Ukrainian Union Conference

The Ukrainian Union Conference was organized in 1977 and reorganized in 1987, at that time becoming part of Euro-Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists. It was reorganized and attached to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in 2022. Its headquarters is in Kiev, Ukraine.

Territory: Ukraine; comprising the Bukovinskaya, Central Ukrainian, Dnieper, Eastern Dnieper, Kiev, Podolskaya, Southern Ukrainian, and Western Ukrainian Conferences; and the Eastern Ukrainian Mission.

Statistics (June 30, 2021): Churches, 784; membership, 43,307; population, 41,397,000.

The general population per member ratio is 956.

Background

The first Adventist congregations emerged in Ukraine by the close of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century when the country was still part of the Russian Empire. Although new Adventist churches were being planted across Russia, the Advent message had come to Ukraine much earlier.

The political events in Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the abolition of serfdom in particular, inspired spiritual awakening among intellectuals and commoners alike. People became interested in Scripture and began to read the Bible. For instance, in 1877 in the small town of Tarashcha near Kiev, a 36-year-old man named Theofil Babienko was a local landowner who served as an assistant to an Orthodox priest and a choirmaster. Once Babienko was assigned to read Psalms from the choir gallery of his church, and that sparked his interest in the Bible. With permission granted, Babienko took the Bible home with him and started reading it to his neighbors. In 1883, Tarashcha became home to a “Society of the Bible Studying Brethren.” That was an offence big enough to have Babienko arrested and exiled to Stavropol, a city in southern Russia. While in Stavropol, Babienko met the first American Adventist missionary to Russia, Conrad Laubhan. In 1887, he and his fellow exiles were baptized. One year later, after another baptism, Babienko led a newly established Adventist church in Stavropol. He was ordained as a minister in 1890 at the Seventh-day Adventist church congress held in Eigenheim, Northern Caucasus, and chaired by Louis R. Conradi. F. Babienko became the first ordained Adventist pastor in Ukraine. Around the same time, 1867-1875, Michał Czechowski, the first unofficial Adventist missionary to Europe, preached the message about the second coming of Jesus in two major cities in Western Ukraine—Lvov and Chernovtsy.

At the invitation of Russian empress, Catherine the Great, Mennonites began settling in Ukraine in 1789. Originating in Germany in the sixteenth century, due to severe persecution in their homeland, they sought new homes with religious freedom. Some Mennonites moved then to the United States where they became acquainted with the Adventist message. They kept in touch with their former fellow believers in Ukraine, sharing their new faith through booklets and other printed materials. As a result, two predominantly German Adventist churches were established in Ukraine: in Crimea on May 31, 1886, and in Aleksandrovka (currently Zaporozhe) on September 15, 1886.

Organizational History

The history of the Ukrainian Union Conference dates back to July 1901 when the German-Russian Union¹ was organized in Friedensau, Germany. Seeking to serve German-speaking churches, this union included the South Union Conference, comprised of Ukraine, and the North Russian Mission, comprised of the Baltics.² In 1905, a session of the German-Russian Union held in Friedensau decided—for convenience in servicing churches and companies and evangelizing such a large territory—to divide Adventist churches in Ukraine into two mission fields: the Southern Russian Mission Field (comprising churches of Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Taurida Governorates) and the Middle Russian Mission Field (comprising churches of Kiev Governorate).³

At the 1907 General Conference Session in Switzerland, it was voted to establish a separate Russian Union, which in its constituent Middle Russian Mission Field included the Adventist churches in Ukraine.⁴ The first constituent meeting of the Middle Russian Mission Field was held in Kiev on September 19-23, 1907. Otto Wildgrube was elected president of this field.⁵

After another reorganization in 1909, the Middle Russian Mission Field was divided into two entities: the Little Russia Field, comprised of all Adventist churches in Ukraine except for the western Ukrainian regions, and the West Russian Mission Field, which included Adventist churches and companies that had been established in western Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania. In 1910, the latter had nine churches and five companies with 257 members.

In July 1917, at the third Mission Board of the Russian Union that took place in the city of Saratov in Russia, Elder Heinrich Loebsack was elected president of the Little Russia Field, with headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine.⁶

Under Soviet Rule

When the Soviet government came to power in October 1917, it proclaimed freedom of conscience and worship, granting equal rights to all religions. The Adventist Church was granted a permission to hold a constituency meeting of the Russian Union in Moscow in September 1920. The conference delegates voted to establish six unions. The West Russian Union was now comprised of the Adventist churches in Kiev, Podolsk, Volyn (its eastern part), Odessa, Chernigov, Poltava, and Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) in Ukraine in addition to the Vitebsk and Gomel regions in Belarus and the Crimea Peninsula. The West Russian Union, chaired by Ivan A. Lvov, established its headquarters in Kiev.⁷

The second session of the West Russian Union was held in Kiev on May 12-16, 1925. The event took place in a rented facility that accommodated 400 people. The meetings were chaired by Heinrich Loebsack. A total of sixty-four delegates represented the 4,453 Adventist church members in Ukraine. During the previous three years, church membership in Ukraine had increased more than twofold. It was voted to rename the organization the All-Ukrainian Union of Seventh-day Adventists. The union headquarters remained in Kiev, and Ivan A. Lvov was elected president of the new union.⁸

The third session of the All-Ukrainian Union was held on May 18-23, 1927, at a rented hall accommodating 1,500 people in the Helios theatre in Kiev. A total of seventy-one delegates represented 4,876 church members and 213 churches and companies. From the accounts of eyewitnesses, it was the best organized and the most solemn event in the forty-three-year history of the Adventist Church in Ukraine—almost as if delegates had a premonition of future tragic times and persecutions. Lvov was re-elected president of the All-Ukrainian Union. One year later, in May 1928, at the sixth Russian Union’s constituency meeting he was appointed an associate to President Heinrich Loebsack and moved to Moscow. Gustav Zierath moved to Kiev from Rostov-on-Don to replace Lvov in leading the Adventist Church in Ukraine.⁹

Beginning in 1928 it became evident that the atheist Soviet government held a course for the complete destruction of all religions, not only Adventism, through repression. It was the beginning of the darkest times of arrests, imprisonment, and violent deaths. The authorities denied or annulled registration of local churches, confiscated church buildings, and prohibited advisories and constituency meetings. Instead of a regular session of the Ukrainian Union in November 1929, permission was given to hold a so-called year-end meeting of conference administrators. In December 1931, the All-Union Council of Seventh-day Adventists (ACSDA) was allowed to call a plenary session with the participation of twenty-nine church leaders. Under pressure from atheistic authorities, church organizations of all levels were disbanded.¹⁰

This continued until 1945 when Pastor G. Grigoryev initiated the appointment of a five-member All-Union Council of Seventh-day Adventists (ACSDA) in Moscow.¹¹ The Adventist Church started coming back to life. Surviving pastors were released from prisons and camps. V. D. Yakovenko, a post-war leader of the Adventist Church in Ukraine (1948-1952), was among ACSDA’s members. In 1952 he was succeeded as president of the Adventist Church in Ukraine by F. V. Melnik (1952-1955). In view of his steady and principled stand—particularly in asserting the right of children and youth to keep the Sabbath)—authorities insisted on replacing F. V. Melnik by a more malleable administrator, A. G. Gallajev, who led the Adventist Church in Ukraine from 1955 through 1959.

During this era, instead of mass repressions, the Soviets pursued a divide and rule policy that found expression in instigating a church split, dividing church members. Tired of the long-term struggles and afraid of new persecutions, some pastors were ready to compromise with authorities, especially in matters of church organization. The isolation from the worldwide Adventist Church and the General Conference was a precipitating factor as well. In 1960, the Soviet government dissolved the All-Union Council of Seventh-day Adventists. Soon afterwards the churches in Ukraine, as in other parts of the Soviet Union, were divided between those who supported the policy of Pastor P. A. Matsanov, upholding the principles of Adventism and carrying out active missionary work,¹² and those who preferred to compromise with authorities. The latter attitude was initially taken in Ukraine by Pastor A. F. Parasey.¹³ The two centers of church administration were active until 1976 when the reconciliation process began in the Ukrainian Adventist Church.

The split threatened to completely polarize the Adventist Church in the Soviet Union. However, political changes in the country softened the hearts of almost all church leaders, who became strongly convinced that God’s family should strive for unity. The General Conference and President Neal C. Wilson personally took an uncompromising stance in regard to the unity of the Church in the Soviet Union.

The church organization, headed in Ukraine by P. A. Matsanov, comprised more than eighty percent of all churches and members that were thereafter united in three local conferences: Western (chaired by N. A. Zhukalyuk), Central (chaired by V. S. Neikurs), and Eastern (headed by P. G. Titkov). It was a time featured by active missionary efforts without regard to harassment by atheistic authorities.¹⁴

In light of this, the authorities changed tactics and decided to stalemate the church work from within by appointing conformable leaders to key positions in the Adventist Church.¹⁵

In 1978 a temporary administrative church body was established and co-chaired by three administrators: N. A. Zhukalyuk, A. F. Parasey and V. I. Prolinskiy. This “triarchy” existed until 1988 when the authorities permitted holding the fourth All-Ukrainian Session (constituency meeting).¹⁶

The session was held in accordance with General Conference policies and standards, but in all official papers it was named an “Advisory Meeting of the SDA Church Representatives in the Soviet Republic of Ukraine.” One of the reasons was the continuous presence of Mr. Vladimir Kostenko, the then vice-chair of the Ukrainian Council for Religious Affairs, at the meetings. At the session, 194 delegates represented 14,114 members including seventy-five ordained pastors, eighty-eight assistant pastors (Bible workers) and seventeen retired veteran pastors. At that time, the Adventist Church in Ukraine had 178 local churches and companies in eight local conferences. The delegates conducted their meetings in the chapel at 70 Yamskaya Street in Kiev. They elected church administrators and charted the future development of the Adventist Church in Ukraine. The General Conference commissioned Mikhail P. Kulakov, the head of the Adventist Church in Russia, to chair the constituency meeting. The delegates elected Nikolay Zhukalyuk as president of the Adventist Church in Ukraine. As a result, after twenty-five years of conflict, dissent, and inner struggles, Adventist church administrators and members reconciled and reunited.

Restoration of Religious Freedom

The following quinquennium was marked by very significant historic events in the life of the Church and the country at large. The Soviet Union collapsed. For the first time the millions of former Soviet people heard the Three Angels’ messages calling them to repent and “worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev. 14:7), the God of the biblical faith whom the Soviets had denied for seventy years. In 1990, at the General Conference Session in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, the “afflicted, tossed with tempest” Adventist Church in the Soviet Union officially became part of the worldwide Church as the Euro-Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists (ESD).

Growth and Development of the Ukrainian Union Conference

With religious freedom restored, five years after its previous session, the Ukrainian Union Conference gathered, for the first time without any need of permission, on September 8-11, 1993, in Pushcha Voditsa near Kiev. This fifth All-Ukrainian session (constituency meeting) was chaired by ESD President Elder Ted Wilson. Thanks to multiple public evangelistic campaigns in many Ukrainian cities, church membership grew by 17,249, reaching 31,401. As the Church grew, so did the need for church buildings. Most congregations met in rented facilities such as movie theaters. Many congregations started construction of their own buildings. The number of conferences in the UUC was reduced to six, but they were fully functional and more productive. Mikhail Murga became the second president of the Adventist Church in Ukraine, while Nikolay Zhukaluk was placed in charge of establishing a church publishing house.

“Prepare the way of the Lord!” was the motto of the sixth Ukrainian Union session held on August 19-22, 1998, on the premises of the former health resort in the town of Lisova Bucha not far from Kiev. The Church purchased the retreat complex with the help of western donors, a dream come true for many Ukrainian Adventists. The Adventist Church in Ukraine had been longing to have its own educational institution to train pastors and offer other humanitarian degrees. The newly established Ukrainian Humanitarian Institute (UHI)—an Adventist institution of higher learning—was dedicated just before the constituency meeting. ESD President Lee Huff, who replaced Ted Wilson in 1996, prayed a dedication prayer for UHI. A total of 176 delegates attended the sixth UUC session held in the UHI conference hall. They represented a substantially larger membership than had previous constituency meetings. The result of ninety-eight evangelistic programs conducted by foreign evangelists and 1,480 programs held by local pastors, the Church in Ukraine grew to 58,085 members by 1998. There were 681 local churches and 242 companies in Ukraine at that time. In the five-year period before the session, the UUC launched the Golos Nadii (The Voice of Hope) Radio Center, directed by Ivan Chernychko, and opened the Dzherelo Zhyttia (The Source of Life) Publishing House, headed by Nikolay Zhukalyuk who also served as its editor-in-chief. At the 1998 session a young, energetic pastor, Vladimir Krupskiy, was elected Ukrainian Union Conference president.

The seventh UUC session, which met July 2-5, 2003, was also held on the UHI campus. Its motto was “Do not stop proclaiming the Gospel.” A total of 182 delegates from 843 local churches and 383 companies represented the 61,157 members of the Ukrainian Union Conference. During the previous five years the number of ministers had increased significantly. Some seventy young men graduated from the seminary and thirty more completed an intensive pastoral training course under the umbrella of the 300*300*300 program (a program launched by Euro-Asia Division in 2001, aimed at training 300 new pastors, planting 300 new churches and constructing 300 chapels in the ESD’s territory). By 2003, the number of church buildings had increased to 517, and eighty-six new church buildings were under construction. Artur Stele, ESD president, presided at the seventh UUC session, and Vladimir Krupskiy was re-elected president of the UUC.

Five years later, ESD President Artur Stele chaired the eighth UUC session from June 30 through July 1, 2008, in Lisova Bucha. A total of 156 delegates represented 61,060 members from 908 local churches and 37 companies. Despite the fact that the number of local churches had grown and the number of local conferences increased to nine, for the first time in the history of the UUC its total membership decreased by 128. Even though 26,661 new members had joined the Church within the five-year period, 26,789 people were lost due to death, disfellowship, and immigration to other countries. Over the past five years, two satellite programs had been launched from the UUC, and the Church held hundreds of missionary programs. Unfortunately, sufficient membership growth did not follow. It was a disturbing tendency, and President Vladimir Krupskiy openly spoke about it in his report. He exhorted pastors and other workers to be more scrupulous about missionary work. Krupskiy’s earnest work and passion for the Lord’s cause were appreciated, and he was elected president for a third term.

Prior to the ninth UUC session, held on August 27-29, 2010, many union and division directors and administrators had been elected to higher church organizations during General Conference session earlier in the summer. UUC president Vladimir Krupskiy was elected Euro-Asia Division executive secretary. In addition, a number of UUC departmental directors were promoted to their respective departments at the division level. It became evident that union sessions would need to be convened immediately after the General Conference session. The UUC session was held on the campus of the Ukrainian Center of Higher Education (UCHE) in Lisova Bucha. A total of 159 delegates from nine local conferences represented 61,644 members. A new ESD president, Guillermo Biaggi, who replaced Artur Stele, chaired the session. The delegates elected young and energetic Viktor Alekseyenko, who had been Sabbath School and personal ministries director in the Euro-Asia Division, the new UUC president. Alekseyenko had been born in Vinnitsa and raised in a God-fearing Adventist family. His father was also an Adventist pastor. Since his childhood, God’s message of love and care for people had been part of his life. Under Alekseyenko’s leadership, the union experienced growth in the number of evangelistic programs and revival weeks with participation from both pastors and lay members.

Under the slogan, “Arise, shine, the Lord is coming!” the tenth UUC session was again held in Lisova Bucha on August 26-27, 2015. A total of 145 delegates represented 49,017 church members in Ukraine. The meetings were chaired by Mikhail Kaminskiy, a newly elected Euro-Asia Division president. The UUC president, Victor Alekseyenko, attended the session in his new capacity as the ESD executive secretary. The UUC session delegates elected new union officers, including Stanislav Nosov as the new president, Vladimir Velechuk as secretary, and Gennadiy Beskrovny as treasurer.

Of major concern at this tenth session, was the substantial decrease in membership in Ukraine during the preceding five-year period. It was down by 12,627 members. However, in his report the former president, Victor Alekseyenko, attributed the membership loss to insufficient missionary work. During the years of Communist rule, people were deprived of the Bread of Life, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union many of them were seeking God. They responded to the fervent appeals of foreign and local evangelists, and received baptism by the thousands. However, they did not always understand their commitment to God and true Christians' moral obligation. Religious freedom allowed some people to look for other Christian faiths whose standards were not as high as the Bible taught. Others thought that the baptism alone was sufficient for them. They continued to live as they were accustomed. Some church members became politically involved, while others were consumed by their business. All of them had no time for God. Local pastors and elders tried to work with such individuals for many years. Despite rejections and sometimes demands to remove their names from membership rolls, they were still regarded as church members. Thus, the total membership was reported higher than it actually was. Finally, the UUC made a decision to put their membership data in order, which resulted in the significant drop in membership.

Despite membership problem, the tenth UUC session marked a milestone which delegates deemed a vivid and doubtless demonstration of the “great and marvelous” works of the Almighty God, the Ruler of the Universe. In less than thirty years since the fourth UUC session in 1988, the proud and powerful God-fighting “Babylon” of the twentieth century collapsed. The Heavenly Judge rendered His verdict: “God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end” (Dan. 5:26). The free and independent Ukraine that emerged on the ruins of the Soviet state granted unprecedented freedom of conscience to all churches, including the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. During this period, Adventist membership in Ukraine increased three-and-a-half times, reaching 47,080 at the end of 2017. A total of 256 ordained pastors and 151 assistant pastors ministered in 1,080 local churches and companies in Ukraine.

Gospel Ministry

After the collapse of the USSR, a period of rapid evangelization of Ukraine ensued that was significantly promoted by democratic and efficient church management initially carried out by foreign preachers such as S. Miller, D. Gilly, J. Carter, E. Teransky, and others. They were followed by a generation of talented local pastors. The scale of evangelistic efforts is clearly evidenced by church growth in the UUC. Between 1996 and 2005, membership grew of 51,154 to 61,471.

Year	Membership
1996	51,154
1997	52,269
1998	57,313
1999	59,263
2000	59,701
2001	60,304
2002	61,151
2003	61,124
2004	61,245
2005	61,471

Outlook for the Future

The UUC administration’s primary goal is the growth of full-scale evangelistic programs, more active ministry of home churches, and the implementation of revival weeks. The intention is for each church to become a center of influence within its community.

Great attention is paid to the opening of new Adventist schools and kindergartens, and the support of the Ukrainian Center of Higher Education (UCHE), where hundreds of students and pastors have received humanitarian and ministerial training. One of the UUC areas of priority is the development of children’s ministries and clubs, as well as youth ministries.

Another area of special focus is the ministry of the Nadiya Media Group that comprises five activity areas: TV and radio programs, Bible schools, call center, internet evangelism, and communications. Since March 1, 2013, the Nadiya Media Group has been broadcasting its programs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in Ukraine and other countries.

At the time of writing, hundreds of local evangelists are proclaiming the Good News and organizing thousands of missionary events. The Dzherelo Zhyttia (Source of Life) Publishing House has printed millions of copies of Christian books, booklets, and periodicals, thus contributing to the church’s general ministry through the distribution of the printed word. People are healed physically and spiritually at the Adventist Medical Center in Kiev and six health and wellness centers located in different parts of the country.

Union Presidents

David Gede (1900-1907), Otto Wildgrube (1907-1909), Ivan Perk (1909-1917), Heinrich Loebsack (1917-1920), Ivan Lvov (1920-1928), Vasiliy Yakovenko (1948-1952), Fyodor Melnik (1952-1955), Alexey Gallajev (1955-1959), Alexander Parasey and Dmitriy Kolbach (1959-1972), Alexander Parasey and Nikolay Zhukalyuk (1972-1976), Nikolay Zhukalyuk, Alexander Parasey and Vitaliy Prolinskiy (1976-1988), Nikolay Zhukalyuk (1988-1993), Mikhail Murga (1993-1998), Vladimir Krupskiy (1998-2010), Viktor Alekseyenko (2010-2015), Stanislav Nosov (2015- ).

Sources

Cernevskis, E. P.A. Matsanov - fenomen rukovoditelya adventistskogo dvizhenia v Sovetskom Soyuze s 1960 po 1981 gg. Riga: Patmos, 1997.

Heinz, D., Oparin, A. A., Yunak, D. O., and Pešelis, A. Fotokhronika Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Tsarskoi Rossii, SSSR i SNG. Khar’kov: Fakt, 2002.

Heinz, D., Oparin, A. A., Yunak, D. O., and Pešelis, A. Dushi pod zhertvennikom: Kniga Pamyati Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia, posviashchennaya zhertvam religioznykh repressiy vo vremya Tsarskoi Rossii i Sovetskogo Soyuza (1886-1986). Khar’kov: Fakt, 2010.

Loebsack, G. I. Velikoye Adventistskoye dvizheniye i Adventisty Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii. Rostov-na-Donu: Altair, 2006.

Oparin, A. A., and Begas, V. I. Belyy kamen. Ocherki istorii adventizma na Ekaterinoslavshchine. Khar’kov: Fakt, 2009.

Parasey, A. F., and Zhukalyuk, N. A. Bednaya, brosaemaya bureyu. Istoricheskiye ocherki k 110-letnemu yubileyu Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Ukraine. Kiev: Dzherelo Zhyttia, 1997.

Sarkisyan, A. S. Neuzheli eto bylo? Dnepropetrovsk: Lira, 2003.

Sitarchuk, R. Adventysty Siomogo Dnia v ukrains’kikh zemlyakh u skladi Rosiys’koi imperii (druga polovyna XIX stolittya – 1917 rik). Poltava: Skytech, 2008.

Yunak, D. O. Istoriya Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii (1886-2000) (v dvukh tomakh). Zaokskiy: Istochnik Zhizni, 2002.

Zhukalyuk, N. A., and Lyubashchenko, V. Istoriya Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Ukraine. Kiev: Dzherelo Zhyttia, 2003.

Notes

1. In publication, this union was alternately referred to as the German Union Conference or the German-Russian Union. Compare “German Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1904), 60; General Conference Session Recording Secretary Minutes, April 21, 1901, 65a, General Conference Archives, accessed January 24, 2023, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCSM/1901/GCRS19010421.pdf.↩

2. G. I. Loebsack, Velikoye Adventistskoye dvizheniye I Adventisty Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii (Rostov-on-Don: Altair, 2006), 192-194.↩

3. Ibid., 217-218.↩

4. Ibid., 242-243.↩

5. Ibid., 244-245.↩

6. Ibid., 309.↩

7. D. O. Yunak, Istoriya Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii (1886-2000) (v dvukh tomakh), Vol. 1 (Zaokskiy: Istochnik Zhizni, 2002), 176-180.↩

8. D. Heinz, A. A. Oparin, D. O. Yunak, and A. Pešelis, Dushi pod zhertvennikom: Kniga Pamyati Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia, posviashchennaya zhertvam religioznykh repressiy vo vremya Tsarskoi Rossii i Sovetskogo Soyuza (1886-1986) (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2010), 199-203.↩

9. D. Heinz, A. A. Oparin, D. O. Yunak, and A. Pešelis, Fotokhronika Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Tsarskoi Rossii, SSSR i SNG (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2002), 40-41. D. Heinz, A. A. Oparin, D. O. Yunak, and A. Pešelis, Dushi pod zhertvennikom: Kniga Pamyati Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia, posviashchennaya zhertvam religioznykh repressiy vo vremya Tsarskoi Rossii i Sovetskogo Soyuza (1886-1986) (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2010), 156-166.↩

10. D. Heinz, A. A. Oparin, D. O. Yunak, and A. Pešelis, Fotokhronika Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Tsarskoi Rossii, SSSR i SNG (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2002), 47.↩

11. Ibid., 88-89.↩

12. A. A. Oparin, Kogda plachut sosny (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2007), 44-56. E. Cernevskis, P. A. Matsanov-fenomen rukovoditelya adventistskogo dvizhenia v Sovetskom Soyuze s 1960 po 1981 gg. (Riga: Patmos, 1997), 30-48. A. S. Sarkisyan, Neuzheli eto bylo? (Dnepropetrovsk: Lira, 2003), 5-12.↩

13. A. A. Oparin, Kogda plachut sosny (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2007), 54-56.↩

14. A. A. Oparin, and V. I. Begas, Belyy kamen: Ocherki istorii adventizma na Ekaterinoslavshchine (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2009), 8.↩

15. E. Cernevskis, P. A. Matsanov-fenomen rukovoditelya adventistskogo dvizhenia v Sovetskom Soyuze s 1960 po 1981 gg. (Riga: Patmos, 1997), 22-48. A.S. Sarkisyan, Neuzheli eto bylo? (Dnepropetrovsk: Lira, 2003), 5-9.↩

16. D. Heinz, A. A. Oparin, D. O. Yunak, and A. Pešelis, Fotokhronika Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Tsarskoi Rossii, SSSR i SNG (Khar’kov: Fakt, 2002), 121.↩