aristocracy. Led by the engineer Ivan Prokhanov and mostly rooted in the Pietist tradition, they formed a nationwide association in St Petersburg, the All-Russian Evangelical Christian Union. Prokhanov's parents had left the Spiritual Christian Molokan faith, and many Molokane transformed to his similar but more organized faith form. These evangelical groups came under pressure in Soviet times, with many adherents being incarcerated or deported. Conditions changed somewhat during the late 1940s, when most evangelical, Baptist and Pentecostal groups were led, with some pressure from the Soviet state, to form the All-Soviet Association of Evangelical Baptist Christians (, Vsesoyuznyy sovet yevangel'skikh khristan-baptistov abbreviated ВСЕХБ, VSYeKhB), which was later also joined by Mennonites. Recent history Prior to its independence in 1991, Ukraine was home to the second largest Baptist community in the world, after the United States, and was called the “Bible Belt” of the Soviet Union. Despite mass emigration of formerly persecuted Ukrainian protestants into the West, Ukraine's Baptists continue to be the largest Protestant denomination in Ukraine and the country has the second highest number of Baptist churches in the world. In Russia, the Evangelical Christian Baptists (, Yevangel'skiye khristane-baptisty) still form the largest Protestant denomination with about 80,000 adherents. During the late 20th century, Shtundism also extended its influence to Germany when many former Soviet citizens of German origin emigrated there and set up parishes and gospel halls, mostly referring to themselves as "Evangeliumschristen" ("Gospel Christians"). The Shtundists helped many Jews in Ukraine hide from the Nazis during the Holocaust. See also Baptists in Ukraine Brotherhood of Independent Baptist Churches and Ministries of Ukraine Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention of Canada Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia Biblists References John Brown, The Stundists (1893), digitized Evangelicalism in Ukraine Baptist Christianity in Russia