Ivan Yefimovitch Voronaev (Nikita Petrovitch Tcherkasov) – leader and founder of Pentecostal movement in Russia, Ukraine and the former USSR. He was born about 1885 in Orenburg

Orenburg

Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...

.

American born immigrant introduced Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...

 to Russia, Ukraine and some other slavic nations. The first Russian-language Pentecostal church in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 was founded by I. Voronaev in 1919.

In 1920 Ivan Voronaev together with Gustav Smith arrived in Ukraine (the West and South-East), where he established many new Christian communes (including Pentecostal commune in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

). Over 350 congregations in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria were founded. In 1926, the preacher
published "Short Catechesis of Christian Evangelical Faith (CEF)".



Voronaev was arrested by Soviet militia in 1929, sent to Siberia and died in captivity.