Authors
Nadezhda Beliakova1; 1 University of Bielefeld, Germany Discussion
This paper explores the complex spectrum of attitudes and practices among Soviet Evangelicals toward military service in the late Soviet period. Going beyond the dichotomy of pacifism versus loyalty to the state, it examines how believers navigated the moral, theological, and legal dilemmas of conscription in a late socialist society.
Drawing on unpublished petitions, religious samizdat, memoirs, and oral histories, the paper traces individual strategies of avoiding conscription, negotiating alternative duties, or reconciling faith with military obligations. It highlights the uneven treatment of various denominations—especially Evangelical Christians, Baptists, and Pentecostals—and presents separate materials on the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses for their refusal to serve in the army. The paper argues that denominational leadership shifted the responsibility for decisions regarding military service onto young believers themselves, resulting in diverse forms of evasion. It reveals how practices of “quiet objection” became an essential yet underexplored dimension of religious life in the late Soviet Union. Finally, it raises the question of why, during perestroika and the subsequent rehabilitation of political prisoners, conscientious objectors remained largely ignored, and their sentences were never reconsidered. 
