| 
By Marvin R. VanDam
An Obedient Son
and Grandson
Sergey Baldakov loved his mother very
much. They lived in Siberia in the 1970's. He tried hard to be obedient
and not to disappoint her. The result was that he always ranked
first at school, and he was also one of the first to join the Pioneers,
Russia's national patriotic political youth organization under communism.
Sergey also had a special relationship
with his grandfather. Not only was grandfather kind and caring,
but any young Russian could be justly proud of a grandfather who
had fought for "the motherland" in three wars —
the Austrian war, the Japanese war, and the German war.
His grandfather and grandmother were
devout Russian Orthodox Christians — and examples he looked
up to. They prayed always, saying prescribed Orthodox prayers, and
they taught him that Jesus Christ had come to earth to save them.
Communist Atheism
But Russia changed after World War
I and the Bolshevik Revolution, which tore the country apart and
led from czarist to communist dictatorship. God was declared to
be non-existent, the church was abolished, and religion was prohibited.
The constant propaganda was that man
governed himself, not a god. One who was caught praying could be
consigned to a sanitarium for disturbed people. And if one didn't
think the party way or didn't renounce the traditional church, he
was excluded from government jobs and other preferred work. Anyone
sympathetic to or attending church (spies were everywhere) was banned
from the communist party and was relegated to the lowest paying
work.
Grandfather, however, quietly taught
Sergey to believe in God, to pray in his heart, and to work hard
and live honorably. The extended family lived on a farm, and grandfather
lovingly made garden tools for Sergey, his youngest grandson. They
enjoyed a special relationship.
Click to Enlarge
The Lenin memorial in Ulan-Ude.
Grandfather's Testimony
Grandfather had a speech impediment
and spoke little; he and Sergey worked together mostly in silence.
But before he died and before Sergey left for army duty in 1988,
Grandfather testified to Sergey of God's existence and goodness.
Before everyone and everything, he was to have respect for God.
He should always pray in his heart and do as his heart told him
he should.
Grandfather's example and teachings
made a deep impression on Sergey. His duty for two years was to
defend the Russian border against China at a station south of Vladivostok,
the Russian naval port on the Pacific. Army life in Russia was hard,
and Sergey often prayed when he needed help, secretly holding a
small cross in his hand. He felt he received the strength and comfort
that comes of God.
Tatyana — but Vodka,
Too
Before going away to the army, Sergey
had met a lovely girl named Tatyana in a store in the neighborhood
of Soviet-style apartment blocks in which they lived. This was in
Ulan-Ude, a Russian city near Lake Baikal, toward the Mongolian
border. They were each 18 when they married, and Tatyana gave birth
to a baby boy before Sergey left to serve.
Sergey's grandfather had passed away,
and as time went on in the army Sergey began to forget God —
and to drink vodka as virtually every Russian man does (and not
a few women, too). Vodka is an accepted pastime and a national tradition.
Time off, and especially holidays (of which there are many in Russia),
end up for many in drunkenness and difficulty. (The average life
expectancy of a Russian man today is only 58 years — primarily
because of alcohol and tobacco. Sergey had also begun to smoke.)
Upon returning to his home in Ulan-Ude,
Sergey's drinking made life hard for him and his family; there were
increasing problems and unhappiness. A great many Russian marriages
end in divorce, and that was the all-too-predictable direction Sergey
and Tatyana's was going toward. To his great credit, Sergey worried
much about the growing discord at home; he sincerely wanted to be
a good person and to have a good marriage, but he couldn't live
without vodka. He had gotten tired of smoking and had quit, but
he was a slave to drinking.
The Bible
Sergey began to realize that he needed
to turn again to God. A New Testament had been kept in his home
— an exception in communist Russia — and in traditional
Christian Orthodox Russia, too — and he began to read in it.
He memorized the Lord's Prayer and he longed to know more of the
God and Jesus Christ his grandfather had taught him about. He wanted
a relationship with God — and to have God be a part of his
marriage.
Sergey would recite the Lord's Prayer,
coupled with inner yearnings, but he had never been taught that
he could pray in his own words and for specific needs. He badly
wanted his marriage to be solemnized in the church, before God.
But his cousin, who had already lost her husband to drunkenness,
advised against it because of the restrictive vows it would require
him to make. She said that if he then sinned he would be obligated
to repent, which would require going to church, confessing, and
paying money.
Increasingly, however, Sergey wanted
to join a church. He searched. But he found little satisfaction
in the Orthodox Church, with the Baptists, or from the teachings
of the Krishnas.
Sergey and the Missionaries
The week before LDS elders knocked
at the door of the Baldakov family in June of 2000, Sergey read
in the Gospel of Mark that the Lord sends out messengers two by
two to preach His gospel, and that they were to shake the dust from
off their feet as a testimony against those who would refuse them.
The missionaries came door-to-door
on a Saturday afternoon. Tatyana and Ilya, their son, saw on the
elders' name tags that they represented a Church of Jesus Christ,
and they knew that Sergey would want to talk to them. (He was working
on a project on their apartment's balcony.) So they let the missionaries
in and then called Sergey to join them.
Sergey says that his new life began
at that moment. His first question was: "Can my wife and I
be married in your church?" The answer was not only "Yes,"
but "For this life and also for all eternity." The subsequent
discussion that moved Sergey most was the one that had to do with
pre-mortality, the purpose of life, and life hereafter as families.
The missionaries taught the Baldakovs,
and the day after the family committed to living the Word of Wisdom
they attended a relative's birthday party. Vodka and tea were served,
but Sergey declined both. He says that from that time on "God
blessed me with the power to say 'no.'" He never again drank
alcohol.
The family's new life thus began. They
were baptized several months later, in September. Relatives and
friends who saw the change in Sergey's life and the family's relationships
were supportive of rather than critical of the Baldakovs joining
the Church.
Click to Enlarge
Tatyana, Aleysha, and Sergey Baldakov in their Siberian
meetinghouse
Tatyana's Story
At first, Tatyana's relationship with
the missionaries was not the same as Sergey's. She hadn't been looking
for a church; she was only hoping that Sergey could be helped with
his drinking problem and that their family could somehow become
happier.
Tatyana's grandmother had seen to it
that, as a baby, she was baptized by immersion in a barrel of water.
Her grandparents, who had raised her, were Old Believers, members
of the church that in 1665 had broken away from the Orthodox Church
because of the latter's distortion of original Christian doctrines
and practices. Tatyana's parents were communist atheists, and the
regime's oppression of all religion, and especially of the Old Believers,
required that they pray and worship in secret. Her Old Believer
grandparents did so clandestinely in each other's houses.
Sergey had persuaded Tatyana to attend
the Church's services with him. But they were held in a municipal
library, and with only three members, the missionaries, and themselves
present, it didn't seem to her like being in church. She did find
the services interesting, though, and she did see the positive change
that the gospel was making in Sergey's life — and in their
family. He was happier, he was in control of himself, and he even
went to work happily. As for herself, however, she didn't have any
plans for joining a church.
When Sergey and Ilya were ready for
baptism, and Tatyana was invited to be baptized, too, she had to
say that she wasn't ready. An elder then told her something that
made her think deeply about things. He said: "Tatyana, you
can't be a fly on the wall" — that is, you can't only
listen and not do something about it. She began to understand that
every time the missionaries came she felt something special and
that everything in their life was changing and improving. The missionaries
said: "You need to ask God." She said that she would try.
She and Sergey were struggling with
various concerns, including a difficult decision about buying an
apartment, which she prayed about. Every time the missionaries came
she felt peace — and as if the room was brighter and the air
fresher. Yet when they left, her concerns returned and she remained
confused — even to the point finally of trying to avoid the
missionaries.
But as the weeks and the lessons progressed,
Tatyana recognized the answers to her prayers and came to see her
maturing testimony for what it was. She was baptized together with
Sergey and Ilya. Little Aleysha was baptized later, when she turned
eight.
Stalwarts in Ulan-Ude
The Baldakov family was sealed in the
Stockholm temple in 2001. Sergey, now 37, is the enthusiastic president
of one of the two Church branches in Ulan-Ude. He had been an auto
mechanic but is now a fireman. Tatyana is an especially grateful
wife, mother, and Primary president. She works as a cashier in a
bank. They are stalwarts among the Church members.
Ilya, their son, is about
to be called on a mission, and their thirteen year-old daughter,
Aleysha, is an enthusiastic Young Woman in the branch. They are
a happy and thankful family — with the gospel rather than
vodka in their home.
Click to Enlarge
President Sergey Baldakov in front of the rented
meetinghouse in Ulan-Ude.
A Note about Grandparents and
Babushkas in Soviet Russia
As is often the case in Russian life,
grandparents figure prominently. Two of the classes of persons treated
with the greatest respect in Russian society are war veterans and
grandparents.
As families were broken up by vodka
or torn apart by the communist regime (forced labor, Siberian exile,
millions of men executed), and as mothers were left alone with children
to raise, it was the grandparents who effectively raised those generations
of children, held the extended family together, and quietly preserved
and taught their Christian faith.
And as so many fathers and grandfathers
were absent due to drunkenness, due to political exile, or because
they were missing or dead, these essential family responsibilities
typically fell on the shoulders of Russia's venerated "babushkas"
(grandmothers).
Click
here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.
© 2007 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
|
