Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanoff

PROKHANOFF, Ivan Stepanovich. b. Vladikavkas, Russia, 17 April 1869; d. Berlin, Germany, 6 October 1935. Prokhanoff was a gifted author, preacher, poet and hymn writer, and a primary leader of the evangelical community in Russia. St Petersburg was the center of his activity. Here he founded the Russia Evangelical Association (1905), and the All-Russian Evangelical Association (1908). His parents grew up in the Molokan (‘milk drinkers’) tradition of Russia, a pietistic movement that emerged among 17th-century peasants who refused to follow the teachings and practices of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Their name resulted from the drinking of milk on fast days, which was prohibited in the...