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The first Adventist magazines reached Russia by the close of the nineteenth century. They were printed in the German language in Germany and Switzerland, secretly transported across the border, and distributed mostly among Russian citizens of German origin who lived at that time in the Volga region, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. Given a high demand for the Adventist message among the Russian-speaking population, there emerged a necessity to publish an Adventist magazine in Russian. In 1905 the publication of the Maslina (“Olive”) Magazine started in Hamburg.
Many Adventists in the Soviet Union, who were drafted into the army during World War II, refused to violate the fourth and sixth commandments of the Decalogue. For this reason, they were convicted, some of them being publicly executed by shooting.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Arefyev served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a pastor and administrator in the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) in the 1920s and 1930s.
The first Adventist congregations were formed in Armenia by the end of the 19th century.
Euro-Asia Division Armenia Country (Based on SDA membership)
Gustav Arnhold’s ministry in the German communities of the former Soviet Union helped to consolidate Seventh-day Adventism in those regions. He was not deterred by persecution or challenges of opposition. He later died as an Adventist martyr leaving a legacy to remember.
The Asian-Caucasian Conference was a church unit in Central Asia and the Caucasus that operated from 1989 to 1994.
Jacob Klein was the first Adventist preacher to enter Azerbaijan. In November 1894, he was invited to come to Baku where there were some German families who observed the Sabbath. For a few days, he baptized seven people and conducted their communion service. One of the first Russian Adventist congregations was a church in the village of Shusha that was included in the report of the Middle Russian Mission in 1902.
Euro-Asia Division Azerbaijan Country (Based on SDA membership)
The first official reference to Adventists in the territory of Belarus dates back to 1906. The spreading of Adventism was facilitated by Adventist tracts and other literature. According to the testimony of H. J. Löbsack, the Adventist movement in Minsk was initiated by G. Schmitz.
Euro-Asia Division Belarus Country (Based on SDA membership)
The Central Asian Conference was a church unit that operated in the Central Asian Soviet Socialist Republics from 1926 to 1929, when it became the Central Asian Mission. It is unknown when or whether the mission was dissolved.
Ferdinand (Fyodor) Adamovich Gaidischar was a Seventh-day Adventist minister who served the church in Russia during years of totalitarian atheism.
Johannes (Ivan) Adamovich Gaidischar was a pastor, evangelist, writer, and martyr for Christ.
Aleksei Georgievich Galladzhev served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a pastor and administrator in South Caucasus, Russia, and Ukraine. He served the Church during the years of Soviet power, including the terrible decades of Stalin's totalitarian rule
Amalia Galladzheva-Löbsack was an Adventist lay pastor in the Soviet Union. She and her husband, Aleksei Galladzhev, were pioneer workers in Georgia and Armenia. Both husband and wife were imprisoned during the times of massive religious repression in the Soviet Union. Amalia Galladzheva-Löbsack was executed on February 4, 1942. Amalia Galladzheva-Löbsack represents many women from the Soviet Union who served the Church in trying times and whose names we do not know.
Euro-Asia Division Biography Died/Imprisoned for Faith Women
Ivan Afanasievich Gumenyuk was a pastor, author, and church administrator from Moldova.
The first Adventists appeared in the south of Kazakhstan in the late nineteenth century in the village of Konstantinovka, 25 kilometers away from Tashkent. Several German families, who had moved from the European part of Russia, received some Adventist booklets and started celebrating the Sabbath. After a short time, Adventist congregations were organized in Akmolinsk (now Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan) and Auliye-Ata (now Taraz).
Euro-Asia Division Kazakhstan Country (Based on SDA membership)
Stepan Pavlovich Kulyzhskiy served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for almost 60 years as evangelist, pastor, and administrator.
The Adventist message came to Kyrgyzstan in 1891. At that time, this territory of Asiatic Russia was named as a Turkestan. Heinrich Ott, who was an Adventist, moved with his family from the Volga region to the village of Orlovka. Other Adventist families also came there. Philipp Trippel was among the newcomers as well. He was the first mentor who coordinated preaching the Adventist message.
Euro-Asia Division Kyrgyzstan Country (Based on SDA membership)
Fyodor Vasilievich Melnik (Mel’nik) served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as evangelist, pastor, administrator, and teacher in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia.
Mikhail Mikhailovich and Olga Vladimirovna Murga were prominent figures in the Adventist movement in Russia and the Ukraine.
Formerly the Northern Kazakhstan Conference, the Northern Kazakhstan Mission is a church unit that comprises most of Kazakhstan. Currently it covers Astana city, and Akmola, Aktyubinsk, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kostanai, Mangistau, and Pavlodar, in the Northern and Western regions of Kazakhstan. Its headquarters are in Astana, Kazakhstan.