Back in the summer I noticed that there was very little material online about the Soviet persecution of the Christians. This saddened me, since it was something that should not be forgotten.
Keston College, which sought to publicize the situation in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, has disbanded but the Keston Institute still exists. I was able to correspond with Michael Bordeaux, who founded Keston, and obtain permission to put a couple of his books online. I created a PDF of one, and enquired if it might be hosted here or there — my site isn’t the best place for such — but in vain. Then pressures of work forced me to lay the matter aside.
Today I have been running “Faith on Trial in Russia”[1] through my scanner. The pages are yellowed, and the paperback spine is stiff, although thankfully the glue warmed and became flexible as I worked. It is, neverthless, a risky business scanning a paperback of that period.
The book deals with the sufferings of the Russian baptists, and is an interesting and involving read. Unlike some such books, it is not a depressing read.
What I think that I will do, is to create a page on my site, and also to OCR the book so that the search engines can find it easily. It’s pure gold, from a historical point of view.
UPDATE: I’ve now scanned the book, and also his 1983 publication, Risen Indeed. They’re both here.
- [1]Michael Bordeaux, Faith on Trial in Russia, Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.↩