Russian Methodism
During the early twentieth century until the Japanese invasion of 1931, Harbin, Manchuria, was a crossroads for migrants, including Koreans, mixed-race North Asian populations, and Russians fleeing the Russian Revolution. In that challenging context, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, opened missions to the different refugee populations in Harbin. In 1927 the mission to Russian refugees closed. Russians fled the area, desperately migrating to whatever country would take them in.
In a video recorded lecture, Dana Robert reconstructs the memories of the Russian Methodist pastors of 1920s Harbin, in dialogue with her own search since the 1970s to uncover their history. This case study raises questions and provides insights into the nature of Methodism as a transnational migrant movement, the struggle to maintain identities in diaspora, and the role of historical reconstruction in the forming of Russian Methodism.