MURFREESBORO — An
MTSU scholar will go to Russia this summer to conduct research into one of the
strangest incidents of the Cold War.
Emily Baran, an assistant professor of history in the
College of Liberal Arts, will leave the United States on Saturday, June 10, to
investigate the “Siberian Seven,” a group of Pentecostal Christians who sought
refuge in the basement of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1978 to avoid
persecution by the Soviet regime.
Baran’s two-month stay in Russia is funded by a $6,000 grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities. While she already has perused
newspapers and other publications in this country, including the papers of the
Rev. Billy Graham, Baran will use the trip to visit the State Archive of the
Russian Federation.
“It’s a challenge for … historians to get themselves over to
the archives where they need to do their research, and this kind of funding is
just absolutely essential to doing significant work on topics in the Soviet
Union,” Baran said.
In June 1978, eight Pentecostals from two Siberian families
made a mad dash for the American Embassy in Moscow in a last-ditch effort to
gain religious freedom. One was tackled by Soviet guards, beaten and sent back
to Siberia. However, the other seven made it into the building.
This put both countries in a no-win situation. The U.S.
could not get the Pentecostals out of the USSR without exit visas, which the
Soviets largely refused to grant until the final years of the Soviet Union’s
existence.
For the Soviets, the standoff brought increasing world
attention to their continuing crackdown on the practice of any religion,
especially Christianity. While religious organizations could seek registration
with the government, the restrictions that came with registration were so
limiting that they were tantamount to banning religion altogether.
“You couldn’t hold religious services in public,” said
Baran. “They had to be in a designated house of prayer. You couldn’t perform
charity work. You couldn’t proselytize. You couldn’t hold special youth group
or children’s activities.”
In 1982, following a hunger strike, one of the “seven” had
to be hospitalized. After she recovered, she was returned to her home, but the
publicity surrounding her plight finally put pressure on the Soviets to negotiate
in good faith. Ultimately, the seven and several dozen other Pentecostals were
allowed to leave the USSR in June 1983.
“It touches on a lot of bigger issues, in particular, this
transnational movement by Christians in the West, in Europe and the United
States, and Soviet Christians to try to work together on issues of human rights
and religious freedom behind the Iron Curtain,” Baran said.
While the implications for world and religious history are
important to Baran, it is equally important to her to make sure those who
endured the ordeal are paramount in her work.
“I think their story is just so compelling on a human level
that I want to be able to tell it in a way that doesn’t lose that, that retains
a very personal dimension,” she said.
Baran earned her bachelor’s degree from Macalester College
in 2003 and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of North
Carolina in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Her areas of expertise include the
Soviet Union, the post-Soviet world, religious history, human rights and
church-state relations.
