- 1926-00-01 —
Opposition to the Faith began in Russia. [BW3:35; BBR473]
- For details see BW3:34–43.
- 1928-04-00 —
As part of a general anti-religious campaign launched under Stalin, the Soviet authorities abrogated the constitution of the Spiritual Assembly of 'Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) and the Assembly was dissolved.
[BW3:37-43; BW8p88; SETPE1p154; YS2]
- Bahá'í schools and libraries were closed. [BBRSM173]
- Not long after, the government ordered that all religious buildings in the Soviet Union were the property of the government and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár locked. As soon as the doors were sealed by the authorities the friends gathered in the surrounds gardens for prayers. They came in far greater numbers that had requested the Temple. Too it was expropriated and later leased back to the Bahá'ís. [BBD122; BBR473; BBRSM161; BW3:37]
- The chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly, Jináb-i Gulpáygání, as representative for the community, was chosen to go to Moscow to appeal the case where the authorities agreed to remove the seals from the gates making the grounds accessible to the friends. [YS2]
- For the history of the persecution of the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union see BBR473 and BW3:34–43.
- Note: PP364–5 says it was 1929.
- See The Bahá'í Community of Ashkhabad; Its Social Basis and Importance in Bahá'í History by Moojan Momen.
- 1938-02-05 —
Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union were persecuted by the authorities. [BBR473, BW8p87-90, 179-81, BW14p479-481, SETPE1p155; YS6]
- Five hundred Bahá'í men were imprisoned in Turkistán. [Bw8p89]
- Many Persian Bahá'ís living in various cities of the Soviet Union were arrested, some are sent to Siberia, others to Pavladar in northern Kazakhstan and yet others to Iran. [BW8p87, 179, 184]
- Six hundred Bahá'í refugees-women, girls, children and a few old men, went to Iran, most to Mashhad. [BW8p89]
- The Bahá'í Temple in Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) was confiscated and turned into an art gallery. [BDD122, BW8p89]
- The Bahá'í schools were ordered closed. [BW8p89]
- Spiritual Assemblies and all other administrative institutions in the Caucasus were ordered dissolved. [BW8p89]
- Shoghi Effendi included all these territories in his Ten Year Plan, unveiled in 1953, as follows:
- The National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria was made responsible for opening Albania, Estonia, Finno—Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (Moldova), Romania and White Russia (Belarus) and for consolidating Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (S.F.S.R.), and Yugoslavia.
- The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of lran was made responsible for opening Kirgizia (later named Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) and Uzbekistan, and for consolidating Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.
- The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States was responsible for opening Kazakhstan, Sakhalin, and the Ukraine. [BW20p196-197]
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