When President Gary L. Browning entered Russia in 1990 as the first mission president called to the land after the demise of the communist regime, he found "three young but already flourishing branches of the Church that existed in the former USSR."
The largest branch, he said, was in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, with nearly 100 members. Nearly 50 members lived in Tallinn, Estonia, with another 25 members in Vyborg, Russia.
There were several major factors that inhibited the early missionary work. "Nevertheless, a golden layer of Russians remained, prepared by the Spirit and receptive to the gospel message," he said in a BYU campus devotional in 1993 shortly after his return home.
"Our mission began in July 1990 with 16 missionaries transferred from the Finland Helsinki Mission and upwards of 175 Russian and Estonian members. By the time our mission was divided for the first time in February 1992 into the Russia St. Petersburg and Russia Moscow Missions, there were approximately 70 missionaries and more than 750 members.
"By the time of our release," he continued, "the Moscow mission included branches in Moscow, Nizhnii Novgorod, Samara, Saratov and Voroenzh. The missionary force had grown to nearly 140 missionaries, and membership was approximately 750 members."
To illustrate the dynamic growth of the early days, President Browning noted how the first group of members in Moscow became a branch in March 1991 with a Russian branch president. A year later, in March 1992, the Moscow branch was divided into six small branches. A year later in 1993, those six branches had grown sufficiently to be organized into 15 small Russian-speaking branches.
"I realized that in 1993," said President Browning, "150 years had passed from the 1843 appointment [by the Prophet Joseph Smith] of the first missionaries to Russia, and that this day of fulfillment must be an occasion for heavenly rejoicing and grateful recognition of the efforts of so many over 15 decades who made the emergence of the Church out of obscurity a reality in Russia." (Source: Church News, Nov. 6, 1993, p. 5.)
Today, members of the Church in Russia are characterized by their enthusiasm for the gospel in a land largely composed of people not affiliated with organized religion. Church members are active in various service projects to serve others, improve lifestyle and build their communities. They have served in schools, orphanages, hospitals and other public places. During the past 10 years, eight missions of the Church have been organized to cover the country that extends over 11 time zones. Currently, more than 11,000 members are organized into 103 branches.
