Paul B. Anderson, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Russian Christian Culture

Paul B. Anderson (1894–1985) focused his career on serving young Russians and the global Orthodox Christian community. During his years of outreach, Anderson’s understanding of Orthodox worship and thought grew, and he emerged as one of the first Western experts on religion in the Soviet Union. His global efforts led to four prominent accomplishments: 1) building bridges of communication and relationship among Eastern and Western Christians, 2) developing publishing and educational opportunities for Orthodox believers, 3) speaking out for the protection of religious freedom in the USSR, and 4) providing reliable information on religion in the Soviet Union. Anderson began his service with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in China (1913–17) and Russia (1917–18). In 1920, he received a YMCA assignment to serve émigrés from Russia; he conducted this work from bases in Berlin (1920–24) and Paris (1924–41). During this period, he worked to assist émigrés in partnership with the Russian Correspondence School, YMCA Press, Russian Student Christian Movement, and Orthodox Theological Institute. In 1922, Anderson and Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev began to collaborate on several significant projects, including the Free Philosophical Academy, the YMCA Press, and the journal Put’ (The Way). Anderson recognized the unique value of Berdyaev’s thought and experience, working to build an organizational support system which assisted his creative vision. Anderson quietly worked alongside Berdyaev and several other émigré leaders in a way that enabled the preservation, enrichment, and expansion of Russian Orthodox culture.¹

By 1920, Anderson understood that he would not be able to return to Russia. However, he received a YMCA assignment to serve émigrés from this country in Poland and Germany; this developed into his years of ministry from bases in Berlin and Paris. This article explores the development of his work among émigrés during this period. Anderson had developed an interest in Orthodox Christianity during his 1917 service with John R. Mott, and he gradually developed a deeper appreciation for Eastern Christian doctrine and practice through his reading and relationships. During his years in Berlin and Paris, he served as a leader within the YMCA for shaping the Association’s approach to Orthodoxy: over the years, it had shifted from resigned toleration to pragmatic assistance to limited support to enthusiastic partnership.² During this period, Anderson worked with Berdyaev to make significant contributions to building bridges of communication and relationship among Eastern and Western Christians and supporting Orthodox publishing and educational opportunities. They also spoke out for the freedom of conscience in the USSR and provided reliable information on religion in the Soviet Union.³

Anderson’s trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, in the summer of 1920 served as a transition that initiated his next stage of work in Berlin, Germany. He had an opportunity to explore Sweden and Norway before he received a telegram from John R. Mott, asking him to travel to Poland and Estonia and visit new YMCA programs to assist refugees. Mott (1865–1955) provided leadership for YMCA global outreach and the expansion of the ecumenical movement. This exploratory trip led to Mott’s invitation to oversee service for Russian POWs in Germany.⁴ Anderson traveled to Warsaw and secured government permission to provide Y assistance to Russian refugees who had been living in prisoner of war camps in Poland since the war. He then received authorization to expand service to 50,000 Soviet prisoners from the Russo-Polish War of 1919–1920, who were in transit to camps within Germany. Due to this time, he was invited to participate in a Repatriation Committee organized by Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian humanitarian leader. Anderson represented the YMCA in the Kowno (Kaunas) Repatriation Conference, which included Nansen and a delegation from Moscow. This conference negotiated the exchange of prisoners between Russia, Germany, and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.⁵ Nansen was named High Commissioner of Refugees by the League of Nations in 1921. He requested Association assistance for work with refugees and received 50,000 dollars; the YMCA operated twenty camps in 1920–21 with this funding.⁶

Anderson continued his YMCA service with civilian refugees in spring 1921; they reached several points along the Polish/Russian border for processing and transfer to refugee camps throughout Poland. He recalled “the great exodus of civilian refugees from Russia … due to the repression, terror and famine which combined to make life in Russia unbearable.”⁷ At Narva, Estonia, he recognized familiar faces among these refugees,

I remember seeing refugee men, women, and children unloading from Russia at Narva. They were dumped … some distance from town and walked as best they could the two miles to the formidable looking fortress of Ivangorod, which looked like anything but a welcome home. Their luggage, much of it simply wrapped in a blanket and tied with a rope, was either carried or brought in local horsedrawn wagons. All were tired, hungry, and still anxious lest they had not yet actually left the Russia they feared. Among these refugees from Russia there came my good friends from Moscow, Mme. Alexandra Shidlovsky and her daughter Sophie.⁸

These two women were the wife and daughter of Sergius Shidlovsky, who had been vice president of the Duma.⁹

Work in Berlin, 1920–1924

Anderson set up a headquarters for service to refugees in Berlin in a large apartment at 51 Kurfurstenstrasse, where he lived with Donald Lowrie and James Sommerville, fellow Y secretaries. They were joined by a Mr. Hillman, who had previously served with the Y in Russia and France. The apartment had eight rooms, plus kitchen and bath. The team divided responsibilities according to their strengths. Lowrie focused on developing contacts and relationships with government officials; Anderson explained that Lowrie spoke German and Russian better than he did himself and had an ability to connect with people in a friendly way. Sommerville worked in the office, dealing with correspondence. Anderson traveled extensively, visiting camps where Russian prisoners of war and refugees had been held since 1914 in crowded and difficult conditions.¹⁰

Anderson invited Mrs. Shidlovsky and Sophia to join the group for dinner one evening, after their arrival in Berlin. They had experienced multiple difficulties and had not had enough to eat. He had developed a friendship with the family during his time in Moscow:

[Mrs. Shidlovsky] was a great friend of all of us Y men there, and one of her daughters, Mary, was with me when we were locked up. They were a very wealthy family and influential in liberal political movements. Of course now they are quite stranded, but Mrs. Shidlovsky takes a very practical view of her situation and is eager to set to work. The unfortunate thing is that she both looks and is half-starved, though she does not admit it; and Sophie, the younger daughter who came with her, has been quite ill, partly with excitement and partly with fever and is just now getting on her feet. Except of course for the San Galli family, I knew them better than any others in Russia.¹¹

Sophie and her mother later participated very actively in YMCA programs to serve refugees in Berlin and Paris. One immediate need for émigrés was a passport, since the Soviet government deprived them of citizenship in October 1921. After 1922, émigrés were able to apply for a “Nansen passport,” a stateless person’s passport, issued by the League of Nations Office of High Commissioner for Refugees; this allowed them to be authorized for employment.¹²

In 1920 and 1921, Anderson made multiple trips to locations assisted by the YMCA Russian Service, primarily camps in Poland, in order to experience the lives of men who would interact with the correspondence school and publishing program. He also traveled to explore regions where he hoped to provide Russian-language books; his destinations included Sofia, Kishinev, Uzhhorod, Warsaw, Riga, and the Pochaevo Lavra near Lvov (Lviv).¹³ For example, in Volumin (Wolomin), eastern Poland, he visited a “colony” authorized by the Polish government for ninety-eight former imperial Russian military officers. They were organized in work groups to manufacture shoes, dishes, buckets, decorative boxes, and other goods for resale; the YMCA provided tools for this program.¹⁴

During these years, several YMCA staff members with experience in Russia were able to work with the American Relief Administration (ARA) famine relief program in Soviet territory: Ethan T. Colton, Lowrie, Sommerville, S. M. Keeny, H. Dewey Anderson, and Edgar and Stella MacNaughten. Paul B. Anderson submitted an application and completed an interview in London with Colonel Haskell, a representative of ARA chairman Herbert Hoover. However, his visa application was denied, apparently due to his 1918 arrest and interrogation in Lubianka; Anderson believed he was the only Y secretary rejected for ARA service. This program, funded by the US government, provided food during the 1921–22 famine and saved over one million lives.¹⁵

The YMCA’s 1920s program for Russian-language publishing developed after a wartime program led by Julius Hecker. He was born in St. Petersburg and received his education in the United States before his Methodist ordination. Hecker was hired by the YMCA for work among prisoners of war, which included literacy courses among Russians held in Austro-Hungarian camps and the development of educational textbooks. Hecker also connected with émigrés in Switzerland and developed a plan for a publishing program that could encourage adult education more broadly. He organized the translation of books by US Protestant pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick and planned to distribute the works of popular science author Nikolai Aleksandrovich Rubakin.¹⁶ These books were published in Geneva with the imprint World Alliance YMCA, and Hecker expanded his vision for Russian adult education. Many Russians and Y leaders supported his work, but eventually he faced strong resistance due to the theological liberalism presented in several works and his radical political views; Hecker was required to resign from the Association. Hecker and Anderson talked about the program and its possibilities, and eventually, Paul was appointed to continue the project.¹⁷

The YMCA books published under Hecker’s leadership were not widely distributed, and many books were placed in a warehouse. However, several copies of these books were received by leaders of Licht dem Osten (Light to the East), a German-Russian Protestant missionary organization. These leaders were very critical of the views promoted in the books, so they contacted Mott; Anderson’s mentor told him to stop the production and distribution of these books, and he complied.¹⁸ He discussed the situation with his YMCA coworkers. Personally, he understood that the content of the books might offend many Orthodox readers. However, some of the books did include useful scientific information, so he recognized the complexity of the situation. His colleagues agreed that he should visit Rubakin personally to explain the decision. Anderson wrote, “He took my explanation silently and began to shed tears. I realized that I had been talking with a man of great integrity and a representative of his time.”¹⁹

Beginning January 1921, the YMCA authorized Anderson to begin work as director of a Correspondence School for Russians, while James Niederhauser was appointed as director for publications and printing. Niederhauser had previously served with the Y in Siberia; the two men worked together as colleagues until 1924, after which Anderson directed both programs. He continued working with a number of technical specialists hired by Hecker in fields such as engineering and agriculture. He set up the Correspondence School in Berlin due to its center as the Russian Work Headquarters on Kochstrasse, with 100,000 refugees in the area. The International Committee authorized 250,000 dollars to fund the venture.²⁰

By 1922, Niederhauser set up the publishing enterprise in Prague with the name IMKA TISK (YMCA Publishers in the Czech language). The location had been chosen for financial reasons and due to the Russian émigré population in the city; Anderson traveled back and forth from Berlin to Prague multiple times. However, in 1923, the Soviet Union established an embargo on the importation of reading materials, which created a significant obstacle for the plans. The Prague printing plant was closed; Anderson attempted to open a small bookshop in Berlin, but low demand led to its closure. Fortunately, the Y was able to sell the buildings and equipment in Prague without a significant loss of investment.²¹

During this challenging era, Anderson and his editorial committee began to develop plans which correlated with the educational needs and reading interests of those they met within the Russian émigré community. Y staff members Gustave Gerard Kullman, Amos Ebersole, and Fyodor Pianov began to make connections within Berlin and met a network of students, professors, and writers who had arrived in the area due to the war and those who had been exiled from Petrograd, Moscow, and Kiev (Kyiv). Anderson and his colleagues began to consider how to help those in need—a common YMCA reaction. However, as Anderson wrote, “One day it came to me that perhaps we were looking at them from the wrong angle—how to be of help to them—whereas, we should solicit their aid to us. I brought this up at a staff meeting, where the idea received encouragement.”²² This began a lifelong habit for Anderson—viewing people in need not as inferior, but as equals with valuable experience and intelligence.

Pianov had met Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev, a professor of philosophy from Moscow University who had been exiled by Lenin. Anderson met with him and learned more about this man and his fellow intellectuals, their personalities and aspirations. He then invited him for a second meeting at his home, along with Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev and Simeon Ludvigovich Frank, to talk about future collaboration. Berdyaev told Anderson about professors who had been expelled from their posts in Moscow and had responded by organizing a Free Philosophical Academy, which attracted many young people to public lectures. This step had led to their exile, and believed that they could organize a similar program in Berlin. Anderson asked Pianov to rent lecture halls during the evening at a Berlin high school and promote events featuring Berdyaev, Frank, and Vysheslavtsev. The opening night served as a celebration, attended by students, professors, church leaders, and a wide variety of Russians, as well as key figures in the emigration, such as Metropolitan Evlogii, novelist Boris Zaitsev, and Madame Maria Germanova of the Moscow Art Theater.²³ Berdyaev’s opening lecture set a tone for the evening and the Academy. He spoke on “the terrible crisis through which Russian culture was passing in the homeland and this opportunity to keep it alive abroad.”²⁴ The Academy’s lecture series continued with many in attendance, in rented facilities, with lecturers paid for each event. In this way, “the YMCA became recognized as a Russian cultural organization.”²⁵ This venture led to the formation of the Y’s vision for this project: “the preservation and development of Russian Christian culture, which was submerged by the communist ideologists in the Soviet Union.”²⁶

YMCA staff members had earlier developed a strong connection to Evlogii within Russia during the revolutionary era. Y men such as Colton had served members and leaders of the Orthodox church through the famine relief outreach of the American Relief Administration (ARA) in 1919–1923. Metropolitan Evlogii (Georgievskii) (1868–1946) served as a leader of émigré believers in Europe during the interwar period, based in Berlin and Paris. Metropolitan Antonii (Khrapovitsky) (1863–1936) led a synod of bishops established in Sremski Karlovci in Serbia in 1921. The synods led by Evlogii and Antonii competed for influence among émigré believers as they provided different visions of Orthodox interaction with European culture and western Christian churches. Antonii’s synod sharply criticized those who wished to cooperate with non-Orthodox believers in contexts such as the Russian Student Christian Movement and meetings of the ecumenical movement.²⁷ Anderson explained the role played by the YMCA in church leadership dynamics in this way:

On one of his visits with Patriarch Tikhon in Moscow, Ethan Colton had been requested by him to carry to Archbishop Evlogy the message that he was considered by the Patriarchate as being in charge of the Church in Western Europe. When Colton reached Berlin after this interview, he asked me, as the staff man best acquainted with the Russian language and Church, to accompany him to deliver the message. It was subsequently confirmed in writing, but in the meantime it gave comfort and assurance to Archbishop Evlogy. This conversation was Archbishop Evlogy’s first contact with the YMCA, and he never forgot it.²⁸

Colton and Anderson communicated Tikhon’s instruction to Evlogii to lead the Church in western Europe; they also delivered Tikhon’s message that Metropolitan Platon should lead the Church in America. As Anderson stated,

Let me return again to Dr. Colton. He came out from Moscow when I was stationed in Berlin. This was in late April or May, 1922. He brought the verbal message (subsequently in writing) from Patriarch Tikhon to Metropolitan Eulogius, also in Berlin, living in the residential corridors of the Russian Church located in the premises of the old Russian embassy on Unter den Linden. Dr. Colton asked me to go with him and interpret in conveying his message to Metropolitan (then Archbishop) Eulogius to the effect that Eulogius should confirm to Metropolitan Platon the Patriarch’s desire to have him rule the Orthodox Church in America. I kept no written record of this conversation, but Dr. Colton was asked to testify in court in New York in the controversy between the Living Church representative and the lawyers for the Metropolia, and this is to be found in the court record. …²⁹

Anderson visited the metropolitan many times in Berlin and later in Paris (at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, 12 rue Daru) until his death in 1946. Anderson summarized, “He was the chief and most loyal ecclesiastical sponsor of our work, whether as the YMCA or as the Russian Student Christian Movement Abroad.”³⁰ The connections of the Y to Tikhon and Evlogii led to ongoing cooperation; for example, Mott secured funds for the publication of an English-language Orthodox service book, and Tikhon provided written authorization, which was printed in the book.³¹ Years later, Anderson provided clarification about his connection to Tikhon:

I did not personally meet Patriarch Tikhon at any time. There is some confusion in this regard, as two of my close colleagues in Moscow in 1918 saw him several times then and again in 1922. They were Dr. E. T. Colton and Dr. Donald A. Lowrie, and their work and mine naturally found common expression in what has been told or written. Their visits chiefly came when they returned to Moscow in 1922 as YMCA workers under the umbrella of the ARA, charged with relief service to ecclesiastical and university personalities.³²

Anderson had met a number of Orthodox leaders during his time in Russia, but his understanding of this confession and his relationships with leaders grew during his years in Berlin. For example, in Russia, Boris Pash and his father, Fr. Theodore Pashkovsky, became involved with YMCA activities after returning to the country from the US just before the 1917 Revolutions. In June 1918, the father and son served with the YMCA Volga Agricultural Exhibit steamer. They left the country by the Black Sea route in 1919 and came to Berlin, where Boris continued Y activities. In 1922 the Y brought him to the US and he enrolled at Springfield College; after graduation he became a teacher in

California. His father later became Metropolitan Theophilus, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA from 1934 to 1950.³³

During the early 1920s, Russian students began to meet for discussion and study at university centers across Europe. Several of these students had participated in the pre-war Russian Student Christian movement, and two proposed a student conference for the summer of 1922, with sponsorship by the YMCA, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), and the World’s Student Christian Federation (WSCF). This gathering was organized for August 1922 in Prerov, Czechoslovakia. The daily celebration of the liturgy stood out as a highlight for many participants, and Fr. Sergei Bulgakov played a highly influential role.³⁴

Students gathered for a similar conference in 1923, and the movement was formally established as the Russian Student Christian Movement Abroad with Prof. Vasily Zenkovsky from Kiev (Kyiv) as president. Three men were invited to serve as secretaries for the movement, with the sponsorship of the YMCA, YWCA, and WSCF: Lev Nikolaevich Liperovsky, Alexander Ivanovich Nikitin, and Lev Nikolaevich Zander. Anderson participated in RSCM developments and built many close friendships with participants.³⁵ They adopted this specific formal purpose statement:

The Russian Student Christian Movement abroad has as its fundamental purpose the association of believing youth for the service of the Orthodox Church and bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ. It seeks to aid its members to work out a Christian view of life, and sets itself the task of preparing defenders of the Church and faith, able to conduct struggle with contemporary atheism and materialism.³⁶

As Anderson observed the religious transformations within the movement, he considered how to respond through the activities of the YMCA Russian service publication program. He believed that books could help support the intellectual and spiritual goals of the movement.³⁷ He asked Vysheslavtsev, his closest advisor, what books might be appropriate to present to an Orthodox young person to encourage his or her spiritual development. He replied that saints’ lives were a classic form of edification, but they would need to be updated in style to meet the current era. In response, they decided to invite the well-respected novelist Boris Zaitsev to write a work of historical biography on the life of Sergei of Radonezh, a national and spiritual hero to many. This book was soon published, and it was well received in the community, requiring three printings to meet demand. This book was directed at a wide range of readers, and the second volume was directed at the intellectual community. After a conversation, Anderson worked with Berdyaev to publish a symposium, a collection of philosophical essays by thinkers in his circle, Problems of the Russian Religious Mind, with contributions by Berdyaev, Bulgakov, Vysheslavtsev, Frank, and Nikolai Arseniev. This was published in 1924 with the inscription “YMCA Press,” and as Anderson explained, it

made an impression on the Russian reading public as showing that the YMCA was not a Protestant proselytizing organization, but one which held to the idea that its work must represent the indigenous thought and aspirations of the Russian people. It set the tone for our program and heralded the later production in Paris of practically all the great theological and philosophical books produced by the writers at St. Sergius Theological Institute. The YMCA had thus identified itself with creative Orthodox doctrine. Our policy and motto became: “the preservation and development of Russian Christian culture.”³⁸

As noted earlier, Anderson held a measure of sympathy for Julius Hecker, but he did not express any approval of his former colleague’s support of the renovationist Living Church movement:

Some Western Protestant reformers, such as Julius Hecker and Methodist Bishop Blake, declared that a new age had come to the Russian Church and people. Thus they showed their lack of understanding of the inner spiritual unity between the Orthodox faith and the soul of the Russian people. After prospering outwardly for two decades, this reform movement collapsed when anxieties and suffering brought on by the Second World War demanded real spiritual relief and moral support.³⁹

The Living Church was a diverse movement within the Russian Orthodox Church from the 1920s into the 1940s. Most participants were open to cooperating with the Soviet authorities and introducing reforms, such as the use of the contemporary Russian language in the liturgy. Hecker lived for several years in the USSR but came to Paris for a visit. He contacted Anderson for a meeting and asked to meet with Berdyaev. Anderson set up a meeting for the two men, and Hecker later reported that they had a good conversation and “see pretty well eye to eye.” Anderson then shared this comment with Berdyaev, who replied with a “little twinkle,” “I think there may be two points on which we differ, one is our conception of God, and the other is our conception of man.”⁴⁰

Anderson and other YMCA staff members did not regularly attend church services while in Berlin. He explained that the American congregation, which had operated in Berlin before the war, had not reopened, and the Anglican church did not have anyone in attendance when he visited. He did occasionally attend German-language services at the Evangelical (Lutheran) St.-Matthäus-Kirche near his residence on Kurfurstenstrasse.⁴¹ Anderson enjoyed connecting with fellow believers in Berlin, even without the support of a congregation: “Our little YMCA group was a congenial one, and we three bachelors (the Troika) were glad to go on outings with American and Russian girls, especially Marjorie Mallory, Mary Bell, and Sophie Shidlovsky.”⁴² Y staff members also received support from occasional conferences, such as a summer 1923 global gathering held in the resort town of Portschach in southern Austria. Representatives of 53 countries attended, with sessions addressing the significance, methods, and organization of Christian ministry among boys. Sherwood Eddy and Mott were plenary speakers, and Pianov spoke to the group about work among Russian boys.⁴³

In 1923, Anderson and Lowrie took a vacation trip to Jerusalem; they visited Archibald Harte, a former supervisor of YMCA service to prisoners of war in Petrograd, who at the time was serving as General Secretary of the Jerusalem YMCA.⁴⁴ On this trip they visited key sites connected with biblical times. Anderson reflected after viewing the location of the former temple and remembering the life of Jesus: “How His heart throbbed with joy at the sight, and with sorrow for the people whose hearts were hardened and would not believe that their Messiah had come.”⁴⁵ He reflected on the presence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam within the city, as well as the interaction of Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian confessions: “… we tried not to forget that our visit was spiritual in purpose, and we especially prized those occasions which led us into the religious life of the Holy City.”⁴⁶ Anderson commented on many of the different ethnic and national groups on his visit, and he admitted that his observations were simply impressions rather than informed perspectives. He expressed skepticism about the recent rise in the Jewish population related to the Zionist movement and the possibility of future economic and political success. He did not comment on the reasons for the Zionist movement, such as widespread European antisemitism.⁴⁷

Anderson noted at the end of his pilgrimage journal,

Tradition and the desire of pilgrims to see everything told of the gospel stories have attached significance to many places which manifestly are false. In recent years a number of competent investigators have given serious study to this problem and by noting their conclusions the visitor is spared many wrong impressions. We need not believe, for instance, that our Lord walked the very streets which he followed in Jerusalem; for excavations have showed that the streets of that time lie often as much as twenty and thirty feet below the present ground level of the city, which has been built upon the ruins and debris of the many destructions which Jerusalem has suffered. On the hills it is different, for they change less. Yet even in the city these investigations are an aid rather than hindrance in appreciation of the sanctity of the place.⁴⁸

Anderson referred to Lowrie and himself as “modern pilgrims,” seeking light for their life and work.⁴⁹

Work in Paris, 1924–1940

This section provides insights into Anderson’s involvement with the YMCA Press, Russian Student Christian Movement, and the Orthodox Theological Institute in France; it also discusses his contributions to the careers of prominent Christian scholars Berdyaev and Bulgakov. In the spring of 1924, the YMCA Russian Work programs moved its offices due to the migration of many Berlin émigrés to Paris and industrial regions from Lille to Grenoble. Anderson arrived in France on June 17, 1924, and he estimated that 60,000 Russian refugees had settled in or near Paris. The first office for the programs was located in St. Maur des Fosses, a southeastern suburb of Paris.⁵⁰ Vysheslavtsev supported the move of the office to France from Germany, due to the larger number of Russian-language readers in Paris, the greater number of potential authors, and lower printing costs.⁵¹

The year 1925 brought additional changes to Anderson’s life with his summer marriage to Margaret Holmes on July 8. Paul and Margaret served as close and trusted partners throughout his career. For their honeymoon, the couple traveled to Stockholm for the World Conference on Christian Life and Work, an ecumenical conference that included participation of many YMCA and denominational leaders. The Andersons set up their home in Paris and hosted many guests from the Y and Russian communities. Their children, Mary (born 1928) and Peter (born 1931), met many from these groups during their childhood.⁵² Paul and Margaret had known each other since 1919, when they met on a family vacation at a Minnesota lake.⁵³ Margaret was born on January 24, 1900, to Ella Whiting and Charles Guernsey Holmes in Whiting, Iowa, a town named for her grandfather, Charles Edwin Whiting. She had three older brothers, Edwin, Russell, and Whiting. Margaret graduated from Whiting High School in 1917 and attended Grinnell College for two years before transferring to the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She graduated from the university in 1921 with a major in music and a minor in French. She taught school for two years in Whiting and then moved to Freeport, Illinois, where she served as a YWCA secretary in “Girls Work.”⁵⁴ As a child, Margaret enthusiastically participated in a Congregational church with her family. She recalled, “On one occasion a returned missionary from China came to speak to us. She made such a great impression that I decided that I wanted to go to a foreign land and be a missionary when I grew up.” After college and four years of teaching and YWCA work, she married Paul and moved to Paris.⁵⁵ In France, the Andersons moved from St. Maur to Paris, where they rented an apartment at 5 rue Berite, about a ten-minute walk from the future YMCA center at 10 Boulevard Montparnasse. Their four-room apartment was on the fourth floor of a new building, and they needed to buy furnishings for their new home, since they had not brought many belongings from the US.⁵⁶

Anderson worked with two YMCA staff colleagues in Paris, Kullman and MacNaughten. Kullman focused his work on the RSCM, which moved its central office to Paris in 1925. By this year Paris had become the center of Russia Abroad. Anderson focused his primary attention on education and publishing, the Correspondence School, and the YMCA Press. He was also responsible for administrative support of the work, including financial and legal matters. By 1926, Anderson realized that his administrative role demanded a central office in the city of Paris rather than a suburb. This led to the rental of a 22-room house at 10 Boulevard Montparnasse, the building which became the hub of Y outreach among Russians. During this year, MacNaughten was able to move to Paris and take on new responsibilities for fundraising and programs for boys.⁵⁷

During the Paris years, Kullman worked with the RSCM as it developed its intellectual and spiritual philosophy, rooted in the Russian Orthodox heritage but emphasizing a spirit of personal freedom. Professors shared lectures and writings with students, and Anderson worked to publish them in order to distribute them to a wider audience. He wrote, “I was the servant of all. The leaders and professors looked to me as a colleague and friend.”⁵⁸ The RSCM expressed its philosophy as “the churchification of life,” the application of Orthodox Christian teachings to every aspect of culture.⁵⁹

Berdyaev also moved his Free Philosophical Academy to Paris in 1924, and the Association welcomed it to use the building on Montparnasse. Anderson asked Berdyaev to serve as chief editor for the YMCA Press, Vysheslavtsev as editor, and Boris Mikhailovich Krutikov as business manager. Anderson worked as director of the Correspondence School, and he hired specialists to supervise instruction in a range of fields; Alexandra Shidlovsky served as instructor for English.⁶⁰ The Correspondence School provided an excellent program for those who needed vocational support, but it could not provide the facilities required for the awarding of an academic degree, which would be recognized by the French Ministry of Education. A significant number of Russian professors and engineers with prerevolutionary experience were now living in Paris and ready to contribute to an evening technical school for young émigrés.⁶¹

The Russian Correspondence School of the North American YMCA opened in Berlin in 1921 and transferred to Paris in 1924. The school began with six subjects, and by 1931 the number of subjects increased to 173. The number of students enrolled by 1931 was 1248. The total number of participating students over ten years was 8894, who lived in sixty-one countries. In 1931, a new program was announced: the Russian Superior Technical Institute, a residential college-level educational program set to operate at standards set by the French Ministry of Public Education. At this time, the Russian Correspondence School was reorganized as the Home Study Section of the Technical Institute. These programs were widely recognized as a valuable contribution to the economic stability of the emigration. The dean of the engineering faculty was Professor Kozlovsky, who had previously served as dean of the Harbin Polytechnic Institute. One hundred sixteen students enrolled for the first year of the Russian Superior Technical Institute.⁶² During the interwar years, Anderson developed an understanding of the political movements within the émigré community—he established a wide network through his work with the educational program. The programs were diverse and could be broadly described as liberal, nationalist, or monarchist.⁶³

As the activities of the Y and RSCM expanded from a base in Paris during the 1920s, disagreements arose as to the relationship between the partnering organizations. The International Committee of the YMCA was a global and inter-confessional organization, while the RSCM was intentionally Orthodox. How would they cooperate in the future? In 1927, a meeting was held, and an “Agreement” was made that the RSCM would play the leading role in work with Russian youth, with the exceptions of the YMCA Press, Correspondence School, and Technical Institute, which would continue as before. Anderson held this agreement as a guideline throughout his career.⁶⁴

In the summer of 1926, Berdyaev presented a new idea as he met with Anderson, Vysheslavtsev, and Kullman at a Paris café. He had been energized by the philosophical, spiritual, and literary developments in émigré Paris, which had roots in the pre-war conversations of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev (Kyiv). He proposed the publication of a new journal which would provide a platform for continuing discussions about Russian cultural questions. Anderson understood that this project would require financial investment and recalled that Mott had promised funding for significant Russian projects. He quickly set up a meeting between Berdyaev and Mott, who promised support for a new interdisciplinary journal Put’ (The Way), which was published regularly until the outbreak of World War II.⁶⁵ The YMCA Press included Put’ as a key project within its activities. Berdyaev was the only editor for the journal, but he regularly discussed his plans with Anderson, Kullman, and Vysheslavtsev at their weekly editorial meetings. Eventually, Lowrie replaced Kullman on this committee.⁶⁶ From 1925 to 1940, this journal provided a cultural and intellectual meeting place for the thinkers of the emigration and a connection point with Western conversation partners on topics of theology, history, philosophy, and more. Antoine Arjakovsky’s masterful book The Way: Religious Thinkers of the Russian Emigration in Paris and their Journal, 1925–1940 summarizes that “the journal is one of the most brilliant in all Russian intellectual history.”⁶⁷ He provides a detailed study of the authors, audiences, themes, and debates of this publication.

Berdyaev played a key role in the émigré community in developing connections with French Catholics and Protestants. Berdyaev was a dedicated Orthodox believer, but he believed that the church should not live in isolation. He hosted regular gatherings at his home in the suburb of Clamart, southwest of the center of Paris. The eminent French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain and his wife were regular guests, as well as the Swiss theologian Fritz Lieb. Berdyaev’s wife Lydia Yudiforovna was Catholic, and his family roots included members of the French nobility. In addition, Berdyaev hosted secret weekly interconfessional meetings at the YMCA Montparnasse building, which included presentations and discussions by a small group of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theologians. Participants included Bulgakov and Marc Boegner, a leading French Protestant theologian. These meetings continued until they were forbidden by the local archdiocese, which followed the strict guidelines of Pope Pius X.⁶⁸ Berdyaev was an aristocrat by birth but adopted Marxist views as a young man before his intellectual journey in search of freedom led him to Orthodox Christianity and a distinct career as a philosopher. His wife Lydia was a revolutionary as a young woman and participated in the events of 1905; later she became a devout Roman Catholic. Lydia’s mother also lived with them. Margaret Anderson and Eugenie Rapp, Berdyaev’s sister-in-law, developed a close friendship.⁶⁹ Berdyaev became a well-known author in the English-speaking world after Anderson introduced him to a representative of Sheed and Ward, the English Catholic publishing house. This firm published his book The Russian Revolution, and his reputation grew.⁷⁰ In addition to Put’, the YMCA Press published Novyi grad (The New City) (1934–1939) and Pravoslavnaia mysl' (Orthodox Thought) (1928–1954). Novyi grad, edited by G. P. Fedotov, had more social-political content than Put’. Pravoslavnaia mysl’ included articles written by professors at the theological institute.⁷¹

The Press published a range of works during the interwar period, but the core of its collection was books written by the faculty of the Orthodox Theological Institute of Paris (Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe de Paris), later known as the St. Sergius Theological Academy. On the fifteenth anniversary of the school in 1940, Evlogii formally changed the Russian (not the official French) title to St. Sergius Theological Academy.⁷² Anderson described this project as “one of our greatest contributions to Russian religious culture.”⁷³ These books provided a theological foundation for a new era of Orthodox believers after the closure of theological educational institutions in Soviet Russia.⁷⁴ The first textbook published by the press was Georges Florovsky’s Fathers of the Fourth Century, followed by his book Byzantine Fathers. Other members of the talented faculty continued this trend. In addition, authors from around the Orthodox world submitted manuscripts for consideration. Theology was a primary subject, along with philosophy, memoirs, novels, and children’s works.⁷⁵ These faculty members made significant contributions to the institute: Nikolay Afanasiev, Sergei Sergeevich Bezobrazov (Bishop Kassian), Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern), Paul Evdokimov, Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev, Florovsky, Pyotr Kovalevsky, Mikhail Mikhailovich Ossorgine, Lev Zander, and Vasily Zenkovsky.⁷⁶

Anderson expressed deep appreciation for Kartashev, who served as Assistant Procurator and then Procurator (after June 1917) of the Holy Synod during the period of the Provisional Government. Later, he served as professor of church history at the theological institute in Paris. Anderson described him as “one of the wisest and most level-headed of the Academy staff in reaching important decisions.”⁷⁷ The YMCA Press also began to publish the works of literary authors, such as Alexei Remizoff.⁷⁸ By 1939, the Press had published a total of 274 titles and gained the position as the primary publisher of philosophical and religious books in the Russian language.⁷⁹

Berdyaev himself stood out as a primary author for the early era of the YMCA Press, editing sixty-one issues of Put’ before the war.⁸⁰ Lenin had exiled Berdyaev and one hundred others in 1922.⁸¹ Berdyaev’s works presented an Orthodox worldview with an emphasis on creativity and freedom.⁸² Here is Anderson’s explanation of Berdyaev’s fundamental approach to humans:

All his life he had been struggling over the place of the individual in creation, and he came to prefer speaking of the person. By person he meant the individual enshrouded in all the attributes resulting from having relationships with things and with other persons, with happenings, with the world, and with God. Some writers have, therefore, referred to Berdyaev’s essential philosophy as “personalism.” In all of the many contacts I had with him and his family, we always felt we were dealing with one who was not just an individual in the abstract but an essential part of God’s creation.⁸³

Bulgakov also stood out as a primary author for the early era of the YMCA Press.⁸⁴ Anderson recognized his intellectual and political significance and the role he played in the emigration: “The combination of his remarkable intellectual and spiritual gifts with his completely Russian attachment to Church and people made him a natural leader among people of the Russian religious renaissance in Paris, and in the West, generally. He was the Father Confessor for many.”⁸⁵ Anderson worked with Bulgakov within the context of publishing his works with the YMCA Press and within the ecumenical movement. Bulgakov actively participated in the Anglo-Russian student conferences and the Anglican-Orthodox partnerships which followed. Anderson explained,

At first he was quite stiff in his position, adhering strictly to the traditional Orthodox claims to uniqueness and superiority, but in these meetings he came to realize and appreciate the authentic quality of Anglican personal and congregational piety and to lend his voice in favor of the movement towards sacramental unity. The same position characterized his present participation in the meetings which formed the ecumenical prelude to the World Council of Churches.⁸⁶

Anderson also witnessed the sorrow Bulgakov felt when receiving sharp criticism from more traditional Orthodox leaders for his views on Sophia, the wisdom of God. Bulgakov expressed innovative views of Sophia as an attempt to explain the connections of the divine and the human in the world; he experienced “great spiritual agony.”⁸⁷ Bulgakov made a deep impression on this American’s understanding of the tradition: “I personally gained greatly from reading his manuscripts and from many conversations in private. My comprehension of Orthodoxy as a Church of infinite worth grew in this way, reaching high above controversies within its ranks on both small and great topics.”⁸⁸

Years later, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn reflected on the contribution of the YMCA Press:

The Russian YMCA-Press had had a glorious history within the Russian diaspora. In the decades when Communism’s triumph in the USSR seemed limitless, with every glimmer of light extinguished and stamped out forever, YMCA-Press had conserved, carried on, and even strengthened that light, emanating from the religious renaissance at the beginning of the century, from Vekhi, by bringing out in small editions our foremost thinkers who had managed to survive: a Russian distillation of philosophical, theological, and aesthetic thought.⁸⁹

Scholar Kåre Johan Mjør demonstrated the contribution of the YMCA Press to the cultural and intellectual historiography of Russia through his analysis of four works written by members of the émigré community of Paris and published by the Press: Saints of Ancient Russia by Georgy Fedotov (1931), Ways of Russian Theology by Florovsky (1937), The Russian Idea by Berdyaev (1946), and The History of Russian Philosophy by Zenkovsky (1948–50).⁹⁰

After his arrival in Paris, Anderson became acquainted with a number of Russian émigré booksellers. They represented a wide range of cultural and political backgrounds and sold books for a variety of audiences. A lack of professional cooperation hindered the progress of all firms. Anderson was invited to conversations that led to the formation of a trade association, United Publishers (Les Editeurs Reunis), which fostered cooperation and increased the chance of mutual benefit. He relied on the experience of his business manager, Boris Mikhailovich Krutikov, and was elected as president of the new corporation.⁹¹

In 1926 Anderson and the YMCA were drawn into a conflict due to the expansion of the RSCM. The synod of Orthodox bishops based in Sremski Karlovci in Serbia argued that students of the RSCM should submit to its authority, rather than the authority of Evlogii, which they did not recognize. Here is Anderson’s analysis of the conflict:

The Russian emigre bishops in Serbia resented any initiative or activity which seemed to diminish their episcopal standing and authority. They felt that the RSCM was doing just that, and they blamed the YMCA for leading earnest young Orthodox down the garden path to their personal peril and to the destruction of the Russian Orthodox Church as it had been in Russia.⁹²

The Orthodox Theological Institute was a fully Russian organization, but Anderson, Mott, and the Y played key roles during its formation. Mott first discussed the idea for a theological institution with Lev Liperovsky, Lev Zander, and Alexander Nikitin at a 1922 meeting of the World Student Christian Federation. In 1923 Mott met with Russian theologians at a meeting hosted by the National Office of the Czechoslovak YMCA, with Anderson and Lowrie in attendance. In July 1924, Evlogii learned that Mott would be in Paris, so he invited Mott, Kullman, and Anderson to meet and discuss the possibility of purchasing a property. Mott pledged five thousand dollars for a down payment, and the next day Anderson and others inspected and approved the property. The progress led to the formation of the Institute, with a building, faculty, and organizational committee.⁹³ Anderson served on the organizational committee, along with Rev. Canon John Douglas, Foreign Relations Counselor of the Archbishop of Canterbury. From the beginning, Anderson played a key financial and administrative role: “The Metropolitan and the staff at the Institute came to depend on my counsel.” He actively supported the fundraising for the institute and RSCM with donors from the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of the US, and churches in Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.⁹⁴

The establishment of the Orthodox Theological Institute and RSCM led to increased conversations among students and professors and their Anglican counterparts. The British Student Christian Movement and a number of leaders of the Church of England became involved.⁹⁵ There had been a long history of interest in Anglican-Orthodox relations, and these conversations began a new stage of this story; Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, participated. Anglo-Russian student conferences in 1928 and 1929 led to the formation of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius.⁹⁶

Anderson played a role in supporting Nicholas Zernov, a key participant in Orthodox-Anglican relations. He joined with John Douglas of the Church of England and Robert Mackie of the British Student Christian Movement in providing sponsorship for Zernov to study at the University of Oxford on the history and thought of the early church fathers and the ecumenical councils. This was supported with the goal of preparing this young émigré to provide future guidance for the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius. He pursued his studies with enthusiasm and earned a Ph.D. degree before his appointment as the Spalding Lecturer on Eastern Orthodox Culture at Oxford.⁹⁷ Years later Zernov described his appreciation for the work of American YMCA leaders, specifically MacNaughten, Anderson, and Kullman:

Their experience and benevolence were very valuable for the Movement. With them we immediately developed a relationship of full trust and friendship. Although financial assistance from foreigners passed through their hands they never behaved as a boss. On the contrary, they were attracted to Orthodoxy and Russian culture, they spoke Russian well, and identified themselves completely with the Movement. Each of them were specialists in their own sphere of work.⁹⁸

Since Anderson was focused on the YMCA Press and Correspondence School, MacNaughten took on the primary responsibility for raising funds for the theological institute, which was funded primarily from the US and England during its early years. MacNaughten and Kullman traveled to the US in 1927 to raise funds. MacNaughten approached the Episcopal Church Center for a grant from the Bishop White Memorial Fund to buy books for the institute’s library. Florovsky was able to build up the library by making purchases of patristic literature from Russian émigré libraries, using resources provided by this Fund. Kullman worked with Henry Knox Sherrill, Bishop of Massachusetts, to make contacts among Episcopalians in Boston. Kullman met Ralph Adams Cram and his wife, who formed a Committee for Aid to the Paris Institute, which served as the most significant source of US revenue for many years. Cram was the chief architect for New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Another committee was formed in New York with participation by William T. Manning, Bishop of New York, Frank Gavin, professor at General Theological Seminary, James DeWitt Perry, Presiding Bishop, and Reginald Belknap, treasurer of General Theological Seminary. In western New York, Lauriston L. Scaife chaired the National Episcopalian Committee for Institute support. During this period, three RSCM leaders visited the Boston and New York committees to provide personal accounts on the value of the institute: Zenkovsky, Shidlovsky, and Liperovsky.⁹⁹

During the 1920s and 30s, Anderson was promoting outreach among the émigré community, but he was also researching the Soviet government’s promotion of an anti-religious campaign and promotion of atheism. The Church of England was following these developments with alarm, and leaders organized the RCAF (Russian Churches and Clergy Aid Fund). The Archbishop of Canterbury and John Douglas invited Anderson to a meeting at Lambeth Palace for RCAF and other leaders. These leaders learned of his efforts in Paris to collect information from the USSR on the conditions and challenges of religious organizations and believers; he had been distributing monthly bulletins with this information. He provided updates on Soviet conditions to this group at Lambeth Palace and developed a range of connections within the Anglican communion with those sharing an interest in ecumenical progress and support for persecuted Christians. His new contacts included Sir Bernard Pares, head of the School of Slavonic Studies at the University of London, and R. M. French, secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association. On the continent, Anderson’s new like-minded colleagues included Adolph Keller in Zurich, Dutch pastor F. Krop, and French Reformed theologian Marc Boegner. This group met in Basel, Switzerland, along with Anderson and Bulgakov.¹⁰⁰

Anderson provided information to many of these concerned colleagues within a “Study on Religion in Russia” group through a series of mailed bulletins. Tudor Pole of RCAF proposed that he lead an effort to produce a regular series of printed pamphlets on this topic. He worked with volunteers such as RSCM secretary Ivan Lagovsky to create these pamphlets, which included translations of articles and documents from the Soviet Union. Ten pamphlets were created over the years, with 500 copies printed in Paris and distributed by Pole. Anderson’s effort led to another request from Bernard Pares at the University of London to create a quarterly “Chronicle on Soviet Russia” to be published in the Slavonic and East European Review. This feature appeared regularly until the outbreak of World War II. These projects created a demand on Anderson’s time, but he saw it as an opportunity as well: “All of this was excellent research into

the nature and purpose of the anti-religious movement as well as the vestiges of real religion somehow portrayed in Soviet material.”¹⁰¹

By the 1930s the Y center at 10 Boulevard Montparnasse had become a vibrant center for the activities of the YMCA Press, the Correspondence School, the RSCM, and other programs. However, it gradually became a center for activities that grew organically from within the émigré community. As Anderson observed, it became a

center for all kinds of activities—intellectual, spiritual, physical—for Russian refugees in Paris. Theologians, engineers, book dealers, boys’ clubs, student circles, volleyball games, and soon even hungry destitute men and women filled the place from morning to night. The combination represented an earnest attempt to discover and meet the needs of a special constituency. Apart from the Correspondence School and the Press, all the rest was a spontaneous response of young people and their senior compatriots to express their sense of fellowship with one another and with the needy outside.¹⁰²

Anderson was pleased to observe the many forms of social outreach that emerged in this community during the era of the economic depression of the 1930s. Perhaps the most outstanding movement was led by Elizaveta Yurievna Skobtsova (Mother Maria). Her early life in Russia was shaped by revolutionary politics, but in Paris her life was deeply influenced by the RSCM, Berdyaev, and the faculty of the theological institute. She dedicated her life to serving those in need and became a nun under the authority of Evlogii. Her efforts led to the formation of Orthodox Action and programs to provide food and shelter to those in need in Paris. Mother Maria’s bold calls to action were matched by her impressive organizational abilities. She brought in active participation from RSCM leaders, such as Fyodor Pianov and Dmitry Klepinin.¹⁰³ During this era of expansion, the Movement decided to establish its own center at another facility in Paris at 91 rue Olivier de Serre. Alexander Nikitin provided leadership for this transition, with financial support from the WSCF and ecumenical sponsors.¹⁰⁴

It is interesting that Anderson showed openness to Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky after the criticism the hierarch had expressed against the RSCM and YMCA. In his memoir he wrote,

Archbishop Anthony and Sergei Bulgakov, men with contradictory conceptions of churchmanship, and their respective followers, carried abroad and into the non-Orthodox world the two main currents of Orthodoxy which the atheist movement fought against: the spiritual power in the church sacraments and the proven verity of an intellectual grasp of the doctrines inherited from the Apostles and Fathers of the Church.¹⁰⁵

He later reflected on this experience in the midst of the conflict of the Russian Orthodox émigré world:

MacNaughten, Kullmann, Lowrie, and I had all come to feel ourselves truly at worship when attending Orthodox services. We were convinced about the preeminent role which the Orthodox Church should have in Russia. Lowrie and I also had good relations with some of the Belgrad bishops as well as the President of its Synod, Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, a famous person in prerevolutionary Russia, who had come to tea with my wife Margaret and me in our St. Maur home, and as long as he lived I went to call on him in Belgrad or Sremsky Karlovo every time I visited Yugoslavia. It would have been very hard not only for the Movement but for the Theological Institute in Paris if the Synod of Bishops had been chosen to control these institutions instead of the benevolent and wise Metropolitan Evlogy and his successors. After all, Evlogy was himself a famous Russian patriot having been both a ruling bishop and a member of the Duma where he represented not only the Church but also the mind of the faithful laity of his constituency. If the Synod of Bishops had gained control over the Movement and the Theological Institute in Paris, could we have worked together over the many years?¹⁰⁶

Anderson later concluded,

The so-called “Montparnasse years” was, indeed, a very rich time in every sense of the word—intellectually, culturally, socially, theologically. It marked the blossoming of a spectacular religious renaissance in the Russian immigration that the YMCA was privileged to serve. How thankful I am to have been a part of it. By the middle of the 1930s, it had reached its maturity and other problems and questions sapped its creative energies. These problems, profoundly affecting Europe itself, helped to disintegrate the interwar emigration.¹⁰⁷

Anderson began his participation in the ecumenical movement as a representative of the YMCA, which was a Christian organization, not a church. He compared his agency to other historical missionary societies, which were ecumenical, because they included staff members from a variety of churches. As he explained, “They were fully ecumenical in the sense of inclusiveness, although we use the word in most cases as referring to bodies which have the marks of Christian churches.” He pointed out that the Student Volunteer Movement and World Student Christian Federation also served as ecumenical organizations. The Student Volunteer Movement sent out 20,500 enrolled members to work as global missionaries. Anderson observed the ecumenical approach of the YMCA in China: Association speakers gathered large crowds to present the Christian faith and recommended that those who wanted to learn more should attend the church closest to their home. This avoided “narrow denominationalism.”¹⁰⁸

The Orthodox Theological Institute later awarded Anderson an honorary doctoral degree. As his colleague summarized, “through the YMCA Press and related undertakings in Paris you were able to take a leading part in bringing new hope and intellectual vigor to thousands of Russians displaced from their home country.”¹⁰⁹

On July 15, 1928, Paul and Margaret sailed from Le Havre, France, to New York for a scheduled furlough. They traveled to Whiting, Iowa, where they stayed with Margaret’s parents. She was expecting their first child, and Paul traveled within Iowa for YMCA speaking assignments. They rented a furnished apartment in Des Moines, and their daughter Mary was born on November 20 at the Swedish Hospital in the city. During the following months, the young family visited Paul’s parents and relatives. In March they traveled to New York for meetings with International Committee executives related to the Russian work and with the Episcopal Committee on Aid to the St. Sergius Academy in Paris. On March 15, they returned to Paris. Later that spring Paul attended the Anglo-Russian Student Conference (later renamed the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius). There Paul became acquainted with the Principal George Francis Graham-Brown of Wycliffe Hall, an Anglican theological college at Oxford. Anderson shared his interest in studying Orthodoxy, and the principal invited him to attend for the Michaelmas term (October-December) 1929. The principal also said that he would find a house for Paul and Margaret and help him register for non-credit classes.¹¹⁰

In October 1929, Paul and Margaret Anderson arrived in Oxford to begin a term of study at Wycliffe Hall. Paul was classified as a non-resident member and his focus was early church history: “This period in Church history has long attracted me, but closer acquaintance with it has become essential in connection with our Russian work, for the Russian Orthodox ideal of the Christian life is still as in the early Church, that of the ascetic, the searcher after God.”¹¹¹ In his letter to friends, he wrote about his study of early Christian writers, such as Anthony and Basil, who wrote about their physical and moral struggles for holiness. He also explained his belief that “When Constantine made Christianity the officially approved religion, the Christian life became too easy, and this tradition has lasted, with notable exceptions, until this day. … It is in the early Church that we find the positive, the practical process of being Christian by trying hard to keep Christ foremost.”¹¹² Anderson’s reading program included the Apostolic Fathers, the early ascetics of the Egyptian desert, and the Cappadocian Fathers (especially the monastic instructions of St. Basil). He attended lectures and wrote that those by Dr. Kenneth Kirk (later Bishop of Oxford) were especially helpful. He met regularly with a tutor, a fellow of Merton College, who discussed his readings. Margaret attended lectures on medieval European history.¹¹³ The Andersons enjoyed conversations with students and attending Anglican services during their time in Oxford. Before returning to Paris, they were invited to visit the home of Bishop Walter Frere of Truro in Cornwall, whom they had earlier met at an Anglo-Russian student conference. The bishop was a member of the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican monastic order, and he invited the Andersons to attend services for a day. Paul wrote, “It warmed our hearts and stirred our souls.”¹¹⁴

Anderson deeply valued the opportunity to study in Oxford and described it as “one of the richest experiences of our lives.” His readings on church history provided information that he had not received in his previous education; his study also provided guidance for his work in publishing books on Orthodox Christian culture. He expressed regret that he did not have additional time to focus on studying Russian Christian works of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries:

To this day I have found myself handicapped in student Movement circles, in our Press editorial weekly meetings, and in the meetings and discussions of the Ecumenical Movement, by lack of systematic preparation in theology and philosophy as revealed in Russian writers. To be sure, just reading the manuscripts which kept arriving at my desk was helpful, but the fact is that this tended to open up doors calling for more background reading which in the nature of my work I could not undertake.¹¹⁵

In Paris, the Andersons became very active at a church of the Anglican Communion, the American Pro-Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, at 23 Avenue George V. Paul later served as a member of the vestry (parish leadership council), and Margaret contributed to the church’s Sunday school program.¹¹⁶

Anderson continued to travel to other countries in Europe to connect with émigrés. For example, in 1930 and 1931, he traveled to Estonia and Latvia, reported his observations on cultural and religious trends, and described YMCA current programs. He noted that these countries had become more integrated into central and western European economic life and far less connected to the USSR. The Orthodox churches in Estonia and Latvia maintained fraternal connections with the Russian church hierarchy but did not submit to its authority: they had their own archbishops and synods. Anderson wrote that the churches of Estonia were approximately two-thirds Estonian by ethnicity and one-third Russian. In Latvia, the Orthodox churches were two-thirds Russian by ethnicity and one-third Latvian. The Russian minorities of Estonia and Latvia maintained Russian-language schools, newspapers, and cultural organizations. He counted fifty-seven Russian organizations in Riga.¹¹⁷

In Latvia, the partner of the RSCM was the Russian Orthodox Student Union, which operated programs for students, boys, and girls with a rented facility; one paid secretary served this work. Many ethnic Russians also participated in Latvian YMCA programs. In addition, the Russian Correspondence School supported an active student club in Riga with twenty-five men and women participating. Anderson knew that organizations had not been cooperating at a maximum level, so he held a meeting on January 10, 1934, for representatives of the Russian Orthodox Student Union, the Riga YMCA, and the Correspondence School club to discuss cooperation and increased connection to the churches.¹¹⁸

In Estonia, the RSCM, YMCA Press, and Russian Correspondence School connected with participants in five locations: Tallinn (Reval), Narva, Tartu (Dorpat), Petseri, and Valk. Anderson led discussions during his trip with the goal of increasing understanding and cooperation with churches. Plans were made for a visit by Berdyaev in March 1934. He was encouraged to see that meetings of Orthodox students from the RSCM and Lutheran students from the Latvian and Estonian student movements were continuing.¹¹⁹

Due to the Great Depression, the YMCA wrestled with economic challenges along with many other organizations. The New York office of the Association (Foreign Committee of the National Councils of the YMCA), which paid Anderson’s salary, was required to reduce his total salary by ten percent for 1932. His total salary had been set at $3750, so the reduction was $375 for the year.¹²⁰ He and his colleagues faced difficulties with their projects as well due to funding reductions; this led to an end of the lease on 10 Boulevard Montparnasse on September 30, 1936.¹²¹

Anderson was clearly motivated by a desire to serve others, rather than by a search for advancement or wealth. He must have been encouraged by a personal letter he received from Bulgakov on March 18, 1939:

To you, with whom I was given the opportunity to work in peace and harmony for more than ten years, as a kind of guardian angel of the Russian exile, called from a distant land and a foreign people, I would like to say, in the name of the Russian Church and Russian culture and Russian people, a sincere thank you.¹²²

A few years later, Bulgakov’s gratitude was echoed by Evlogii in his 1947 memoir:

We [the RSCM] utilized the material support of this organization [the American YMCA], which was wealthy and friendly to us. The YMCA, it is true, helped us and helps us, but we remained faithful to our ideology, which lay at the foundation of our association, and always emphasized our inner independence, which did not prevent us from maintaining the best relationships with our friends. At the head of the YMCA in the first years of the emigration were E. I. MacNaughten, P. F. Anderson, G. G. Kullman, leaders of broad views and considerate relationships to our ideology. They supported us, never using philanthropy as a means for propaganda of their doctrine among Russians.¹²³

The period of World War II led to the end of this remarkable period of cooperation and service. Bulgakov passed away in 1944, and Berdyaev followed in 1948. During the war, Anderson played a leading role in coordinating aid from the United States for Russian émigrés, prisoners of war, and other refugees in France. He continued serving in Paris during the Nazi occupation until he was required to leave the city on June 20, 1941.

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