Baltic Christian Martyrs of Communism: Bente 1921 book review; Part 1 of 6

      I have presented a blog series before, from Pastor C. J. Hermann Fick's books, about the Lutheran martyrs during Reformation times and benefited greatly.  That series is one of my more popular blog series.  I recently ran across a book review in the 1921 Lehre und Wehre theological periodical that speaks of martyrs of more modern times, albeit about 100 years ago.  These were associated with the Communist / Bolshevik Revolution in Russia starting in 1917.  This is an example of what C.F.W. Walther taught about Communism in his 1878 lectures.

Pastor Oskar Schabert

     Friedrich Bente, the book reviews editor, devoted space to a book by a certain Pastor Oskar Schabert (1866-1936) (Image here).  There have been a number of books written by Schabert on this subject when one searches WorldCat today, but this book review will suffice to get the general idea of those who suffered during this time. (NB: WorldCat listings sometimes show his name as "Otto".)  Behind the face of the man picture at right, with the stern looking image, is a Christian man who withstood all the Communists persecutions and was spared by the Lord, when others were not, so that he could testify to what actually happened in and outside of the Communist prison.  When I look at that stern face, I now see one who would fight unto death for the Lord, and against the Communists.

      What I learned from this book review opened up a flood of information surrounding these unsettled times of about 100 years ago.  My parents housed a Latvian family in our upstairs farm house when I was quite young. They then moved to Michigan, and so I don't remember very much about them, other than that there was a time in their people's history of some kind of persecution.  This book and Bente's book review fill in the details for Americans who are far removed from the events described therein. Or… are we not so far removed in this watershed year of 2020?

      Much of this book review quotes either the publisher or Schabert, so I have indented these quotes so that the reader can pick out Bente's own comments by the un-indented portions.  I was most interested in an old Missouri Synod theologian's comments about these martyrs, and Bente does not disappoint.  He gives the best brief sketch of the background  of Lutheranism in the Baltics, from the time of the Reformation leading up to more modern times. — All Christians will be interested in these accounts of Bente and Schabert.  The story of the martyrs brings out the greatest anger in the enemies of Christianity.

      I am splitting this book review into 2 parts because of its length.  I am appending two more parts, Parts 3 and 4, to offer even more narrative translations of other works by Pastor Schabert who is the greatest chronicler of that region of the world for those times of great persecution at the hands of the Communists/Bolsheviks.

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Excerpt from Lehre und Wehre vol. 67 (July 1921)  p. 209-211; translation by BackToLuther, highlighting, hyperlinks, and red text in square brackets [ ] are mine, German original text file here.

Literature.

Martyrs. The Suffering of the Baltic Christians. By Pastor O. Schabert, St. Gertrude's Church, Riga. Agency of the Rauhen Haus, Hamburg 26. 77 pages. M.4.

“The martyrdom of the Baltic Christians is portrayed in a deeply moving manner by an eyewitness who himself was tried and tested in martyrdom. A warning sign for us Germans! [And us Americans!] A gem of rare value in form and content”, 

is how the publisher characterizes this booklet. In a review we read: 

“We have martyrs again in the midst of the old ‘Christianity’, Evangelical-Lutheran martyrs, in the 20th century. This realization awakens Psalms of praise in our hearts when we read Shabert's writing, in the midst of the shivering over the nameless sufferings that have befallen our brothers and sisters on the Baltic Sea shore. Despite the great apostasy of Western Christianity, there is still a Christianity that stands not in words but in power, and our beloved Lutheran Church has been honored to reveal such power.” 

In short, powerful lines the author describes how Lutheranism gained a firm foothold in the Baltic countries a few years after the posting of the theses [Luther’s 95 Theses], first among the Germans, but then also among the Latvians and Estonians. In one generation the arch-Catholic country had become Evangelical. But when it became a robbery by the Poles, the first persecution by the Jesuits began, who sought to eradicate, by root and branch, the “cursed Lutheran heresy” from the old “Land of Mary”. A few congregations fell away, but most of them declared with H. Samson: “We want to stay with the pure word of God as long as there is still a breath in us.”  

Gustavus Adolphus [of Sweden] brought freedom to the Baltics in 1620, but in 1721 they came under the forced rule of the Russians. Apostasy from the Russian state church and the admission of apostates to the Lutheran Church were punished as criminal offenses, while “orthodox” propaganda among the Lutherans was zealously pursued and promoted by the state. But woe to the Lutheran pastors who welcomed back repentant apostate Lutherans! Schabert writes: 

“Whether absolutist tsarism, whether constitutional monarchy, whether democratic-socialist republic, whether Bolshevism reigns, however different they find, they find one thing in the pursuit of the Gospel.” [now American democracy?]  

Under [Konstantin] Pobedonostsev the persecution of tsarism reached its peak. England also had its hand in this. Schabert remarks: 

“It is now clear from the records that the leading [Russian] newspaper Novoye Vremya worked with English money, envying everything German and Evangelical. The slanders had their effect. This was clearly shown at the outbreak of the world war.” 

But the persecutions under the tsars had not harmed the Lutheran Church. Before the war, Livonia had 144, Courland 103 [western Latvia], Estonia 56 parishes with about 300 pastors and 2,000,000 Evangelicals. The most serious suffering was caused by the revolution in 1917, when the rabble reigned instead of the tsar. Of the 18 pastors sent to Siberia, none was allowed to return to their congregations. The Bolsheviks deported 400 Germans, Latvians (page 210) and Estonians to Siberia as hostages. 

= = = = = = = = = = = =  Continued in Part 2  = = = = = = = = = = 

      This booklet was reprinted numerous times and, commenting on the 1930 reprint, the journal Archiv für Religionspsychologie / Archive for the Psychology of Religion, Vol. 5 (1930), p. 363, said (translated): 

"The booklet describes a memorable period of Baltic church history (1919), based on the strong religious life of the persecution period. It has long since found its way to the people."

Even scholars from this journal of the "psychology of religion" had to admit that Schabert's writings were "memorable" and aided a "strong religious life of the persecution period".  They even had to admit that "the people" had procured such a book, even if their review was only a few short lines.  Surely "the people" did not procure such a book on a recommendation by these scholars.  Fortunately Friedrich Bente provided a much richer book review and quoted Schabert at length.

= = = = =  Table of Contents  = = = = =

Part 1 – This blog post: Introduction, Bente's book review

Part 2 – “Red flag—bloody rule”; Greatest WW I Heroes (conclusion to Bente's review)

Part 3 – Martyrdom of the Baltic Church— "He preached until the bullet closed his mouth"

Part 4 – Schabert's 1930 book of 51 Martyrs’ Portraits: “Take aim, the angels are waiting for me”

Part 5 – Too terrible to think about? Schabert's 1930 Baltic Martyrs' Book

Part 6 – Orthodox or "Orthodox"? Pieper on Schabert misstatement; Lutheran Church not a "denomination"