Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 4), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Activities Of The Adventist Development And Relief Agency In Eastern Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The charitable organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been active in the conditions of the military conflict in the East of Ukraine since 2013, particularly during the difficult events on Euromaidan in the center of the capital of Ukraine. Since 2014, ADRA Ukraine has implemented more than 150 humanitarian projects in the east and throughout Ukraine. Among the largest were "Eastern Angel," "Hands of Hope," and "Social Transport." Through food and non-food programs, ADRA Ukraine volunteers, together with other churches and international organizations, help people affected by the military conflict in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In addition, ADRA …

Adventists And Pentecostals Of Donetsk Region In The Late Soviet Era: Between The Scylla Of Legalization And The Charybdis Of Opposition, Oksana Salata, Karen Nikiforov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article describes religious policy of the Soviet government concerning the Protestant communities on the basis of archival materials. Two different models of Soviet policy in the field of religion are analyzed, using the activities of the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs in the Donetsk region in relation to Pentecostals and Adventists as an example. Ukrainian SSR was the "Bible belt" of the Soviet Union. Donetsk region was characterized by high percentage of Protestant communities in general and Adventist communities in particular. Most of the Adventist communities in the region were officially registered, and their members did not …

History Of Evangelical Christian Baptists In Ukraine (Mid-19th Century To 1929), Fedir Prodanyuk, Hnat Mierienkov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article reviews the history of Evangelical Baptists in Ukraine from the middle of the 19th century to 1929. The article presents the development of Ukrainian Baptists from a local group to a large-scale organization that takes an active part in social service, has the most followers in Ukraine among Protestants, and is inextricably linked with the history of Ukrainian society. Of particular note is the fact that the Baptists spread differently in various areas and formed separate associations, which for some time existed independently of each other. For a while, the existence of Evangelical Baptists in Ukraine was not …

Ukrainian Protestant Youtube Livestreams During Coronavirus Pandemic: Statistics And Analytics, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the statistics of Ukrainian Protestant digital activity. The key indicator of Ukrainian Protestant digital outreach is the increased number of livestreams in different styles and formats. I use “All-Ukrainian Sobor” NGO’s YouTube livestreams catalog as a working statistic model. In the course of study, two peaks in the overall number of views of all videos of a given YouTube channel were singled out. These peaks were (1) from 500K to 100K and (2) from 50K to 10K. Analysis of the views rating of a single YouTube channel proved to be somewhat random and non-indicative; nevertheless, views number …

Scientific Review, Nadiia Stokolos

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Protestants In Soviet Ukraine In The 1920s To 1930s: Political And Historical Aspects, Roman Sitarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim. The article offers a general political-historical analysis of the Protestant movement in the context of the party-state policies of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Scientific novelty. The study of state-church relations of polyconfessional Ukrainian society in general and Protestant currents, in particular, actualizes a new scientific understanding of the state religious policy at different stages of development of the historical past and present. Research methods. The research project studies Baptists, Evangelical Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, and Pentecostals, utilizing the principles of objectivity, ideological pluralism, complexity, methodologies of mathematical statistics, comparative studies, and problem-chronological method. The study is …

Armed Conflict And Protestant Volunteering In Eastern Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The process of development and activity of Ukrainian Protestantism due to the influence of the recently destroyed Soviet ideology is somewhat complex and unstable. Protestants became noticeable to Ukrainian society after the events of Euromaidan and the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 in the center of the capital of Ukraine. The Protestant community, however, did make real, material contributions in the territory of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in April 2014. The aim of this article is to evaluate the volunteer work of Ukrainian Protestants and to understand the difference between secular …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 3), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Question Of The Autocephalous Status Of The Polish Orthodox Church In The Documents Of The Council For The Affairs Of The Russian Orthodox Church (1944-1948), Ella Bystrytska, Nadiia Volik

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The process and stages of the acquisition of autocephaly by the Polish Orthodox Church are explored. The formation of a socialist model of public administration in Poland after the Second World War required the resolution of some problems, in particular the restoration of canonical communication between the Polish and Russian Orthodox Churches. The cause of the conflict between these Churches was the proclamation of the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1924. The Soviet and Polish governments were interested in abolishing this Tomos. The state and church relations in the USSR provided for the …

In Lieu Of A Review: Reminiscences On Reading One Word Of Truth; The Cold War Memoir Of Michael Bourdeaux And Keston College, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

I first met Michael Bourdeaux in October 1983, at the beginning of one month of research at his Keston College Library and Archive, located in a southwest suburb of London, England. The back story to what gave occasion for our first meeting dates back a decade, to 1974, the year I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky and the year my wife, Darlene, and I made our first trip to the Soviet Union.

Symbols Of Sacred Filling Of Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine, Maksym Melnychuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In the spectrum of the research of this paper lies the sacred essence of religious musical art and the symbolic component of spiritual music of Ukraine. This scholarly research is aimed to reflect the content essence of spiritual art in the sphere of the Ukrainian musical culture. This phenomenon is analyzed both as a result of a creative (figurative) thinking in generalization, and the spiritual inner necessity of comprehension of the metaphysical. Symbol is represented as a component of the sacred content of religious art, which reflects the irrationality of the constituent forms of spiritual music. A retrospective analysis of …

The Effects Of The Dominant Public Discourse And The Influence Of (Non)Knowledge As A Sign Of Resistance/Support To Women's Faith-Based Peace Activism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Halida Đonlagić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article strives to offer general insight into the subject matter of the dominant public discourse and socio-cultural construction on which it is founded and created, as well as the experience of women activists in local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina who act guided by their religious beliefs. The influence of the context on women’s peace activism is observed, with special reference to women’s faith-based peace activism. The relationship between secular and theological feminism is scrutinized as well, along with its challenges and the effects of the subordination and complementarity theories which legitimize the hierarchical patriarchal structure that obstructs the …

Remembering Canon Michael Bourdeaux, Founder Of Keston Institute, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Through a regular email prayer letter from Mission Eurasia,1 its Director Sergey Rakuba and his close colleague Dr. Michael Cherenkov, I learned of the death on March 29, 2021, of Michael Bourdeaux, and his funeral on April 12, 2021, in Oxford. Bourdeaux’s persistence over many decades to make known the appeals for prayer, for assistance in making known the plight of prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union has continued, in spite of many changes and transformations over the decades. Even today the harassment of believers not conforming to Russia’s current state-church close integration and its banning of the Jehovah’s …

Book Review: Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, And Strategy, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this book Dmitry Adamsky tells a remarkable story which, only thirty-five years ago, would have come across as a wild-eyed dream (or, possibly, nightmare). As he shows, though, this is not a phantasm: it is the reality in Russian today, a reality the rest of the world does well to take note of.

Emigration, Home, Identity: An Ethnological Examination Of The Identity Of Jewish Emigrants From Czechoslovakia, Peter Salner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Stretnutie (The Meeting) is a group formed in October 2004 by Jewish emigrants from Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) who fled Czechoslovakia following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The original intention behind its founding was to hold a reunion that would bring together people who, forty years after emigrating, lived in Israel, in different states across Europe and North America, and in Australia. The meeting took place in May 2005 in Bratislava, drawing over 200 participants. Encouraged by this initial success, the group and its website continued its activities, and it remains operational to this …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 2), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Religion In The Lives Of The Last Soviet Generation In Lithuania, Milda Ališauskienė

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper contributes to the academic debates about the compatibility of religion and modernity and reveals the way Soviet modernization has affected the religious values of the last Soviet generation in Lithuania. It discusses the role and dynamic of religion, intergenerational transmission, and the manner in which religion becomes or does not become a resource for an individual’s social mobility. The article, focusing on the last Soviet generation (b. 1970–1985) living in Lithuania, is based on analysis of 88 narratives of representatives of this generation. Trends of religious individualism, critical engagement with institutional religiosity and conformity with religious identification with …

Agnosticism And Atheism As Amoralism And Anti-Ideological Sociopolitical Paradigm In The Balkans, Specifically In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Faruk Hadžić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The study investigates whether atheism in B&H is treated, a priori, as amoralism and how this affects plural civic space. If religion is privileged, is it a politically dictated value system or pure ideology? Besides in-depth critical literature review, the author refers to a number of structural interviews focusing on both groups (theists and agnostic atheists) as a direct indicator of variability. The B&H Constitution obstructs the creation of a plural civic identity, hypostasizes the collective political mentality, and stigmatizes atheism and agnosticism in everyday life. Spiritual usurpation has moved into the realm of identity. The ideological ethnonationalism has metastasized …

Forms And Roots Of Contemporary Religiosity In Estonia, Kaido Soom, Tõnu Lehtsaar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Republic of Estonia is a country on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. It borders Russia and Latvia on land and Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Russia on sea. As of 31 Dec 2011, Estonia had a permanent population of 1,294,455 (data from the Population and Housing Census). Estonia is a member of the European Union (2004) and of the Eurozone (2011).

Estonia has often been exemplified as a secularized nation having little regard for religion. Even so, religion is an important topic of conversation in Estonian society. For instance, Ave Tampere asked, in an article in one of …