At present, it is not known who brought Protestantism to the village of Tolkovo or who the first missionaries were. However, it is very likely connected with the Poleshuks (local Polesian people) who, starting from the last years of the Russian Empire, sought a better life and moved to Western Europe, many to the United States. Many settled permanently in new countries, while some returned home – and with them came the first Protestants (both missionaries and newly converted believers). Protestantism spread very quickly across Polesia. This article examines the village of Tolkovo.
Between 1919 and 1925, there was already a prayer house in Tolkovo. It was located opposite the school, in an alley at the turn to “Zaklunia”.
Zaklunia – a narrow road that ran behind the farmsteads' outbuildings, the same length as the main street onto which the central entrances of the homesteads opened.
This prayer house was provided to the Baptist believers by Ivan Sokovich. It was an ordinary residential building, quite tall for its time, with one central entrance and four large windows. According to the recollections of Vera Grinevich, a resident of Tolkovo.
This prayer house existed until the end of World War II. Towards the end of the war, when the communist regime was firmly established, partisans destroyed the prayer house, dismantling it piece by piece. Ivan Sokovich received over 20 years in prison for missionary work. He died in the early 1980s.
During Soviet times, the ECB community held services in secret from the state. As Klavdia Zhuruk and Vera Grinevich recall, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, they held services in the ordinary homes of Tolkovo residents, for which they often received large fines from the police. Services were held at the homes of:
With the dissolution of the USSR, freedom of speech returned. Feodosiy Ryzhuk died and bequeathed his house to the community for holding services. The pastor in Tolkovo became Nikolai Ryzhuk, the son of Feodosiy.
Currently, the prayer house is in good condition. Services are not held there because the village of Tolkovo has few inhabitants, most of whom are Orthodox. There is almost no young people – they have all moved to the cities. At the time of writing (12 December 2019), Nikolai Ryzhuk was alive and feeling well at the age of 86.