Aspecte privind situația comunității baptiste din Basarabia, de la sfârșitul secolului al XIX-lea până în anii celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial

Issues Regarding the Situation of the Baptist Community from Bessarabia, from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the Years of the Second World War

Abstract

This paper highlights the situation of the Bessarabian Baptist community in Greater Romania. Officially recognized by the Russian authorities before 1918, the Baptists of Bessarabia had to face the hostility of the Romanian authorities, who did not recognize the legality of this denomination. In the late 1930s, Baptists throughout Romania received freedom and rights from the state, but these rights were soon repealed by the government of Ion Antonescu, who ordered the mass conversion of "sectarians." At the same time, the attitude of the Bessarabian Orthodox Church towards the Baptists and the way in which the Orthodox bishops related to the issue of "sects" during the Second World War are followed.