THE BEGINNING OF THE UNIFICATION PROCESS BETWEEN THE SMOLENSK COMMUNITY OF EVANGELICAL BAPTISTS AND EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS IN 1919-1925. (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE SMOLENSK ARCHIVES)

The article is devoted to the study of the merger of two congenial churches in Smolensk – «Evangelical Christians» and «Evangelical Christian Baptists». This process began in 1919 in the Smolensk community through joining of members of a group of Evangelical Christians and continued until 1923. It involved not only representatives of the local urban communities, but also intermediaries, such as the All–Russian Union of Evangelical Christians Baptists, and provincial communities of the Smolensk region - such as the Trastyan community. However, the rapid integration without a well-developed entry system led to the fact that the communities of Baptists and Evangelical Christians not only failed to unite into a single structure, but actually stopped all communication. At the end of the inter-church dialogue, Evangelical Christians grew in number due to missionary activities in the Baptist communities they joined, and Baptists, in turn, lost their members who turned to Evangelical Christians. The author of the article makes a suggestion that a significant increase of Evangelical Christians in number compared to Baptists by 1925 was, among other things, related to this process.