In Tatarstan the Wahhabis run free and in Petersburg the Jehovah's Witnesses feel at home

by Sergei Alekhin
Rossiiskaia gazeta, 2 September 1999

More than once our paper has raised the alarm about the strength of the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses in Petersburg.  But the city officials either cannot read or perhaps . . .  Judging by the facts, they have the most cordial relations with the foreign sectarians.  Why is this?

If the officials are indifferent to the fates of young Petersburgers, then perhaps Governor Yakovlev would be concerned about his future grandson.

Two young people impecably dressed were standing midday on Kolomiazh prospect, near a sparkling complex of buildings and inviting passersby "to drop in for a visit," extending their hands for donations. The building of the Hall of Congresses of Jehovah's Witnesses really expressed not only wise archetectural decisions but also splendid workmanship and comfort.  Where else in Petersburg it there a more comfortable hall, able to accommodate at one time 1600 persons.  To the right of the stage behind a glass there even is a special poor where Jehovists will conduct the rituals of baptism.  The complex that occupies a full hectare on the edge of Udelny park is a favorite place for recreation of Petersburgers. Over the course of several years it was the cause of numerous demonstrations and protests by citizens who objected to its appearance.  But no matter how much Petersburgers protested nor how many thousands of signatures they collected nor how many appeals they sent to the governor of the city nor how many expose articles were written, it all made no difference in the end: this past weekend the first Hall of Congresses of Jehovah's Witnesses was opened in Russia.

I will say that of course there was no divine providence involved in this.  The organization which considers itself religious is in essence an enormous foreign corporation in its acquisition of means and it simply has an enormous amount of money, a fantastic quantity of virtually free labor, and outstanding managers. The sectarians who are outlawed in dozens of countries managed to build in the cultural capital of Russia a grandiose complex and to demonstrate thereby the seriousness of their intentions.  And they really are extremely serious and very dangerous. We frequently have said from the pages of Rossiiskaia gazeta that we long since should have followed the example of many democratic countries with whom we try to compare ourselves and carefully examined what goes on behind the high walls of the churches of the kingdom of Jehovah.  Last year the French finally woke up.  The government of that country stopped considering Jehovah's Witnesses a religious organization and listed it among 173 of the most dangerous sects.  In addition they were denied privileges and subjected to a sixty percent tax. Now the Jehovah's Witnesses own the French government 300 million francs. They still have not paid the money and the government has seized all ther movable and immovable property, thereby putting a halt to their activity.

It's a different matter in Russia, whose citizens in getting their freedom have become the victims of the representatives of hundreds of religious organizations.  The Jehovah's Witnesses, who misinterpret 1200 verses of the Bible, have become in Russia the main hunters of human souls. In a short time they have managed to create in the country already 230 centers and 760 assemblies. In St. Petersburg alone, according to their reports, 105,000 official members have been registered, who received water baptism, and 250,000 citizens regularly attend their meetings and another half million Petersburgers are studying the teachings of the Jehovists in their homes.  All of these citizens of the cultural capital of Russia will in the very near future withdraw from our society and will completely devote themselves to the service of Jehovah. That means families will break up, hundreds of collectives will be deprived of their best specialists, since they will not be able to devote themselves fully to work at their specialties, and the teachings even prohibit this, calling for them to devote all of themselves to the service of Jehovah God, and these people will separate themselves from their relatives, neighbors, and friends.

This is why one wants to shout:  Mister Governor Yakovlev, do you really want all of this? Has nobody told you about the horrible, soul-chilling stories of what has happened in families broken apart by this sect that is alien to the Russian person?  Do you really not know how much grief and misfortune has been brought by representatives of this sect?  Do you really not know that little children as well as parents have begun serving Jehovah God, but in contrast to all other children they will be forbidden to read anything other than the misinterpreted Bible.  Thus they will not get to know a single children's story nor read a single magazine other than "Watchtower," will not watch television nor make friends, sice their friends will be only those who are among the Jehovists while the other children will be able to learn only the "rules of the satanic world."

Last Saturday I saw dozens of these kids who were walking down the beautiful halls of the newly opened Hall of Congresses along with their parents.  They were very small; they still did not understant what threat was hanging over their childhood. People who hold power in Petersburg, do you not pity these children?

The expansion of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia similar to that in Petersburg is simply horrifying in its sweep. Forty kilometers from the city a huge administrative center was built long ago with its own printing press, to which, besides all the rest, every day in great big trucks up to ninety tons of literature are brought from abroad which from Solnechnoe village are sent throughout the commonwealth.  Besides this, in the center of the city, on Cherniakhov street, thirteen halls are functioning where Jehovist meetings are held, and in another district of the city, Kupchino, they have built in a Kingdom Hall of Jehovan a huge trade center and now they have opened the Hall of Congress with 1600 seats and another five halls with 200 seats each on Kolomiazh prospect.

But it turns out that this is minor. The Jehovah's Witnesses have bought another large parcel of land in the southwest of the city in the district of Partisan Gorkavy street. Apparently there they will build another center. All of Petersburg will be covered with the cobweb of this sect, which the city authorities treat with such sympathy. It seems very strange that all questions in Petersburg are decided by the city administration always in the favor of this organization.  Obviously it is always harder to refuse the wealthy and very substantial than the poor.
 

Ten years ago very few people in our country knew about Jehovah's Witnesses.  Let's imagine what we can expect in another ten years if we do not begin to resist this expansion. In the displays along the halls of the Hall of Congresses I saw dozens of newspapers clippings with the mastheads of the best known papers, praising the Jehovists. But can this be justified simply because they were printed "on a commercial basis"? In the past two years I have not seen in the local press anything exposing the activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses.  The question remains open who else besides the Petersburg Committee for the Protection of the Family and Individual will rise up in the city on the Neva to fight the totalitarial sects. But this is not a rhetorical question. Really are the lives of hundreds of thousands of Petersburgers, who could show up under the roofs of the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah, not precious to us? Ideological terrorists who prey upon the souls of Orthodox Russians are no less dangerous than those who blow up Russia with dynamite or TNT. (tr. by PDS)