ANDERSON, PAUL B

ANDERSON, PAUL B., churchman, international YMCA church projects facilitator (27 December 1894–26 June 1985). From 1913 to 1917 he served the YMCA in Shanghai, China, and from 1917 to 1918, directed aid for Russian and Siberian prisoners of war. He received a B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1920 and did graduate work at Oxford University. From the early 1920s on, he worked for the YMCA to aid Russian emigres in Europe, particularly in Paris. Along with other YMCA officials, especially Gustave G. Kullmann and Ralph Hollinger, he was able to change the YMCA policy of organizing generic events in YMCA centers to the policy of giving aid to projects that were specifically meaningful to Russians and implemented within Russian organizations. Of special note, he was instrumental in founding (1924) and giving continuing support to St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute (q.v.), a branch of the Russian Student Christian Movement, and the YMCA Russian-language press in Paris, which he served as director and editor. Also, from September 1935 to November 1942 he played an important role in channeling American YMCA funds to support Orthodox Action, the Russian emigre Christian social action organization, working closely with Metropolitan Evlogii (q.v.) in all of these projects. He was honorarily awarded a Th.D. from St. Sergius Institute for his services. He was the editor of the journal Living Church and he is the author of People, Church and State in Modern Russia (1944). His reminiscences were published as No East or West (1985).