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Protestants in Russia constitute between 0.5 and 1.5%〔''US State Department Religious Freedom Report on Russia, 2006''〕 (i.e. 700,000 - 2 million adherents) of the overall population of the country. By 2004, there were 4,435 registered Protestant societies representing 21% of all registered religious organizations, which is second place after Eastern Orthodoxy. By contrast in 1992 the Protestants reportedly had 510 organizations in Russia.〔''Protestantism in Russia, past, present, and future, Stetson University''〕 A large number of missionaries operating in the country are from Protestant denominations.〔 According to a global survey conducted at the end of 2013, 2% of surveyed Russians identify as Protestants or another branch of Christianity.〔(2013 End of the Year Survey - Russia ) ''WIN/GIA''〕 ==History== The first Protestant churches (Lutheran, Reformed) in Russia appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries in major towns and cities such as Moscow in connection with expatriate communities from western Europe. The Lutheran churches, in particular, represented a sizeable minority in pre-1917 Russia. In the 18th century, under Czarina Catherine II (the Great), large numbers of German settlers were invited to Russia, including Mennonites, Lutherans and also Roman Catholics. The history of indigenous, Russian evangelical Protestantism was anticipated by movements such as the Strigolniki in the 14th century and later in the 16th-18th centuries〔''The Dukhobors and Molokans, Spirit Christian Communities in Russia, Scrollpublishing''〕 the Molokan,〔''Molokans around the world, Molokan web-site''〕 Dukhobor,〔''Simon Fraser University, The Doukhobor Collection, Dukhobor History''〕 to some extent, Subbotniks, and in 19th century Tolstoyan rural communes, who prepared the ground for the movement's future spread. The first evidence on some of the above communes' existence appeared in 16th - 17th centuries.〔 A large number of the above communities emigrated to Canada, the USA and Latin America in 19th and 20th centuries. The first Russian Baptist communities arose in unrelated strains in three widely separated regions of the Russian Empire (Transcaucasia, Ukraine, and St. Petersburg) in the 1860s and 1870s. From the information of Christian History Institute, the number of Baptists in Russia significantly grew after World War I. Some Russian prisoners were converted by German missionaries and returned home to preach to others. By 1950, there were an estimated 2,000,000 Baptists in the Soviet Union, with the largest portion in Ukraine. Many leaders and ordinary believers of different Protestant communities fell victims to the persecution by Communist regime, including imprisonment and executions. The leader of the Seventh-day Adventist movement in the Soviet Union Vladimir Shelkov (1895–1980) spent almost his entire life after 1931 in prison and died in a camp in Yakutia. Pentecostals were given 20-25 year prison terms ''en masse'' and many perished there, including one of the leaders of the movement, Ivan Voronaev.〔''L.Alexeeva, chapter 13, Memorial society page, in Russian''〕 In the period after the Second World War, Protestant believers in the USSR (Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists etc.) were forced into mental hospitals and endured trials and imprisonment (often for refusal to enter military service). Some were even deprived of their parental rights.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Protestantism in Russia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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