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About this book
This book is a product of years of researching, working in various archives, interviewing key participants, and compiling pieces from wealth of books, magazines, and newspapers into one fascinating story. This almost half a century long story started at the beginning of Billy Graham’s evangelistic ministry in 1949 and lasted until almost the end of his international outreach in 1993.
It connects many dots into one big picture. Those are stories that include the rise of “yellow press,” “America First” isolationism, media-driven wars, man-made starvation in the USSR, recovery from the great depression and suppression of reporting on Soviet human rights violations, waves of Soviet religious persecution, the saga of the Siberian Seven who spent five years in the US Embassy in Moscow, Cold War and arms reduction, the Soviet “Peace Offensive” strategy, decline and fall of the Soviet Union and America’s attempts to preserve it from falling apart, the rise of public evangelism in the USSR, and more. You will learn how Billy Graham became a national celebrity, how he tried to evangelize the USSR since 1947, his conflict with a religious rights advocate from Great Britain Michael Bourdeaux of the Oxford-based Keston College, his tensions with Reagan administration, and how he turned tables on the Soviet propaganda machine.
This is a story of struggles, fears, controversies, failures, successes, and of the final triumph of the Cross over the Hammer and Sickle.
Table of Contents
- Introduction 1
-
How Anti-communism Helped Billy Graham Become Famous
4
- A Star in the Making 4
- The Kiss of Hearst 6
- Graham’s Preaching Against Communism in 1949 31
- Conclusion 46
-
The Change of Tune
50
- Departure From Fundamentalism 50
- Billy Graham and the End of McCarthyism 63
- Failed Attempts to Come to the USSR 65
- Conclusion 70
-
The First Visit to Moscow in 1959
73
- Anticipating an Invitation 73
- Coming as a Tourist 74
- Conclusion 88
-
The Siberian Seven and Persecution of Christians in the USSR
91
- Religious Persecution in the USSR Before and During the 1960s 95
- The Siberian Seven Saga 104
- Conclusion 128
-
The Controversial Peace Conference of 1982
130
- The Soviet Peace Offensive 137
- Billy Graham and SALT II 143
- Billy Graham and the Reagan Administration 148
- The Moscow Visit Schedule 160
- The Peace Conference 171
- Graham’s Visit to the Siberians 173
- Graham’s Comments on Religious Freedom in the USSR 185
- Criticism of Graham’s Statements 197
- The Soviet Propaganda Overview 212
- The Playboy Quandary 217
- Graham’s Anti-Communism 220
- Results of the 1982 Visit 223
- Conclusion 226
-
The Preaching Tours of 1984 and 1988
237
- The 1984 Trip to the USSR 237
- The 1000th Anniversary Celebration and the Preaching Tour of 1988 254
- Conclusion 282
-
The School of Evangelism and the Crusade
288
- The 1991 School of Evangelism and the Fall of the Soviet Union 292
- The Moscow Crusade of 1992 318
- Conclusion 343
- Epilogue 347
Photos and Videos
This section will help put some faces to the names and events described in the book.
Chapter 1
- 1949 Los Angeles Crusade Photos. Source: Los Angeles Times.
- 1949 Los Angeles Crusade Photos. Source: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
- 1949 Los Angeles Crusade Promotion Posters. Source: The Billy Graham Library.
- 1949 Los Angeles Crusade Promotion Video. Source: Museum of the Bible.
- About William Randolph Hearst. Source: PBS | American Experience.
- About Yellow Press. Source: PBS | American Experience.
- About Gareth Jones. Source: BBC / Cambridge Ukrainian Studies.
Chapter 2
- The fall of Joseph McCarthy. Source: PBS | American Experience.
Chapter 3
- 1959 Graham praying at Lenin Stadium in Moscow. Source: BGEA.
- 1959 Billy Graham in Moscow. Source: Alamy.
Chapter 4
- Photos of persecuted Christians 1 (slideshow). Source: Baylor University.
- Photos of persecuted Christians 2 (slideshow). Source: Baylor University.
- Photos and videos of persecuted Christians. Source: Baylor University.
- Documentary about the persecution of Christians in the USSR. Source: Baylor University.
- 1963 Billy Graham on Siberian Pentecostals and Religious Freedoms in the USSR. Source: SMU.
- 1979 Documentary about Christianity in the USSR in the 1970s. Source: Baylor University.
- Photos of the Siberian Seven (slideshow). Source: Baylor University.
Chapter 5
- 1982 Graham preaches in Moscow. Source: Reuters.
- 1982 Photos of visiting Moscow. Source: Decision Magazine.
- 1982 Graham meets with Filaret. Source: NBC (AP).
- 1982 Billy Graham with Ronald Reagan and their wives. Source: Wikimedia.
- 1982 Photos of Graham visiting the Siberian Seven in the US embassy (slideshow). Source: Baylor University.
- 1982 Graham preaches at Moscow Baptist Church. Source: Alamy.
- 1982 Photo of Billy Graham during the Peace Conference. Source: Alamy.
- 1982 Moscow Press Conference. Source: Alamy.
- 1982, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1992 Photos of Billy Graham's visits visits (Ru). Source: "Vozrozhdenie" Center (BGEA).
- 1982, 1984 Photos of Billy Graham's visits visits (Ru). Source: Vladymyr Cathedral.
- Videos of Billy Graham's visits (Ru). Source: Rain TV.
Chapter 6
- Documentary about 1984 preaching tour. Source: Youtube.
- 1984 Graham preaches in an Orthodox Church. Source: Alamy.
- 1984 Billy Graham and patriarch Pimen. Source: Alamy.
- 1988 Photos of Billy Graham in Kyiv, Ukraine. Source: BGEA.
- 1985 Human rights during Gorbachev's presidency. Source: Baylor University.
- 1988 Unofficial gatherings of Baptists in Kyiv, Ukraine (slideshow). Source: Baylor University.
- Documentary about 1988 visit to USSR . Source: Youtube.
- 1989 David Frost's documentary "A Prophet With Honor.". Source: Vision Video.
Chapter 7
- 1991 Photo of Graham's meeting with Gorbachev. Source: BGEA.
- 1991 Video of Graham's meeting with Gorbachev. Source: Reuters.
- 1991 Photo of Moscow School of Evangelism. Source: Alamy.
- 1991 Graham's audio report on the School of Evangelism. Source: BGEA.
- 1992 Photos of Moscow Crusade. Source: Mission Eurasia.
- 1992 Photo of the Red Army Choir Crusade. Source: Decision Magazine.
- 1992 Moscow Crusade (part 1). Source: Vimeo.
- 1992 Moscow Crusade (part 2). Source: Vimeo.
- 2007 Franklin Graham Festival of Hope in Kyiv, Ukraine. Source: Kyiv Post.
- 2015 Franklin Graham Festival of Hope in Lviv, Ukraine. Source: BGEA.
- 2016 Discriminatory law in Russia. Source: CBN News.
- 2022 Franklin Graham preaches in Lviv, Ukraine at the beginning of the war. Source: BGEA.
- 2022 Franklin Graham's documentary about the war in Ukraine. Source: BGEA.
- 2022 Franklin Graham's documentary about Ukrainian Christian chaplains. Source: BGEA.
- 2024 Ukrainian Christian groups face violent crackdown from Russian forces. Source: PBS.
- 2024 Ukrainian evangelical pastors show resilience while facing persecution from Russian forces. Source: PBS.
- 2024 Russian persecution of Christians in Ukraine. Source: ICC.
Timeline
1949
1955
1959
1978
1982
1984
1988
1991
1992
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Author
Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the communist rule, Anatoliy Orgunov became a Christian in the Spring of 1992, right after the USSR fell and Ukraine became an independent state. While serving in Ukrainian military, by God’s providence, he got a chance to attend a remote broadcast of Billy Graham’s 1992 Moscow crusade in one of Kyiv’s sports arenas. After moving to the US in 2001, he led a small congregation in Jacksonville, FL, for roughly 12 years while getting his B.S. degree in Ministry Studies from the Baptist College of Florida. In January 2014, he moved to Fort Worth, TX, to study at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned his M.Div. in Biblical Studies and Ph.D. in Church Vitalization and Preaching. As a part of his study, he conducted extensive research on Billy Graham’s ministry in the former Soviet Union before and during the unprecedented revival of the early 1990s in Ukraine and Russia. One of the archives, where he worked on this project was the Archive and Research Center at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, of which he was the first researcher. The research resulted in this book.
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