Baháʼí Faith in Ukraine

The Baháʼí Faith in Ukraine began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Ukraine, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Baháʼí Faith as far back as 1847.[1] Following the Ukrainian diasporas, succeeding generations of ethnic Ukrainians became Baháʼís and some have interacted with Ukraine previous to development of the religion in the country. There are currently around 1000 Baháʼís in Ukraine,[2] in 13 communities.[3]

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History of the region

As part of the Russian Empire

The earliest relationship between the Baháʼí Faith and Ukraine comes under the sphere of the country's history within the Russian Empire. During that time, the history stretches back to 1847 when the Russian ambassador to Tehran, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov, requested that the Báb, the herald to the Baháʼí Faith who was imprisoned at Maku, be moved elsewhere; he also condemned the massacres of Iranian religionists, and asked for the release of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith.[1][2] In 1884 Leo Tolstoy first heard of the Baháʼí Faith and was sympathetic to some of its teachings.[4] Also, orientalist Alexander Tumansky translated some Baháʼí literature into Russian in 1899.[5] and associated with Mirza Abu'l-Faḍl.[6] In the 1880s an organized community of Baháʼís was in Ashgabat and later built the first Baháʼí House of Worship in 1913-1918. In the 1890s, the woman known as Isabella Grinevskaya settled in Odessa. In 1903 as playwright Grinevskaya published the play "Báb" based on the life an events of the founder of the Bábí religion[7] which was performed in St. Petersburg in 1904 and again in 1916/7, was translated into French and Tartar,[8] and lauded by Leo Tolstoy and other reviewers at the time.[1] In 1910 she settled in Constantinople[9] and after meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá became a member of the Baháʼí Faith.[8]

In the second half of 1938 Lidia Zamenhof had been a major influence of the conversion of the first known Ukrainian becoming a Baháʼí, who was living in eastern Poland at the time. Vasyl Dorosenko was an Esperantist and a teacher but by 1938 had retired and was living in the country near Kremenets which was then part of Poland. Dorosenko was much affected by Russian and Esperantist language versions of Baháʼu'lláh and the New Era by John Esslemont. He did early work in translating it to the Ukrainian language. However, after Zamenhoff's visit in early 1939 he became ill and all contact was lost.[10]

Soviet period

Though Baháʼís had managed to enter various countries of the Eastern Bloc through the 1950s, there is no known Baháʼí presence in Ukraine from this period,[1] though the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, included Ukraine in a list of places where no Baháʼís pioneer had been yet in 1952 and again in 1953.[11][12]

Ukrainian descendants

There have been several Baháʼí converts from descendants of the Ukrainian diasporas. As early as 1954 Canadian Peter Pihichyn of Ukrainian descent translated Baháʼí literature into Ukrainian and by 1963 a Ukrainian Teaching Committee of the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of Canada produced a bulletin, entitled New Word.[1][13]

Canadian Baháʼí Mary McCulloch was of Ukrainian descent. After becoming a Baháʼí in 1951 and joining the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan she was the first pioneer to Anticosti Island in 1956 becoming a Knight of Baháʼu'lláh. In later years she lived in Baker Lake with her family and promoted translation of Baháʼí literature into Inuktitut. She also assisted with translations into Ukrainian. In the 1990s she attended the Observances of the Centenary of the Ascension of Baháʼu'lláh and the Baháʼí World Congress and went on pilgrimage, and died in 1995.[14]

Inside Ukraine

The Baháʼí Faith started to grow across the Soviet Union in the 1980s.[1] In 1991 a Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was elected but was quickly split among its former member countries.[1] In the spring of 1990 a group of Ukrainian citizens joined the religion in Kiev, reinforced by 3 Baháʼís who moved to the Ukraine: Iradj and Jinus Viktory from Canada, and Riaz Rafat from Norway/Russia. A 19-day feast was held for the first time on 6 August 1990, during which the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Kiev was elected. 21 Baháʼís were then eligible. By January 1991, the number of Baháʼís in Kiev had reached 55. A number of trips to promulgate the religion were organised from Kiev to spread the religion to other regions, starting with Lvov, Chernovtsy, Dnepropetrovsk, Vinitsa, Chernigov, and Kirovograd, reinforced by international pioneers to Chernovtsy and Lvov.

In 1992 the Christian Research Institute conducting an informal survey including "Which of the sects are creating the greatest problems?" managed to find a trace of the Baháʼí Faith.[15] In April 1991, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia formed a regional National Spiritual Assembly — in 1995 Belarus established a separate National Assembly, and in 1996 Moldova did the same, leaving Ukraine having its own National Spiritual Assembly.[16]

Modern community

In 2007 the numbers of the Baháʼí community in Ukraine totals about 1000 people,[2] with 12 Baháʼí communities in 2001,[17] and 13 in 2004.[3] In February 2008 the Ukrainian government rose in support of a declaration by the President of Slovenia on behalf of the European Union on the deteriorating situation of the Baháʼís in Iran.[18] Ukraine's support of EU declarations about the Baháʼís in Iran was reprised in February 2009 following the announcement of a trial of the leadership of the Baháʼís of Iran when the Presidency of the European Union "denounced" the trial.[19] - See Persecution of Baháʼís.

See also

References
  1. Momen, Moojan. "Russia". Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith". Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  2. Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv (August 2007). "Statement on the history of the Baháʼí Faith in Soviet Union". Official Website of the Baháʼís of Kyiv. Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv. Archived from the original on 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  3. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2004-09-15). "International Religious Freedom Report". United States State Department. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  4. Smith, Peter (2000). "Tolstoy, Leo". A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. p. 340. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
  5. Elder, E.; W. M. Miller (1961). Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas or The Most Holy Book. Royal Asiatic Society Books. The Royal Asiatic Society. p. 4.
  6. Mírzá Gulpáygání, Abu'l-Faḍl (1985). Letters and Essays, 1886-1913. Juan Ricardo Cole (trans.). Kalimat Press. pp. xii. ISBN 9780933770362.
  7. Grinevskaya, Isabella (1916). "Bab" (PDF) (reprint ed.). Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  8. Hassall, Graham (1993). "Notes on the Babi and Baha'i Religions in Russia and its territories". Journal of Baháʼí Studies. 5 (3): 41–80, 86. doi:10.31581/JBS-5.3.3(1993). Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  9. "A.S.Fridberg, 6 Nov. 1838 - 21 March 1902". Archived from the original on 15 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  10. "News from Other Lands; First Ukrainian Baháʼí". Baháʼí News. No. 183. May 1946. p. 8.
  11. Effendi, Shoghi (1980). Citadel of Faith (collected letters from 1947-57) (3rd ed.). Haifa, Palestine: US Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 107.
  12. Effendi, Shoghi (1981). Unfolding Destiny (collected letters from 1922–57). Haifa, Palestine: UK Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 318.
  13. Effendi, Shoghi. Messages to Canada (collected letters from 1923–57). Haifa, Palestine: Baháʼí Canada Publications. pp. 202–8.
  14. McCulloch, Kenneth (1996-01-08). "Obituary of Knight of Baháʼu'lláh Mary Zabolotny McCulloch". Essays and Internet Postings. includes letters from the Universal House of Justice and National Spiritual Assembly of Canada. Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  15. Carden, Paul. Miller, Elliot (ed.). "Cults Gaining Ground in Eastern Europe, Former USSR". Christian Research Journal. 1993 (Winter). p. 5.
  16. Hassall, Graham; Universal House of Justice. "National Spiritual Assemblies statistics 1923-1999". Assorted Resource Tools. Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  17. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2001-10-26). "International Religious Freedom Report". United States State Department. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  18. "Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the deteriorating situation of the religious minority Bahaʼi in Iran" (Press release). Office of the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union. 2008-02-07. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  19. "Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the trial with seven Baha'i leaders in Iran" (PDF) (Press release). Council of the European Union. 2009-02-17. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
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