daily) practice of prayer and reading the Bible.

Lida spoke of starting each day of her fast with prayer and reading the Bible. Lyuba‟s

embarrassed answer regarding her “random” passage selection process and Augustina‟s

description of her baptism in the Holy Spirit also allude to habits of faith. There is evidence that

at least Peter and Augustina were baptized in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by receiving the

spiritual gift of tongues, but there was no specific evidence of the children practicing any of the

traditional spiritual gifts. Several members of the family read the Bible as speaking directly to

their specific needs and challenges and offering God‟s will for the situation. I am thinking

specifically of Peter‟s understanding of 2 Corinthians 6 as a call to emigrate from “Babylon.” It

is probably not too far of a stretch to also think that this indicates a somewhat apocalyptic

understanding, but we do not see in the Vashchenko writings any sense that Israel or America

represent heaven on earth. They focus much more on the call to leave the U.S.S.R. Sasha‟s

refusal to submit to military service and the gentle suffering of the younger children in the

courtroom brawl illustrate the pacifism in the family. And finally, in the midst of physical and

emotional pain, seemingly every member of the family had experienced a special strength

attributed to God, which sustained them.

Just one year after the Vashchenkos found a home in America, Elaine Scarry‟s The Body

in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World was published. In it, she wrote,

So for the person in pain, so incontestably and unnegotiably (sic) presents that „having

pain‟ may come to be thought of as the most vibrant example of what it is to „have

certainty,‟ while for the other person it is so elusive that „hearing about pain‟ may exist as

the primary model of what it is „to have doubt.‟ Thus pain comes unsharably (sic) into

our midst as at once that which cannot be denied and that which cannot be confirmed.76

Painful experiences are tragically real and present to the sufferer, but Scarry ultimately doubts

the ability of the sufferer to share their suffering. It is ultimately isolating. For twenty years, the

76

Elaine Scarry, The Body In Pain (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1985), 4.

20

Vashchenko‟s fell into this category. The worldwide Pentecostal church as represented by bodies

such as Assemblies of God didn‟t raise so much as a word of protest against their treatment.

Even locally, we saw that this family was considered dangerous and fanatical for refusing

registration with the Soviet state. This is the ugly side of an ecclesiology like that of

Pentecostalism which encourages the individual to seek the divine mandate but lacks a social

method to support those mandates when division and conflict arise. Ultimately, even in a church

that believes in the authority of scripture, the deciding factor is the Holy Spirit, or to be more

accurate, the sense that a believer has of the Holy Spirit. And so the Vashchenko‟s story is often

not the story of a suffering church, but the story of a suffering family; a family who has difficulty

articulating their own suffering.77

Even the stories that they put onto paper are not being read by

the Soviet government, or if they are they never produce any result. Finally after translation they

are presented to a Western audience in the midst of one of the most politically charged conflicts

of our Nation‟s history. So even among those who supported the “Seven” it must be asked: how

much concern over their situation was driven by a larger narrative of Western freedom against

the Soviet collective? Lastly, in order for one to confirm their story there is a leap of faith to

accept their Pentecostalism, for surely the suffering of this family cannot be fully grasped

without also grasping that constant refrain that God‟s presence sustained them when they felt

they could go no further. One cannot travel with the Vashchenkos in their suffering and reject

their theodicy. It bears repeating Peter‟s instructions to his children, “God sends only good.

Sometimes God allows evil to chastise us, to strengthen us, or even as a way to guide us from

our evil ways back to the good.”78

We cannot mourn with Lida over Aaron‟s mutilated corpse

77

As you read Lida‟s letter to the UN concerning the abduction of Aaron, it is frantic and rushed. There is

no chronology to the early drafts. Kent Hill made a note on his translations that it is as if she is simply writing down

things as they occur to her. 78

Vashchenko Cry Freedom, 36.

21

without also understanding that she truly does not let go of her belief that God is Love, because

that is where the spiritual brokenness of “death to self” is occurring. Lida added to her grief of

losing a child, the spiritual discipline of submitting to her faith in God‟s goodness. And it is this

turn towards God‟s goodness that we are so ill equipped to make. Our theodicy often ends in

silence when faced with the evil of suffering inflicted upon children and we are suspicious of

those who defend God in spite of it. And yet this was Lida‟s religious experience. We are equally

suspicious of a religious conviction, such as Peter‟s, that would put his children in danger. It is

ultimately a suspicion throughout the worldwide Church of the authenticity of the religious

experiences of Pentecostals that turned a deaf ear to their cries for help. Even the American

Pentecostal church has difficulty understanding the faith of a family that would risk the health

and well being of their children to follow the voice of God. Kent Hill wondered in his book

Soviet Union on the Brink why there was not more support from the American Church for the

“Siberian Seven.” I believe that the reason is simply this: too many Western churches agreed

with the Vashchenko‟s own home church, and the Soviet Government, that they were simply

fanatics who brought unnecessary suffering upon themselves and their children.

These reflections have consequences for our support of the underground church today. In

places like North Korea and China there are numerous examples of torture and imprisonment of

underground Christians, many of whom are Pentecostal. Their situation is at least analogous to

that of the Vaschenkos. We cannot remain theoretical in the face of this problem. The question of

what it means to be Pentecostal in Russia involves us because ultimately we cannot answer that

question without also answering what our relationship to these Christians should be. It requires

an answer to the question: what does it means to be Christian in the 21st century? A large part of

that answer will involve what it means to be united in the Holy Spirit. And it is perhaps only by a

22

movement of the Holy Spirit that we in the West who are healthy can share the suffering of those

who are tortured; and that we can trust that God is speaking and moving among those tortured

bodies in ways that are perhaps foreign to us. Perhaps we should be willing to trust the

Vashchenko‟s experience of God‟s continual goodness in the midst of tragedy even though we

struggle to understand it in our own trials. And perhaps in that trust, which can only be inspired

and sustained by the Holy Spirit, we can learn from Pentecostals who are under persecution. I

believe that when we can learn to trust one another in the Spirit then we can begin to recover

what it means to be the Church.

23

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bourdeaux, Michael, and Michael Rowe, ed. May One Believe- In Russia? London: Darton,

Longman, & Todd Ltd., 1980.

“Deadly Game in a U.S. Embassy.” Time, 25 January 1982; available from

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925232,00.html

Fletcher, William C. Soviet Charismatics: The Pentecostals in the USSR. New York: Peter Lang

Publishing, 1985.

Fritz, Esther. “New Hope for the Siberian Seven: A Show of US Support might persuade the

Soviets to Let these Pentecostals Emigrate.” Christian Century, 97 no 35 (November

1980): 1064-1066.

Genet, Harry. “Siberian 7 : a desperate situation: two threaten to starve, and US diplomats finally

pay attention.” Christianity Today, 5 February 1982, 76-81.

Hill, Kent R. “After three long years : glimmers of movement in „Siberian Seven‟ impasse.”

Christianity Today, 18 September 1981, 32-37.

________. The Soviet Union on the Brink. Portland: Multnomah Press, 1991.

Janz, Denis R. World Christianity and Marxism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Keston College. Religious Prisoners in the USSR. Keston: Greenfire Books, 1987.

Kolarz, Walter. Religion in the Soviet Union. London: MacMillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.

24

“Moscow Pray-In.” Time, 23 April 1979; available from

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920260,00.html

“Persecution of Pentecostals wishing to emigrate.” Religion in Communist Lands 12 no 3

(Winter 1984): 323-324.

Pollock, John. The Siberian Seven. Waco: Word Books, 1979.

Sawatsky, Walter. Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II. Kitchener: Herald Press, 1981.

“The „Siberian Seven‟ completed two years of refuge in the US Embassy in Moscow.”

Christianity Today, 18 July 1980, 59.

Vashchenko, Augustina, Interview by Kent Hill, 12 March 1979, Folder 7, SC#52, Box I A #1,

Billy Graham Center Archive, Wheaton.

Vashchenko, Lida, and Cecil Murphy. Cry Freedom. Ann Arbor: Vine Books/Servant

Publications, 1987.

Vashchenko, Lida, to United Nations, Draft from 31 March 1978. Transcript in the hand of Kent

Hill. Special Collection. Billy Graham Center Archive, Wheaton.

________, Interview with Kent Hill, 2 Jan 1979, Folder 24, SC # 52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham

Center Archive, Wheaton.

Vashchenko, Lyuba, Interview with Rev Follock, Feb 5, SC #52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham

Center Archive, Wheaton.

Vashchenko, Lyuba and Augustina Vaschenko, Interview by Kent Hill, March, Folder 8,

SC #52, Box I A #1, Billy Graham Center Archive, Wheaton.

Documents

Siberian Seven Revised 2