Ivan Voronaev

Who is Ivan Voronaev?

Ivan Yefimovitch Voronaev – leader and founder of Pentecostal movement in Ukraine and more broadly in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. He was born about 1885 in Orenburg.

American immigrant introduced Pentecostalism to Russia, Ukraine and some other slavic nations. The first Russian-language Pentecostal church in Manhattan was founded by I. Voronaev in 1919.

In 1920 Ivan Voronaev together with Gustav Smith traveled through Western and Southern Ukraine, where they established many new Pentecostal communities, beginning with a Pentecostal community in Odessa. Over 350 congregations in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria were eventually founded. In 1926, the preacher published "Short Catechesis of Christian Evangelical Faith".

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