COUNTESS YASNOVSKY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 14

COUNTESS YASNOVSKY.

A RUSSIAN VISITOR.

Countess Maria Nikolayeona Yasnov- - present visiting Christchurch, ' comes as a spiritual ambassador from the Russian people to New Zealand, where it is her intention, by means of " lectures throughout the country, to bring about a better understanding of the plight of Russia to-daj and.,the. immediate necessity for missionaries to teach the doctrines, of Christianity. She is travelling in_ the interests of the Russian Missionary Society, with which she has been associated since its foundation some four years ago. Already she has visited Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, and when she has finished her work in New Zealand she intends paying a visit to Australia. Her object when she left Russia in 1923 was to enlist the support of one hundred missionaries prepared to take up work in So.viet Russia. She states that great difficulties have faced the movement from its inception, and at the present time it is being found no easy matter to spread the teachingsof Christianity amongst the Russian people. "The Bolshevists, of course, arc a godless people, and are consequently antagonistic towards us," the Countess declared, "but: still we- are carrying on our work, and intend to do so m spite of the many difficulties in our way." ~ ' , , The Societv, she said, was founded by the Rev. William Fetler. She had assisted him in his work since 1908, when he first went to Petrograd, many vears before the formation of the Society. Mr Fetler founded the first Baptist Church in Russia, and there was a great revivalism wherever he went, many people breaking away from the Orthodox Church to follow his teaching. So great a following did he get that in 1914 those then at the iiead of affairs thought that they would be better rid of him, and he was accordingly banished. In the years that followed the Countess remained at her post, • suffering all the terrors and hardships that came - the way of all who belonged to her class. All her possessions were taken by the revolutionaries. In the summer of 1923, she was successful in getting out of Russia, and went to Sweden and England.' The Soviet Government, of course, did not want her to go, knowing, no doubt, that she would be of far less trouble to them in Russia than outside it. Consequently she was detained for some time after she first signified her intention of leaving, but finally she was enabled to get away. ' She had gone through a lot of misery and suffering during the years of revolution and subsequent Soviet rule, but after a conference with Mr Fetler, her work for the Missionary Society began.

In New Zealand the Countess lias visited Dunedin, Timaru, Oamaru, and Gore, and it is her intention, at the conclusion of her stay in Christchureh, to .-visit the . cities and a number of towns of the Xorth Island. She expects to leave the Dominion on or about. April 13th.