The history of the Baháʼí Faith (Вера Бахаи) in Russia began soon after the founding in 1844 of the Bábí religion, viewed by Baháʼís as the direct predecessor of the Baháʼí Faith, with Russian diplomats to Qajar Persia observing, reacting to, and sending updates about the Bábís."Notes on the Bábí and Baháʼí Religions in Russia and its Territories" , by Graham Hassall, Journal of Baháʼí Studies, 5.3 (Sept.-Dec. 1993) The woman later known as Táhirih, who played a central role in the religion of the Báb, was from an influential clerical family from Azerbaijan, which was then ruled by Russia. Russian diplomats later protected Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, before and after his exile from Persia. Around 1884, the religion began to spread into the Russian Empire, where the Baháʼí community in Ashgabat built the first Baháʼí House of Worship, elected one of the first Baháʼí local administrative institutions and became a center of scholarship. The Baháʼí Faith also attracted the attention of several Russian scholars and artists. During the Soviet period, Russia adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, leading the Russian Baháʼí community to abandon its administration and properties in accordance with its principle of obedience to legal government, though Baháʼís across the Soviet Union were nevertheless sent to prisons and camps or abroad. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union Baháʼís in several cities were able to gather and organize as Perestroyka spread from Moscow through many Soviet republics. The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the Russian Federations was ultimately formed in 1995. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated the number of Baháʼís in Russia at about 18,990 in 2005.
Early period
Russian Empire
In the beginning of the earliest phase, the religion had strong connections with Azerbaijan during the Russian rule in Azerbaijan in the Russian Empire. Among the most notable facts is a woman of Azerbaijani background who would play a central role in the religion of the Báb, viewed by Bahá´ís as the direct predecessor of the Baháʼí Faith – she would be later named Tahirih, though her story would be in the context of Persia. She was among the Letters of the Living of the Báb.
In 1847, the Russian ambassador to Tehran, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov, and other diplomats became aware of the claims of the Báb and seeing the fleeing of Bábís across the border requested that the Báb, then imprisoned at Maku, be moved elsewhere; he also condemned the massacres of Iranian religionists. Dolgorukov wrote some memoirs later in life but much of it has been shown to be a forgery. But his dispatches show that he was afraid of the movement spreading into the Caucasus.
In 1852, after a failed assassination attempt against the Shah of Persia for which the entire Bábí community was blamed, many Bábís, including Baháʼu'lláh, who had no role in the attempt and later severely condemned it, were arrested in a sweep. When Baháʼu'lláh was jailed by the Shah, his family went to Mírzá Majid Ahi who was married to a sister of Baháʼu'lláh, and was working as the secretary to the Russian Legation in Tehran. Baháʼu'lláh's family asked Mírzá Majid to go to Dolgorukov and ask him to intercede on behalf of Baháʼu'lláh, and Dolgorukov agreed however this assistance was short lived and again the memoirs are known to have many impossible dates in them. In addition, Baháʼu'lláh refused exile in Russia. In God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi alludes to the protection the Russian ambassador gave Baháʼu'lláh on different occasions, first after the attempted assassination of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and again after the decision to exile Baháʼu'lláh from Iran, expressing his "desire to take Baháʼu'lláh under the protection of his government, and offered to extend every facility for His removal to Russia."
Starting in 1866, while in Adrianople, Baháʼu'lláh started writing a series of letters to world rulers, proclaiming his station as the promised one of all religions. His letters also asked them to renounce their material possessions, work together to settle disputes, and endeavour towards the betterment of the world and its peoples. Czar Alexander II of Russia was among them.
“O Czar of Russia! Incline thine ear unto the voice of God, the King, the Holy, and turn thou unto Paradise, the Spot wherein abideth He Who, among the Concourse on high, beareth the most excellent titles, and Who, in the kingdom of creation, is called by the name of God, the Effulgent, the All-Glorious. Beware that nothing deter thee from setting thy face towards thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful.”A Symbolic Profile of the Baháʼí Faith* by Christopher Buck, Journal of Baháʼí Studies Vol. 8, number 4 (1998)
In his Súriy-i-Haykal, Baháʼu'lláh included the Lawh-i-Malik-i-Rús, praising Czar Alexander II of Russia in these terms: "when this Wronged One was sore-afflicted in prison, the minister of the highly esteemed government (of Russia)—may God, glorified and exalted be He, assist him!—exerted his utmost endeavor to compass My deliverance. Several times permission for My release was granted. Some of the ʻulamás of the city, however, would prevent it. Finally, My freedom was gained through the solicitude and the endeavor of His Excellency the Minister. …His Imperial Majesty, the Most Great Emperor—may God, exalted and glorified be He, assist him!—extended to Me for the sake of God his protection—a protection which has excited the envy and enmity of the foolish ones of the earth."
The text of the letter from Baháʼu'lláh to the Shah carried by Badíʻ was sent to Russian scholars by Russian diplomats and a catalog of works made its way to E.G. Browne awakening his interests. A few scholars in St. Petersburg reviewed Babí activities including the arrest and banishment of a Bábí to Smolensk.
While the Baháʼí Faith spread across the Russian Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and attracted the attention of scholars and artists, the Baháʼí community in Ashgabat built the first Baháʼí House of Worship, elected one of the first Baháʼí local administrative institutions and was a center of scholarship.
Early 1900s Russian Orthodox missionaries shared warnings against the religion, asserting that it violated 'the feelings of loyalty towards the Russian White Czar' and the law of the land made it illegal for Russians to convert from Christianity to another religion.
There are several references to translations being undertaken of works into Russian in 1927 as well as correspondence with Baháʼís in Moscow and Ashgabat.
Eastern Europe
A group of Bábís formed in Nakhchivan and spread before 1850 largely of Persian expatriates who were fleeing persecution in Persia. This group was attacked by the Russian army, under the command of General Vasili Bebutov.
From 1850 on, small communities established themselves in elsewhere in Azerbaijan. Soon the community of Baku counted the largest number of believers in the region and in 1860 obtained official recognition from the authorities. The community recognized the newly announced position of Baháʼu'lláh. Soon there was more public awareness and some favor from leaders of the broader community and at the same time the Baháʼí community of Baku broadened its communication with other Baháʼí communities in Russia, Turkey and Ashkhabad and did much work printing materials in Turkish. The most publicly recognized member of the community approaching 1900 was Musa Nagiyev, one of Azerbaijan's richest citizens of the times though there were many public figures before and after who seem to have admired the religion or even been members of it.
Similarly there were developments in to the north of Russian control. In Finland, contact began between traveling Scandinavians with early Persian believers of the religion led to published accounts in 1869, and the first mentions of Baháʼu'lláh were made in 1896 while Finland was politically part of the Russian Empire. In and during the Third Partition of Poland The first may have been in the 1870s when Polish writer Walerian Jablonowski wrote several articles covering its early history in Persia. This interaction was succeeded by writer Isabella Grinevskaya who joined the religion as well as interest by Leo Tolstoy (see below.)
Central Asia
The Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia. By 1887 a community of Baháʼí refugees from religious violence in Persia had made something of a village in Ashgabat. Several years later — by 1894 — Russia made Turkmenistan part of the Russian Empire.
Initially Russian diplomats observed the community as distinct from the Moslem one but being “closely knit community of honest, law-abiding people, somewhat reminiscent of the early Christian churches in the first century after Christ.”
During that narrow period of time between 1887 and 1894, a court case was held following the assassination of a Baháʼí that for a time would vindicate the Baháʼís. The Baháʼís were represented by Mirza Abu'l-Faḍl Gulpaygani along with Shaykh Muhammad-'Alí, each an Apostle of Baháʼu'lláh, individuals who played a vital role in the development in the early stages of the religion comparable to the apostles of Jesus. Gulpaygani lived in Ashgabat off and on from 1889 to 1894. A short time after moving there, the assassination of one of the Baháʼís there, Haji Muhammad Rida Isfahani occurred and Gulpaygani helped the Baháʼí community to respond to this event and later he was the spokesman for the Baháʼís at the trial of the assassins was initiated by Czar Alexander III through a military commission from St. Petersburg. This event established the independence of the Baháʼí Faith from Islam both for the Russian government and for the people of Ashgabat. Under the protection and freedom given by the Russian authorities, the number of Baháʼís in the community rose to 4,000 (1,000 children) by 1918 and for the first time anywhere in the world a true Baháʼí community was established, with its own hospitals, schools, workshops, newspapers, and a cemetery. This first Baháʼí House of Worship was constructed inside the city of Ashgabat. The design of the building was started in 1902, and the construction was completed in 1908 and was supervised by Vakílu'd-Dawlih, The city's general population was between 44 and 50 thousand at this time.
Within the lifetime of Baháʼu'lláh, the religion was established in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, then under Russian control. While in Samarkand in 1892 Gulpaygani wrote a book, Fassl-ul-Khitab (Conclusive Proof), in response to the questions of Mirza Haydar-Ali of Tabriz. It was in Samarkand, too, that he debated a Protestant preacher. In 1910 the Samarkand Baháʼí community elected its first assembly in addition to having a school, and built a center which held four meetings a week.
In Tashkand, a community of Baháʼís had expanded to about 1900 members, supporting a library, Persian and Russian language schools, and large meetings were being advertised with the permission of government authorities. Baháʼí literature published in Tashkand included several works of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the next head of the religion.
After the death of Gulpaygani, his papers, including several unfinished works, were taken to Ashqabat, where his nephew lived; many of these papers were, however, lost after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Russian intellectuals