Siberian Mission

By Jón Hjörleifur Stefánsson

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Jón Hjörleifur Stefánsson, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

First Published: November 7, 2021

The Siberian Mission was a church unit that covered all of Siberia from 1909 to 1910, after which it became the Siberian Union Mission with its subfields.

Territory and Statistics1

Period: 1909-1910

Territory: Siberia

Population: 6,740,600

Membership: 286

Churches: 16

Origin of Seventh-day Adventist Work in the Territory

By 1906 the Adventist mission had reached Asian Russia and the European denominational organ Zions-Wächter listed a new “Russio-Asian Field” in the German Union.2

The Russio-Asian Field and the Volga region (Astrakhan, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, and Ufa governorates) of the East Russian Conference formed the East Russian Mission in 1907.3 The field belonged to the German Union and then to the Russian Union, which was formed later that same year.4

Organizational History

At the commencement of 1909, Siberia was removed from the East Russian Mission and the Siberian Mission was formed. At the end of the first quarter of 1909, it had 93 members. The cities listed in the report are Kondratovka, Omsk, Semipalatinsk (now Semey in Kazakhstan), and Tatschkolov.5 Membership grew rapidly. As 1910 closed and the mission was two years old, Siberian members numbered 286, in 16 locations.6

In 1911 the Siberian Mission was dissolved and the Siberian Union Mission was organized with its subfields.7

List of Presidents

Advisory Committee, 1909-1910: J. T. Böttcher, K. A. Reifschneider, and G. Tittle.

Sources

“Berichte der Russischen Union vom 1. Oktober bis 31. Dezember 1910,” Zions-Wächter, February 6, 1911.

Conradi, Ludwig R. “Reise-Erfahrungen.” Zions-Wächter, March 4, 1907.

Conradi, Ludwig R. “Reise-Erfahrungen.” Zions-Wächter, December 2, 1907.

Conradi, Ludwig R. “Progress in the European Division,” ARH, November 10, 1910.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Battle Creek, MI: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1883-1886; Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1887-1892. Battle Creek, MI: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1893-1894. Washington, D.C.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1904. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1905-1911.

Turowski, H. “Sitzung des Russische Union.” Zions-Wächter, December 16, 1907.

“Vierteljahrsbericht der deutschen Union-Konferenz vom 1. Januar bis 31. März 1906.” Zions-Wächter, May 7, 1906.

“Vierteljahrsbericht der Russischen Union vom 1. Januar bis 31. März 1909,” Zions-Wächter, May 3, 1909.

Notes

  1. “Siberian Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1910), 116; “Vierteljahrsbericht der Russischen Union vom 1. Januar bis 31. März 1909,” Zions-Wächter, May 3, 1909, 159.

  2. The cities listed are apparently all in the Caucasus, however (for instance, Sochi, Sochumi, and Yerevan), which does not, at least not by modern definitions, constitute part of Siberia. “Vierteljahrsbericht der deutschen Union-Konferenz vom 1. Januar bis 31. März 1906,” Zions-Wächter, May 7, 1906, 154. The church unit’s name was given as the “Asiatic Russian Mission” in the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1906), 75.

  3. Ludwig R. Conradi, “Reise-Erfahrungen,” Zions-Wächter, March 4, 1907, 65; “Caucasian Conference” and “East Russian Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1908), 112-113.

  4. Ludwig R. Conradi, “Reise-Erfahrungen,” Zions-Wächter, December 2, 1907, 394; H. Turowski, “Sitzung des Russische Union,” Zions-Wächter, December 16, 1907, 409.

  5. I did not locate minutes or articles about the occasion when the mission was organized. It first appeared in the first quarter report of 1909 in Zions-Wächter and in the SDA Yearbook of 1909. In the latter, the church unit has a footnote that states that the mission was “cut off from East Russian Mission, January 1, 1909,” so it must have been organized sometime in 1908. For the statistics, see “Vierteljahrsbericht der Russischen Union vom 1. Januar bis 31. März 1909,” Zions-Wächter, May 3, 1909, 159.

  6. “Berichte der Russischen Union vom 1. Oktober bis 31. Dezember 1910,” Zions-Wächter, February 6, 1911, 50.

  7. Ludwig R. Conradi, “Progress in the European Division,” ARH, November 10, 1910, 7.

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Stefánsson, Jón Hjörleifur. "Siberian Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. November 07, 2021. Accessed February 13, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AID2.

Stefánsson, Jón Hjörleifur. "Siberian Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. November 07, 2021. Date of access February 13, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AID2.

Stefánsson, Jón Hjörleifur (2021, November 07). Siberian Mission. Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 13, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AID2.