Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine
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The Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Ukraine, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Bahá'í Faith as far back as 1847.[1] Following the Ukrainian diasporas, succeeding generations of ethnic Ukrainians became Bahá'ís and some have interacted with Ukraine previous to development of the religion in the country. There are currently around 1000 Bahá'ís in Ukraine,[2] in 13 communities.[3]
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[edit] History of the region
[edit] At part of the Russian Empire
The earliest relationship between the Bahá'í Faith and Ukraine comes under the sphere of the country's history with Russia. During that time, the history stretches back to 1847 when the Russian ambassador to Tehran, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov, requested that the Báb, the herald to the Bahá'í Faith who was imprisoned at Maku, be moved elsewhere; he also condemned the massacres of Iranian religionists, and asked for the release of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith.[2][1] In 1884 Leo Tolstoy first heard of the Bahá'í Faith and was sympathetic to some of its teachings.[4] Also, orientalist A. Tumanskim translated some Bahá'í literature into Russian in 1899 in Saint Petersburg. In the 1880's an organized community of Bahá'ís was in Ashgabat and later built the first Bahá'í House of Worship in 1913-1918. In 1904 a play by poet Isabella Grinevskoy called "Báb" was presented in Saint Petersburg and lauded by Tolstoy and other reviewers at the time.
[edit] Soviet period
By the time of the October Revolution Bahá'ís had spread through Central Asia and Caucasus, and also in Moscow, Leningrad and Kazan with the community of Ashgabat numbering about two thousand people; the community of Ashgabat had developed a library, hospital, hotel and schools — including a school for girls — all open to all people regardless of religion. After the October Revolution and the ban on religion, the Bahá'ís, striclty adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government abandoned its administration and nationalized its properties.[5] By 1938, after numerous arrests and an policy of oppression of religion, most Bahá'ís were sent to prisons and camps or sent abroad. Bahá'í communities in 38 cities ceased to exist. The temple building in Ashgabat was hit by a powerful earthquake in 1948 and the Soviet government finally demolished it in 1961.[2] Though Bahá'ís had managed to enter various countries of the Eastern Bloc through the 1950's, there is no known Baha'i presence in Ukraine from this period,[1] though the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, included Ukraine in a list of places where no Bahá'ís pioneer had been yet in 1952 and again in 1953.[6][7]
[edit] Ukrainian descendents
There have been several Bahá'í converts from descendants of the Ukrainian diasporas. As early as 1954 Canadian Peter Pihichyn of Ukrainian decent translated Bahá'í literature into Ukrainian and by 1963 a Ukrainian Teaching Committee of the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of Canada produced a bulletin, entitled New Word.[1][8]
Canadian Bahá'í Mary McCulloch was of Ukrainian decent. After becoming a Bahá'í in 1951 and joining the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan she was the first pioneer to Anticosti Island in 1956 becoming a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. In later years she lived in Baker Lake with her family and promoted translation of Bahá'í literature into Inuktitut. She also assisted with translations into Ukrainian. In the 1990's she attended the Observances of the Centenary of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'í World Congress and went on Pilgrimage, and died in 1995.[9]
[edit] Inside Ukraine
There is evidence of a Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly forming in Ukraine around 1977,[1] and that the Bahá'í Faith started to grow across the Soviet Union in the 1980s. In 1991 a Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was elected but was quickly split among it's former members.[1] In 1992 the Christian Research Institute conducting an informal survey including "Which of the sects are creating the greatest problems?" managed to find a trace of the Bahá'í Faith.[10] In April 1991, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia formed a regional National Spiritual Assembly — in 1995 Belarus established a separate National Assembly, and in 1996 Moldova did the same, leaving Ukraine having its own National Spiritual Assembly.[11]
[edit] Modern community
In 2007 the numbers of the Bahá'í community in Ukraine totals about 1000 people,[2] with 12 Bahá'í communities in 2001,[12] and 13 in 2004.[3] In February 2008 the Ukrainian government rose in support of a declaration by the President of Slovenia on behalf of the European Union on the deteriorating situation of the Bahá'ís in Iran.[13] See Persecution of Bahá'ís.
[edit] See also
- Religion in Ukraine
- Religion in Russia
- Religion in the Soviet Union
- Bahá'í Faith in Moldova
- Bahá'í Faith in Kazakhstan
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Momen, Moojan. Russia. Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
- ^ a b c d Statement on the history of the Bahá'í Faith in Soviet Union. Official Website of the Bahá'ís of Kyiv. Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv (2007-8). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ a b Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2004-09-15). Ukraine International Religious Freedom Report. United States State Department. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ Smith, Peter (2000). "Tolstoy, Leo". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. p. 340. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
- ^ Effendi, Shoghi (1936-03-11). The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Haifa, Palestine: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991 first pocket-size edition, pp. 64-67.
- ^ Effendi, Shoghi (collected letters from 1947-57). Citadel of Faith. Haifa, Palestine: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1980 third printing, p. 107.
- ^ Effendi, Shoghi (collected letters from 1922 - 1957). Unfolding Destiny. Haifa, Palestine: UK Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1981 edition, p. 318.
- ^ Effendi, Shoghi (collected letters from 1923 - 1957). Messages to Canada. Haifa, Palestine: Bahá’í Canada Publications, pp. 202-8.
- ^ McCulloch, Kenneth; includes letters from the Universal House of Justice and National Spiritual Assembly of Canada (1996-01-08). Obituary of Knight of Bahá'u'lláh Mary Zabolotny McCulloch. Essays and Internet Postings. Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ Carden, Paul, Miller, Elliot, ed., “Cults Gaining Ground in Eastern Europe, Former USSR”, Christian Research Journal 1993 (Winter): p. 5, <http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0122a.html>
- ^ Hassall, Graham; Universal House of Justice. National Spiritual Assemblies statistics 1923-1999. Assorted Resource Tools. Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
- ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2001-10-26). Ukraine International Religious Freedom Report. United States State Department. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ Office of the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union (2008-02-07). "Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the deteriorating situation of the religious minority Baha’i in Iran". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-05-24.
- An extensive archive of materials in Russian exists, referenced at Bibliography of articles and books in Russian on the Baha'i Faith in various editions.
- Some online content is at Bahá'í Academics Resource Library in Russian.
[edit] External links
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- Bahá'í Community of Kyiv (in English.)
- The Bahá'í Faith in Tiraspole, Moldova
- The Baha'i Community Novosibirskaya (Novosibirsk Oblast).
- Bahá'í Community of Ulan-Ude
- The Bahá'ís of Russia
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