Zhidkov, Jakov Ivanovich (1885-1966)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1958 May 15 p. 3

Birth date: 1885

text of obituary:

Leader of Baptists Dies In Moscow

JACOB I. ZHIDKOV WAS CHAIRMAN OF DELEGATION WHICH VISITED U. S.

Presbyter Jakob I. Zhidkov, 73, president of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists in the Soviet Union recently died in Moscow, according to a report in The Mennonitische Rundschau, a Canadian Mennonite publication.

Presbyter Zhidkov conferred with H. S. Bender and David B. Wiens during their fraternal visit to Russia a year ago last fall. He was chairman of the Russia Baptist delegation which had a fellowship meeting with Mennonites in Chicago two years ago as part of a tour in America. He also met Mennonite representatives while attending the Baptist World Alliance in Ontario last summer.

In the Chicago meeting Presbyter Zhidkov mentioned that his first contact with Mennonites was in 1908 in a Mennonite church near Samara (now Kuibyshev), Russia. He has expressed appreciation for Baptist-Mennonite connections through the years.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1958 Aug 21 p. 3

text of obituary:

LEADER OF RUSSIAN BAPTISTS NOT DEAD AFTER ALL, MCC LEARNS

Akron, Pa. (MCC) — A report issued earlier this year, based on information from another publication, erroneously reported that Jakob I. Zhidkov was dead. Zhidkov is president of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists in the Soviet Union. He was the leader of the Russian Baptist delegation to America in 1956.

On July 30, H. S. Bender sent word from Germany that Zhidkov is very much alive, and that he met and spoke with him personally in Berlin. When Bro. Bender jokingly remarked that he thought Zhidkov was dead, the latter quipped, “I was resurrected!”