Its most recent project collected information in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning specific medical requirements of various cities that are attempting to deal with enormous numbers of casualties, refugees, and displaced persons. KIS also is in daily contact with various humanitarian sections of the United Nations and many non-governmental organizations attempting to supply material to Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.
Responding to the recent opening of Croatian society to Christianity, KIS would like to take advantage of an unrestricted approach to media for the benefit of God's Kingdom in this nation so severely struck by war. Destroyed homes, schools, churches, hospitals--all of them will eventually be rebuilt, but it will take decades to cure the wounds that have been inflicted upon the hearts and souls of many innocent victims. KIS finds itself called to serve its friends and families as best it can.
KIS would like to keep all interested organizations and individuals informed about numerous changes regarding Christian churches in Croatia. It is in constant contact with many other information services.
The Christian Information Service is on the Internet and the address is (URL): gopher://rujan.srce.hr:70/11/eng/gosti-info/kis-lokalni-info. KIS staff in Zagreb are available 24 hours each weekday. It employs eight full-time and five part-time staff. For further information, contact:
| Jacques Gauthier, Director of Foreign Communications
Christian Information Service Ilica 44 Zagreb, Croatia p. p. 152 41001 Zagreb, Croatia Tel: 38-41-432-034 Fax: 38-41-428-258 E-mail: Jacques.Gauthier@rujan.srce.hr |
Boris Peterlin, Director and Editor in Chief
Tel: 38-41-271-473 E-mail: Boris.Peterlin@rujan.srce.hr Carolyn Boyd
|
Wheaton College Research Materials on the Church in the Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe
Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections houses the following primary source collections:
Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center Library houses the following collections:
The Billy Graham Center Archives houses the following collections:
The Institute for East-West Christian Studies houses 15 feet of files containing correspondence, newsletters, news releases, and other pertinent information on Christian organizations working in the former Soviet Union and East Central Europe. Serious researchers are permitted access following written requests to the Institute. Contact:
Orthodox-Protestant relations evidence strain, not only in post-Soviet societies, but in the West. Representative of increasingly combative discourse was the interchange between Dr. Wallace Schulz, Associate Lutheran Hour Speaker, and two Orthodox spokesmen: Fr. George Larin, Holy Protection parish, Nyack, NY, Russian Orthodox Church Abroad; and Fr. Michael Azkoul, St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, St. Louis, MO. A copy of Wallace Schulz's "Christianity in Russia: The Past and the Future; Lectures Presented April 18-19, 1993, at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario," is available for inspection in Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center Library or via interlibrary loan. Portions of the Lutheran and Orthodox correspondence may be examined in George Larin's "Lutheran Assault on Russian Orthodoxy," Orthodox Life 44 (September-October 1994), 37-45. Orthodox Life, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, costs $12/year. Order from
A bimonthly newsletter, Traveling Healthy, carries occasional articles on the former Soviet Union and East Central Europe (for example, the January/February 1992 and January/February 1994 issues on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe respectively). Subscriptions are $29/year; $49/2 years. Contact:
Analytica Moscow is an electronic mail weekly press summary of political and economic news from the former Soviet Union produced by Moscow-based INCO (tel/fax: 7095-943-9406; e-mail: inco@glas.apc.org) and the Institute of Central/East European and Russian Area Studies, Carleton University, 109 Social Sciences Research Building, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada; tel: 613-788-2600, #6623; e-mail: dwestman@ccs.carleton.ca. Annual subscriptions cost $120 for individuals; $240 for organizations. For prices of customized "press digests focusing on specific developments or issues" contact INCO (Moscow) directly. For hard copy costs contact the Canadian office.
A "Who's Who in Russia," listing 113 key government and political party officials, may be accessed by exploring the Institute for East-West Christian Studies menu on Wheaton College's gopher (gopher gopher.wheaton.edu).
Slavic Review began posting its articles on the Gopher and World Wide Web networks starting with the Fall 1994 issue. Access "Slavic Review On Line" through telnet as follows: gopher ccat.sas.upenn.edu; then select #8, "Electronic publications;" then select "Slavic Review," currently #21. For World Wide Web, type lynx http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/slavrev/slavrev.html. America On Line subscribers may use the keyword gopher, then select "Search All Gophers." At the Veronica search option, type slavic review. The Fall 1994 issue included "Understandings of Anti-Semitism in Russia: An Analysis of the Politics of Anti-Jewish Attitudes" by James L. Gibson. For additional information, contact Richard Frost at slavrev@sas.upenn.edu.
Four Scenarios for Post-Soviet Russia
John A. Bernbaum
Russia 2010 and What It Means for the World, authored by Cambridge Energy Research Associates Daniel Yergin and Thane Gustafson, describes three driving forces that will shape the future of Russia. The first is the massive and tumultuous repercussion of the collapse of the Communist Party and the political void it has left behind. The second is Russia's economic depression. Unlike the West, where depressions occur in cycles, the former Soviet Union is enduring the shock wave of a system that has collapsed. The old command economy is dead and a new system has not yet emerged. But one thing is clear, in the authors' judgment: there is no going back to the command economy, no going back to the "State Circus."
The third and final driving force is the implosion of the empire. "The shock of the collapse of the Soviet empire and Soviet identity, followed by the massive opening up to the West, constitutes a powerful force that topples all the assumptions that Russians grew up with, increases their insecurity, and obliges them to rethink their place in the world and in their own country."
Building on this framework, the authors describe four possible scenarios for Russia's future: "Muddling Down," which involves the painful but more-or-less peaceful unwinding of the Soviet state; "Two-Headed Eagle," which has Russia reasserting the power of its central government based on an alliance of defense chieftains and industrial managers; "Time of Troubles," which envisions various scenarios of chaos and reaction; and "Chudo," which involves a full-blown Russian economic miracle.
While the book proves provocative and stimulating, I am troubled once again by the largely secularized lenses through which Western scholars view Russia. The concentrated focus on political and economic aspects of the Soviet experience obscures the deeper moral and spiritual roots of the crisis which led to the collapse of the Soviet regime. Before the political and economic structures of Russia can be rebuilt and a New Russia formed "from under the rubble," a new mentality, a new moral foundation, must be constructed. Many Russian leaders see this--why can't we in the West?
John A. Bernbaum, former vice-president of the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities, is chair of the board of the Russian-American Christian University, Moscow.
Edited excerpt reprinted with permission from Russia Link (Spring 1994), 3-4.
Editor's Note: The February 1995 revised paperback edition of Russia 2010 is available for $13 from
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© 1995 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664