The Cost of Discipleship in Russia

​Volume 3 - 1989
When a Christian is fined for attending a worship service, his personal details (name, address, nature and place of employment etc.) are taken down and subsequently notice of the amount payable arrives, sometimes by post.
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The Christian then has a certain amount of time within which to pay the fine. Failure to pay within this limit may lead to the imposition of a court order to dock the amount from the offender’s wages or the confiscation of some personal possession in lieu of payment.

​News of fines — lists of unknown people in far-away places — do not seem to represent much hardship, but regular 50 or 60 ruble fines (Rand equivalent to R200-R240) take their toll on families and churches.

FOR A HOUSE-WARMING:

• Members of the registered church in Kuzinovichy (Zhitomir district, Loginsky region) were meeting in the Pavienkos’ home for a house-warming party. A Christian belonging to an unregistered fellowship from the village of Kremno was also there. He was accused of leading a service and for this was fined by an administrative commission.

FOR A FUNERAL:

• In February 1988, a Christian lady Matsyupa was fined 50 rubles for conducting a funeral in Kutsyaki, a Ukrainian village in the Cherkessk oblast.

FOR REGULAR CHURCH SERVICES:

• Christians in Kovel are being fined for each meeting they attend.
• In Spring, 1988, most church services in Altai region were disrupted.

​FOR PREACHING:

• Dron, a Moldavian Christian, was fined. The notice of the fine read: “On 3 April 1988 Dron preached without the consent of the local authorities.”

​“The deceased’s fine must be paid!”

• Early in 1988, Anna Venets from Kivertsy, was fined because a Christian service was held in her home. Soon after this event she died suddenly and tragically. Despite the fact that the authorities were aware of Anna’s death, a notice of the fine was brought to the house and the relatives were told: “We know that she’s not alive but the fine must be paid!”