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Zhidkov, Jakov Ivanovich (1885-1966)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1966 Nov 10 p. 3
Birth date: 1885
text of obituary:
Jakov Ivanovich Zhidkov, age 81, former chairman and elder statesman of the Russian Baptists, died Oct. 27 in Moscow, according to a letter received by Dr. C. Krahn of North Newton from Wm. T. Snyder, executive secretary of the MCC, who is currently touring the Soviet Union together with David P. Neufeld, Winnipeg, Man., and Frank C. Peters, Kitchener, Ont.
The Mennonite delegation attended the funeral services held in the Moscow Baptist Church on Oct. 31.
Leader of Russia's 600,000 Baptists for 22 years, Zhidkov died about two weeks after the Congress of the All Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, at which he was succeeded by Ilya Ivanov, a senior pastor of the Moscow Baptist Church.
Zhidkov was born in Tsaritsin, now Volgograd, the son of a Bible colporteur and evangelical preacher. He attended the Evangelical Christian Bible School of St. Petersburg in 1905 and entered full-time pastoral service the same year.
His wife, Pellageja Kapustinskaya, whom he married in St. Petersburg in 1908, died in 1960. She was the daughter of an evangelical pastor who had been exiled to Transcaucasia because of his religious activities and died there.
Zhidkov had been a frequent visitor in the U. S. and on a number of occasions spoke in Mennonite churches here. His son Michael is president of the European Baptist Federation council.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1966 Dec 22 p. 6
text of obituary:
Twenty-three Speakers
Moscow — It was obvious that Jacob Zhidkov was a man loved by many. The street leading to the Baptist church was filled with people hoping to find a place in the auditorium. We arrived before 10 a.m. and the building was filled to capacity.
The deceased was laid out in an open coffin. He seemed to resemble a statesman at rest.
Some services are longer than others, but this one really crowned them all. Sixteen brethren spoke in the church service and seven at the graveside. The church service lasted three hours and 14 minutes and the graveside service an hour and nine minutes. One woman had a hymnal which she had copied by hand. Another had whole sections of the New Testament in handwritten form. It made us think of early church days when the Gospel was tradition and only a few handwritten manuscripts of parts of the New Testament were extant.
Many districts were represented by the superintendents. There were men from White Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Caucasus, and various districts in Siberia.
We spoke with Superintendent Waschtschuk from Alma Ata before the meeting. This brother was in prison until 1954. He promised to give greetings to our brethren in Alma Ata.
The service was most colorful. Bishop Juvenale of the Orthodox Church of Moscow was present and spoke warm words of praise for Jacob Zhidkov whom he had come to love and respect. He spoke of the high regard in which men of other faiths held this quiet hero of the Russian Baptists.
The choir sang seven numbers. We shall never forget the bass solo brought by a brother from the Ukraine. Not only was it of highest musical quality but it was sung with a depth of feeling as only the Russians can sing.
In the service were mostly women since the men were probably working. We noticed several soldiers present and from their participation we judged that they were Christians.
After the service the people were loaded on six buses and transported to the cemetery some 18 kilometers outside of Moscow. Our party was transported by taxis. We thought that we were warmly dressed but soon found out that we were not tuned to Russian winter weather. On the way to the cemetery we went through a quaint Russian village and we wondered what the villages of the Ukraine must look like.
'At the cemetery we again met our brethren from Siberia. We just placed ourselves at the outer edge of the crowd so that we might visit a bit. Many things were discussed and for once we didn't mind the length of the service. The brethren continued to tell us of their services and also related some of their experiences. Each brother called this a highlight of his life.
Even though we had not seen the Mennonite churches, the brethren felt that this visit would mean very much for the churches in Asia. The words spoken and the fellowship would be a source of much joy to the brethren. They promised to report everything to the churches at home.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1958 May 15 p. 3
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.
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!”