History

In 1959, British exchange student Michael Bourdeaux received a note from Russian Christians asking for help. There, he learned of religious atrocities. After a divine meeting with the women who penned the letter, he took up their call to be the voice of the voiceless and in 1969 established the Keston Institute to document the fight for religious freedom by believers behind the Iron Curtain. A vast library and unique archive formed Keston's core. In 2007, the Institute passed its collection to the newly created Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society at Baylor University to preserve the resources and promote research on religion in totalitarian societies.