My Brother's Keeper How American Lutherans Fought to Preserve The
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Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 12-1-2017 My Brother’s Keeper How American Lutherans Fought to Preserve the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia in the USSR, 1921–1939 Matthew Heise Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/phd Part of the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Heise, Matthew, "My Brother’s Keeper How American Lutherans Fought to Preserve the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia in the USSR, 1921–1939" (2017). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 68. https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/68 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MY BROTHER’S KEEPER HOW AMERICAN LUTHERANS FOUGHT TO PRESERVE THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF RUSSIA IN THE USSR, 1921–1939 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Matthew Heise December 2017 Approved by Robert Rosin Advisor Robert Kolb Reader Gerhard Bode Reader ii © 2017 by Matthew Walter Heise. All rights reserved. ii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ viii COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... x ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................... xi CHRONOLOGY......................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................ 1 A WORLD IN FLUX: WAR, REVOLUTION, AND REFORMATION ........................... 1 A WAR THAT UNITED EAST AND WEST ..................................................................... 4 THE NLC AND RUSSIA … THE BEGINNING ................................................................ 7 Laws against Religion................................................................................................ 10 THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR............................................................................................. 17 FINDING A WAY INTO RUSSIA .................................................................................... 23 ARA Opens the Door to a Relationship with Lutherans in Russia ........................... 29 “You Reached Your Brotherly Hand Across the Wide Ocean”: Morehead Arrives in Russia ......................................................................................................................... 34 Christmas, January 1923 ............................................................................................ 71 THE FINAL ACCOUNT: WHAT DID ARA AND THE NLC ACCOMPLISH? ............ 72 ARA Leaves Russia ................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................... 83 THE RELIGIOUS NEP: A TIME OF HOPE FOR THE LUTHERAN CHURCH ........... 83 Negotiating for Luthco .............................................................................................. 93 THE FIRST ALL-RUSSIAN LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONVENTION .................... 96 Siberia: A Rescue Mission for the Church and the Problem of Sending Funds ...... 113 The Siberian Mission Journey—1925 ..................................................................... 119 iii A LUTHERAN SEMINARY IS BORN IN THE USSR ................................................. 123 THE STATUS OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 1920S–1926: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ................................................................................... 131 1927–1928: A JOURNAL, ETHNIC RECONCILIATION, THE FIRST GRADUATES, AND ANOTHER SYNOD ............................................................................................... 144 The Third Seminary Year-First Class Graduates-June 1928 ................................... 158 The Changing of the Guard at St. Peter and Paul in Moscow ................................. 162 The General Synod of 1928 ..................................................................................... 164 “They Would not See His Face Again”: A Final Mission Festival in the Volga .... 175 CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................... 180 THE VELIKI PERELOM (GREAT TURNING POINT) OF 1929: ................................ 180 DEATH KNELL FOR THE LUTHERAN CHURCH? ................................................... 180 Closing Lutheranism’s Oldest Church: St. Michael’s in Moscow .......................... 183 Pressure Applied to Leningrad’s Lutheran Institutions ........................................... 186 WINTER 1928–1929 ........................................................................................................ 191 SPRING/SUMMER 1929 ................................................................................................. 194 FALL 1929 ....................................................................................................................... 208 Collectivization 1929: “Here, One Is Not Allowed To Live Anymore” ................. 211 The Lutheran Seminary’s Problems: Fall 1929 ....................................................... 222 WINTER 1929–1930 ........................................................................................................ 241 Latvian Lutherans: Trying to Balance Church and State......................................... 241 Morehead’s Fervor for Missions and Optimism: “Is God’s Purpose … accomplished?” ........................................................................................................ 244 The Hansen–Muss Case ........................................................................................... 247 Hansen’s Interrogations ........................................................................................... 253 iv Life in the Russian Lutheran Church Carries on Despite the Arrests...................... 257 A Somber Christmas: 1929 ...................................................................................... 258 New Year 1930: Attacks against the Churches and Seminary Continue................. 262 Hansen–Muss Case Expands–1930: “I do not consider myself guilty” .................. 265 The Show Trial of Pastor Albert Koch: Grossliebenthal, Ukraine .......................... 270 September 1930—Hansen-Muss Case Decided: The Church is Broken ................ 280 CHAPTER FOUR ...................................................................................................................... 286 THE LUTHERANS’ ROAD TO GOLGATHA ............................................................... 286 THE SERVANT OF THE CHURCH AS AN ENEMY OF THE STATE ...................... 291 The World Condemns Persecution: Shocking the Moral Sense of the Civilized World ................................................................................................................................. 295 Words of Encouragement: “Stand and eat, you have a long way to go” ................. 308 1931: “WILL THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH BE BROUGHT TO AN END THIS YEAR?” .......................................................................................................................................... 314 Malmgren’s Lament in the USSR: “Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here”...... 318 The Advancing Darkness: “Morning Comes, and also the Night” .......................... 322 Malmgren and Morehead’s Complicated Communications .................................... 325 When Christmas was Illegal, but Still Celebrated ................................................... 327 1932–SPIRITUAL LIFE OF RUSSIAN LUTHERANISM: TRAPPED IN SNOW AND ICE .................................................................................................................................... 331 The Seminary Graduates of 1932: “A Glimmer of Light in the Dark” ................... 343 The Territory of Ingria: A Lutheran Haven within the USSR? ............................... 346 THE OGPU PRESSURES MALMGREN AND CONFLICTS WITHIN THE CHURCH: A SAD AND MUDDLED AFFAIR .................................................................................... 350 CHAPTER FIVE ....................................................................................................................... 365 v 1933–1935: TAXED AND PERSECUTED OUT OF EXISTENCE? THE SEMINARY’S DEMISE............................................................................................................................ 365 A Harvest of Sorrow: Return of Famine? ................................................................ 370 BISHOP MEYER’S WARNING: “[THE GOVERNMENT] IS THE ANTICHRIST, BE ON YOUR GUARD!” ...................................................................................................... 374 THE SOVIET UNION AND AMERICAN