Christian History
Russian Revolution
Within a few years Communist leaders had executed over 1,000 bishops and priests, had razed hundreds of ancient monasteries, and seized the church’s treasuries and property. Yet totalitarianism could not ultimately extinguish the spirit of the people. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the Orthodox church thrived again.
Student Volunteer Movement
By 1915 over 5,000 missionaries had been sent to the field through the efforts of the Student Volunteer Movement. Mott was also instrumental in creating other outreach organizations like the World’s Student Christian Federation and the Laymen’s Missionary Movement.
Eastern churches
The church survived in spite of state interference in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in large part because the peasant classes were devoted to the traditions of the faith, great writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky advanced the need for salvation in their works, and dedicated ministers quietly served unofficial flocks.