cations of its principles, with
their emphasis on religion, on the sanctity of family life, on the
institution of private property, and their repudiation of all
discrimination between classes and of the doctrine of the absolute
equality of men--these combined to excite the suspicion, and later to
arouse the fierce antagonism, of the ruling authorities, and to
precipitate one of the gravest crises in the history of the first Baha'i
century.

As the crisis developed and spread to even the outlying centers of both
Turkistan and the Caucasus it resulted gradually in the imposition of
restrictions limiting the freedom of these communities, in the
interrogation and arrest of their elected representatives, in the
dissolution of their local Assemblies and their respective committees in
Moscow, in I_sh_qabad, in Baku and in other localities in the
above-mentioned provinces and in the suspension of all Baha'i youth
activities. It even led to the closing of Baha'i schools, kindergartens,
libraries and public reading-rooms, to the interception of all
communication with foreign Baha'i centers, to the confiscation of Baha'i
printing presses, books and documents, to the prohibition of all teaching
activities, to the abrogation of the Baha'i constitution, to the abolition
of all national and local funds and to the ban placed on the attendance of
non-believers at Baha'i meetings.

In the middle of 1928 the law expropriating religious edifices was applied
to the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of I_sh_qabad. The use of this edifice as a
house of worship, however, was continued, under a five-year lease, which
was renewed by the local authorities in 1933, for a similar period. In
1938 the situation in both Turkistan and the Caucasus rapidly
deteriorated, leading to the imprisonment of over five hundred
believers--many of whom died--as well as a number of women, and the
confiscation of their property, followed by the exile of several prominent
members of these communities to Siberia, the polar forests and other
places in the vicinity of the Arctic Ocean, the subsequent deportation of
most of the remnants of these communities to Persia, on account of their
Persian nationality, and lastly, the complete expropriation of the Temple
itself and its conversion into an art gallery.

In Germany, likewise, the rise and establishment of the Administrative
Order of the Faith, to whose expansion and consolidation the German
believers were distinctively and inc