Mykhailo Cherenkov
The Slavic diaspora in the United States and around the world has a large, positive potential for spiritual, moral, and social influence. It is very unfortunate that the trauma of the Soviet era does not allow this potential to develop and generates inadequate reactions to global processes. I will speak a bit more to the darker side in a moment, as this issue tends to be avoided. I am sure that only by bidding farewell to the remnants of the Soviet period and its stereotypes will Christians from the former Soviet Union be able to be a blessing to the countries of their residence.
The Soviet Mindset of Dissidents
I think that the West, including the U.S., was too concerned with standing up to the U.S.S.R. and supporting religious and political dissidents. For those opposed to the Kremlin, all enemies of the U.S.S.R. were friends of the U.S. That was a convenient, but simplistic, paradigm. All people “born in the U.S.S.R.” (this is still a special social category), whether victims of religious persecution or fiery anti-Soviet activists, absorbed the spirit of the Soviet era and many stereotypes of Soviet thinking. They fought against Soviet ideology, but lived in a Soviet environment. I think the West underestimated the negative influence of the U.S.S.R. upon its religious groups and overestimated their anti-Soviet attitude. The West saw religious dissidents as heroes, conquerors, and the avant garde of democratic change. Even more, they saw in Baptists a strong conservative tradition.
Perhaps U.S. leaders making decisions at the time were influenced by memories of their own colonial antecedents, many of whom were dissidents from the Old World who brought with them to the New World an uncompromising spirit of evangelical Christianity. To open doors to the U.S. for yesterday’s persecuted Christians meant acknowledging their actions and their closeness in spirit to U.S. Christians.
Open doors for Soviet religious dissidents also had a pragmatic connection to demographic policy. I also would argue that the U.S. welcomed religious emigration from the U.S.S.R. in the hope that this conservative, biblical influence would strengthen and diversify American Christianity. Beginning in the 1960s, the U.S. actively began helping Protestants in the U.S.S.R. and counted on finding in them brothers close in thinking and in spirit. Of course, Syrian and Egyptian Christianity are more exotic and foreign. But, as I already noted, Soviet Christianity, though it seemed close, was actually deeply impacted by the Soviet spirit, so the U.S. received, along with immigrants, deeply engrained Soviet thinking.
Difficulties in Assimilation
The unprecedented help provided immigrants from the U.S.S.R. was offered by the country which had won the Cold War. We must acknowledge that at first these immigrants truly needed that help, because after life in the U.S.S.R. it was very difficult to adapt to a free and competitive society. But after a time such generosity began to be taken advantage of and manipulated, and encouraged a consumer attitude. There is another possible reason for such generosity – a desire to control the situation in the migrant communities, to keep track of them, so that life, attitudes, and socio-political orientation could be controlled.
The high level of crime among immigrants from the Soviet Union can be explained by the “born in the U.S.S.R.” syndrome – where people see their country of residence as convenient but foreign, and therefore constantly look back to their Soviet experience and models of behavior for solving problems. Many Soviet immigrants do not feel a connection to American rules and laws, and even protest against them. Now they look back, not on the U.S.S.R., but on Russia and rejoice that it has “risen from its knees.” They are proud that they were “born in the U.S.S.R.” and are “Russian,” that they are heirs of an empire, and feel that they are entitled to more than lawabiding Americans.
Another problem is the separation created by the church upbringing of religious immigrants from the Soviet Union. In strict, conservative congregations (where almost everything is either forbidden or seen as “worldly” and “sinful”), many psychological problems hide within personalities and later find expression in deviant behavior. Many such immigrants also feel resentment for a poor childhood, for Soviet marginalization, and for their admittedly low social position in American society. But for evangelicals who left the U.S.S.R., I believe the strength of their bond with their fellow believers is the greatest source of their inability to adapt, hampered as they are by an ultra-conservative upbringing, a culture of taboos, a sharpened dichotomy between the church and the world, and a lack of holistic theological teaching on the self and society, faith, and culture. F
Mykhailo Cherenkov is vice-president of Mission Eurasia, Irpen, Ukraine.
Slavic Evangelicals in A Survival Mode: A Response to Mikhail Cherenkov’s “Slavic Diaspora”
Oleg Turlac
Unrealized Potential
In his succinct article, Dr. Mykhailo Cherenkov from Ukraine discusses issues related to the Slavic diaspora, the trauma experienced by many who lived under the Soviet regime, and the question of the adaptation of immigrants to the new reality of living abroad. Cherenkov points out that Slavic immigrants have potential to offer much good to American society. However, he also mentions that “Soviet trauma,” which as I understand, is the experience of living under totalitarian Soviet rule, prevents Slavic evangelicals from realizing that potential. Cherenkov argues that Slavic evangelicals need to go through much transformation and adaptation to living in a free society before they are able to become constructive citizens in the New World. And this they are not necessarily willing to do.
So far, Slavic immigrants in America have been facing considerable challenges in adapting to American life, culture, and legal requirements. It is hard for many to make choices and manage their own affairs. They tend to live in ghettos and rely on collective opinion concerning matters of life. Since the Slavic church remains the center of cultural and religious life for immigrants, Slavic preachers, rather than American mass media, shape their worldview.
In my opinion, Slavic immigrants should not be seen as an exclusive group that is expected to transform American society. They will exercise no greater influence than any other immigrant community. Their choice is between integration and marginalization.
Dissidents and Those Who Followed
I think Western support for the immigration of dissidents from the U.S.S.R. was the right thing to do. The problem is not with religious dissidents, such as Georgi Vins and Boris Perchatkin, but with those who followed in their footsteps who were not involved in dissident activities in the Soviet Union.
I think that the American government’s selection process for potential immigrants is to blame, for it allowed quite a few Soviet citizens who were not necessarily persecuted evangelicals or Jews to come to America as refugees. This author knows of cases of devout believers who were denied the right to immigrate and of others who did not attend church at all who were permitted to come to America.
Dissidents came to America in search of freedom and opportunity to express their faith. Many others who followed had purely economic motives. They simply followed the footsteps of their pastors and family members. I am inclined to agree with Cherenkov that instead of contributing to American society, quite a few Slavic immigrants began to exploit the system for their own advantage. They did not think of what they could offer to the country, but rather, what America could offer them.
However, unlike Cherenkov, I am not inclined to think that the American government had any high hopes that Soviet evangelicals would transform American society. It was rather a humanitarian effort to help those who went through much persecution and suffering for their faith.
Ghetto Mentality
The separation of Slavic evangelicals from American society, in my opinion, is due to ethnic churches being the center of their lives. Because believers from the same regions in the U.S.S.R. who immigrated to America tend to live in clusters (in Sacramento, Minneapolis, Spokane, Philadelphia, etc.), they form churches according to the image and likeness of congregations to which they belonged in the Soviet Union. It is true that for many believers church communities back in the days of the U.S.S.R. were a safe haven that shielded them and their children from the destructive influences of Communism and atheism. In America, on one hand, churches have prevented Slavic immigrants born in the 1930s to 1950s from experiencing total confusion in the face of a highly individualistic Western lifestyle. On the other hand, churches have also prevented immigrants from forming their own independent opinions about reality, impeding their progress in learning English, and slowed even partial integration into American society. Younger Slavic immigrants, even those who retain a Slavic version of Christianity, tend to like all things American.
Whereas in the very beginning America seemed to immigrants to be the Promised Land with free perks, with time they developed a more balanced and realistic picture of the country. Slavic believers realized that not all Americans were followers of Christ, and even if they were, the way they expressed their faith was not exactly what Slavic believers considered “pure biblical Christianity.” Slavic immigrants began to face legal consequences for breaking the law and came to realize that things that are available to them come at a cost.
In recent years, Slavic believers faced quite a few crises. Some of their children succumbed to the temptations of drugs and alcohol. Slavic families, unfortunately, were not immune to infidelity and divorce, which were widely considered “worldly vices.” Violent murders of members of the Bukhantsov and Lazukin families shocked Slavic communities in Oregon and California.1 A court decision to deprive Alexander and Lyudmila Kozlov of parental rights and to send them to prison filled the hearts of Slavic believers with resentment toward the American justice system.2 In addition, recent events in Ukraine have caused disagreements between ethnic Russian and Ukrainian Christians.3 With the rise of nationalism and patriotism in Putin’s Russia and widespread departure from a traditional view of the family in the West, quite a few Russian immigrants in recent times have tended to sound very pro-Russian and anti-American.
In my opinion, many Slavic immigrants feel betrayed and think that their new circumstance is as fraught with danger to their faith as was the case in the Soviet Union. Instead of thinking what they may contribute to American society, they are in a survival mode, trying to protect cherished values and to keep their children safe from what they consider to be the moral decay of American society.F
Notes:
- “California Man Faces Death Penalty after Being Charged in Brutal Stabbing of Mother and Her Two Toddlers,” 27 October 2012, Daily Mail; http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223903/Californiaman-faces-death-penalty-charged-brutal-stabbingmothers-toddlers.html; Everton Balley, “Salem Man Kills Stranger, Wife, Kids, Self in Four-hour Span, DA Says.” 10 September 2012, The Oregonian; http:// www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index. ssf/2012/09/salem_man_kills_stranger_wife.html.
- Tim King, “Ukrainian Immigrant Couple Guilty of Child Abuse,” 5 December 2009, Salem News; http:// www.salem-news.com/articles/december052009/child_ abuse_tk.php.
- Suzanne Phan, “Local Russians and Ukrainians React to Crimea Crisis,” 21 March 2014; ABC News 10; http://www.news10.net/story/news/local/fair-oakscarmichael/2014/03/21/local-slavic-americans-react-tocrimea-crisis/6683541/.
Oleg Turlac, a native of Moldova, is the director of Turlac Mission and editor of Christian Megapolis, Toronto, Canada.