Return To Battle In Russia And Beyond

In April 1937, The Salvation Army in Sweden published SA Commissioner Karl Larsson's book, Ten Years in Russia. The book received wide attention and was reprinted in several editions. Disappointingly, it was never translated into the English language, which meant that its story never became known outside the Scandinavian countries. Now, with the publication of Sven Ljungholm's book a wide chasm is bridged. It's a story of love for the Russian people and the pioneers' zeal to bring the Gospel message to the vast Russian empire. Moscow: The March 1917 revolution occurred, bringing complete freedom to the Salvation Army allowing it to conduct religious meetings. During Easter 1917, the first Army march in Russia, along Petrograd's Nevsky Prospect was organized. To the tune of "Rouse, Then, Soldiers, Rally Round the Banner," sounded out on Colonel Larsson's concertina twenty Salvationists marched to the meeting venue. Thousands watched and 450 of the onlookers were attracted to a public meeting which filled the hall to overflowing. In Ten Years in Russia Larsson addresses the reader: If the Salvation Army's history in its entirety should one day be divided, probably no part would be more interesting than the description of the attempt to plant its banner in the vast Russian Empire's soil. Unfortunately, Larsson's saga, published in four successive runs, was never translated from its original Swedish and the history remains largely unknown outside Scandinavia. With the publication of Return to Battle in Russia the valiant pioneering efforts in Russia will be available to English language audiences. The book comprises distinct narratives seeking to link a nine-decade fragmented panorama of mostly silence. Telling the complicated story of The Salvation Army's involvement in Russia, the First Volume narrative chronicles The Salvation Army's pioneering work in Russia in the decade 1913-1923. Larsson's writings are augmented by the chronicles penned by my paternal grandfather, a Swedish Salvation Army officer who served with nine other Swedish pioneers in post World War I Russia under Larsson's command. He logged daily in the diary he kept while serving in Petrograd and Moscow. Although now more than seventy years old, the combined journals recollect a period into which they and a small group of other Salvationist missionaries entered, witnesses to the tumultuous violence of the Russian Revolution - a time of atrocities during the Red Terror and Russian civil war. It was a period that would demand its toll, including the lives of Salvationist martyrs. In Included in the book are an eclectic selection of articles from varied sources and in their native languages; a unique and treasured legacy of recorded Salvation Army history. They serve as testimony to Karl Larsson and his band of passionate warriors, whose belief in loyalty, integrity, tenacity matched their courageous, unwavering faith in God's leading. Larsson was a life-enhancer who brought out a Corinthian spirit in all, including the little man. His book chronicles the advances and setbacks on the front - a journal of achievements and disappointments. The Army's history in the first half of the twentieth century reveals that an extraordinarily large percentage of Salvationist missionaries radiated from Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries. Yet even within the Salvation Army organization, few knew that those Swedish Salvationists made a valiant assault upon Russia that spanned almost three decades, one demanding focused purpose, self-sacrifice and even martyrdom. It is time for the story of their courageous work in the service of God to be preserved and to be told.

• | Author: Sven Ljungholm, Comm Sven Nilsson
• | Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Apr 23, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 210 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1546417362
• | ISBN-13: 9781546417361