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Baha'i
A summary of how the Baha'is fared in the Soviet Union:
For the first few years after the Bolshevik revolution, the Bahá’ís, although attacked in the government press (BW 2:35), benefited from the easing of some restrictions and were able to convert a few Russians to the Bahá’í Faith. Local spiritual assemblies were formed in Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and a few other small communities arose in such places as Oryol (Russian: Орёл, some 350 km to the South from Moscow), where Hasan Bayk of Burdá in Russian Azerbaijan taught the Bahá’í Faith and succeeded in converting eight families.
Eventually, however, the pressures against the Bahá’ís and all religions intensified. In 1926, a Bahá’í visiting Moscow to give a public lecture was arrested and a printing press used for the publication of Bahá’í materials was confiscated. By 1928, there were extensive moves against all the Bahá’í communities in the Soviet Union. The Bahá’í communities made many representations to the government against these persecutions but to no avail. Publications appeared attacking the Bahá’í Faith: I. Darov, Bekhaizm: Novaia Religiia Vostoka (Leningrad: Priboi, 1930); and A. Arsharuni, Bekhaizm (Moscow: Bezbozhnik, 1930); while the Small Soviet Encyclopaedia published in 1933 denounced the Bahá’í Faith for camouflaging itself as "socialism" and stated that it was one of the "fashionable religious philosophical systems which the bourgeoisie uses in its fight against the ideas of Socialism and Communism" (Kolarz 472).
In 1938, numerous Bahá’ís were arrested and some of the Bahá’ís from Ashkhabad and other areas of Central Asia and the Caucasus were exiled to Siberia and elsewhere. All communal Bahá’í activity in the Soviet Union ceased from this date, although many of those remaining at home or in exile continued to hold firm in their faith. Another wave of persecutions and imprisonments occurred in 1948.
Throughout these years, the few remaining Bahá’ís in Russia were isolated from the rest of the Bahá’í world. Mr. Bakhadin Orudzhev (d. 1989) of Baku lived in Moscow from 1973 and isolated Bahá’ís were reported in Penza and in a town near Leningrad, but there is little information about such individuals. Although there were occasional Bahá’í visitors to Russia such as Lorol Schopflocher and Muzaffar Namdar, they did not attempt to contact the Bahá’ís there.
Russia - Bahaikipedia, an encyclopedia about the Bahá?í Faith
For the first few years after the Bolshevik revolution, the Bahá’ís, although attacked in the government press (BW 2:35), benefited from the easing of some restrictions and were able to convert a few Russians to the Bahá’í Faith. Local spiritual assemblies were formed in Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and a few other small communities arose in such places as Oryol (Russian: Орёл, some 350 km to the South from Moscow), where Hasan Bayk of Burdá in Russian Azerbaijan taught the Bahá’í Faith and succeeded in converting eight families.
Eventually, however, the pressures against the Bahá’ís and all religions intensified. In 1926, a Bahá’í visiting Moscow to give a public lecture was arrested and a printing press used for the publication of Bahá’í materials was confiscated. By 1928, there were extensive moves against all the Bahá’í communities in the Soviet Union. The Bahá’í communities made many representations to the government against these persecutions but to no avail. Publications appeared attacking the Bahá’í Faith: I. Darov, Bekhaizm: Novaia Religiia Vostoka (Leningrad: Priboi, 1930); and A. Arsharuni, Bekhaizm (Moscow: Bezbozhnik, 1930); while the Small Soviet Encyclopaedia published in 1933 denounced the Bahá’í Faith for camouflaging itself as "socialism" and stated that it was one of the "fashionable religious philosophical systems which the bourgeoisie uses in its fight against the ideas of Socialism and Communism" (Kolarz 472).
In 1938, numerous Bahá’ís were arrested and some of the Bahá’ís from Ashkhabad and other areas of Central Asia and the Caucasus were exiled to Siberia and elsewhere. All communal Bahá’í activity in the Soviet Union ceased from this date, although many of those remaining at home or in exile continued to hold firm in their faith. Another wave of persecutions and imprisonments occurred in 1948.
Throughout these years, the few remaining Bahá’ís in Russia were isolated from the rest of the Bahá’í world. Mr. Bakhadin Orudzhev (d. 1989) of Baku lived in Moscow from 1973 and isolated Bahá’ís were reported in Penza and in a town near Leningrad, but there is little information about such individuals. Although there were occasional Bahá’í visitors to Russia such as Lorol Schopflocher and Muzaffar Namdar, they did not attempt to contact the Bahá’ís there.
Russia - Bahaikipedia, an encyclopedia about the Bahá?í Faith