Abstract
In recent years, historiography on the relation between religion and anti-communism in the interwar period has grown rapidly. Historians have argued that anti-communism in the interwar period was a global and transnational phenomenon, an ideology shared by a wide variety of actors calling for a Christian crusade against anti-religious persecutions in the USSR. This article studies two of these anti-communist actors, the German-Baltic pastor Oskar Schabert and the Dutch pastor Frederik Johan Krop. In Riga, Schabert was the founder and leader of the Baltic Action for Russia, an anti-communist organization supporting Christians in the USSR. In the Netherlands, Krop mobilized a broad alliance of orthodox Christians in support of Schaberts’ relief work. The case study of Schabert and Krop shows that the connection of religious and ideological objections against communism and relief work for Christians in the USSR turned out to be a strong narrative mobilizing Christians in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. Furthermore, it contributes to historiography by showing how transnational contacts between Schabert and Krop shaped the development of anti-communism in the 1930s.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 183-207 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung = Journal of East Central European Studies |
Volume | 69 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2020 |
Funding
This article is based on research for my Research Master Thesis in History at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, supervised by Prof. Dr. Fred van Lieburg. Archival research was possible with financial support of the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Marburg, the Stichting De Honderd Gulden Reis and the Graduate School of Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
Funders | Funder number |
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Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe | |
Stichting De Honderd Gulden Reis |
Keywords
- Communism
- mobilization
- transnational
- Religious History