Opposition from State and Church

In some parts of Russia opposition from the church is compounding opposition from the state to restrict spread of the Gospel through broadcasting

Magadan oblast is an area in northeastern Russia, better known as ‘the Kolyma’, after the largest river flowing through the area.

The history of Magadan oblast is a history of mining - since little other activity took place there - the area being dotted with countless mines, mostly gold mines but there are also tin, uranium and silver mines.

All the mines were operated by the Soviet labour camps, the GULags, with - especially in the Stalin era - millions of forced labourers being brought to the Kolyma to extract the gold from the rivers and the rocks.

People could be sent to these camps virtually at will. Common charges leading to many years of forced labor could simply be arriving to work 10 minutes late, or taking a few sheets of paper from the office.

Some estimates say 3 million people perished in this ‘prison without walls’.

After Stalin the GULags continued, but on a slightly lesser intense scale. But still many people perished in the frozen north.

It is about this area that Olga, from the New Life Radio Team, writes:-

It becomes more and more difficult for Church mass media to get through, that is if you work outside the Russian Orthodox Church. In the 1990’s we did not have that many bureaucratic hindrances.

We still keep our radio station as a recording studio. Praise God that we have finances to pay for rent and communal services for 6 months. And we all are surviving, everyone as he or she can.

We are trying to get in touch with other radio stations in Russia to find somebody who will connect in vision and share the workload. But the situation is chaotic. The director of Theos Radio Rudi Vins wrote that they want developing this ministry in million-population cities.

It is all so sad. In spring I met a pastor who lived in Khabarovsk and now is a missionary in Magadan. I asked him to cooperate and develop the radio ministry in the Far East. This is possible now via Internet. Magadan has the only radio ministry in this region. But Alexander told me how he was a witness how the Christian radio was closed in Khabarovsk – all the senior pastors at a Baptist union council meeting voted against Christian radio in Khabarovsk.

Last spring the director of Transmirovoye radio from Moscow visited us with prison ministry. In an interview he said that he often meets with the church leaders in Moscow and encourages them to support Christian radio.

As director Peter said, only after closing the Christian mass-media in Russia, the churches will understand what they are about to loose. His studio has time on Radio Russia, they are allowed to broadcast for only 3-5 minutes and have to pay very big money as it is considered advertisement time.

We also have lost the local support. Although there are still many opportunities, we do not have the necessary documents.