Bible Smuggling and Human Rights in the Cold War

Abstract

Bible smuggling was a little known dimension of Western anti-communist endeavours during the Cold War.¹ It took place throughout the conflict and involved numerous (overwhelmingly Protestant) groups from especially the Nordic countries, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. Unambiguously anti-communist in their orientation, these groups were fully transnational in terms of outlook and operation. The original source of inspiration for many was a pioneering Dutch smuggler, Anne van der Bijl, better known as Brother Andrew, whose first visit to the Soviet bloc took place in 1955.² By their very nature, these operations required secrecy and segmentation. Nonetheless, forms of cooperation developed as the various groups shared the view that missionary efforts ought to ignore state borders. Transnational cooperation was helped by personal links between key actors, public as well as secret international gatherings aimed at denouncing violations of religious rights in the communist countries, the exchange of information, and the coordination of activities. Such cooperation took very practical forms: co-financing publications, dividing tasks among Bible translators, producers and smugglers, and even operational collaboration.