No one can deny that Billy Graham’s ministry was historically significant, but his efforts behind the Iron Curtain were arguably some of the more significant of his evangelistic work. Along with the tremendous effort of his team, he reached out to thousands of lost people who desperately longed to hear of Jesus despite the atheistic regimes that ruled over them.

Forty years ago, in September 1985, Billy Graham visited the war-torn, communist country of Romania. He toured seven cities: Arad, Bucharest, Sibiu, Suceava, Oradea, Timișoara, and Cluj-Napoca, and saw overwhelming crowds at each location. In Timisoara, over 150,000 people gathered outside of an Orthodox cathedral just to get a glimpse of Billy Graham and hear a hope-filled message of God’s comfort and peace.

Billy Graham’s team had been told that loudspeakers would be placed outside the churches where he was preaching, and television relays would run to other churches, but they were denied by the Romanian authorities at most of the stops. At one location where a man was stringing wire for the loudspeakers, a police officer told the man to take the wires down. The man told the officer to take them down himself because he believed the crowd would harm him if he were to comply—such was the hunger to hear what Billy Graham had to say. One team member, Alex Haraszti, believed the Romanian authorities had made big promises in advance of the trip because they believed Graham wouldn’t attract many crowds, so they wouldn’t have to keep any of the promises made.

The trip to Romania is recounted by Billy Graham in his autobiography, Just As I Am:

“The entire visit, however, took place in an atmosphere of tense political pressures, protracted negotiations, and even broken promises. Almost every evening, Alex [Haraszti] and John [Akers] were up past midnight attempting to hammer out details of the following day’s schedule with our government contact. One night, after a particularly difficult session, John said he was afraid I was going to be declared persona non grata and expelled from the country.”

The desperation to hear the Gospel was so high, the team was mobbed outside the cathedral in Timisoara following the service inside. The crowd begged Billy Graham to preach from the cathedral’s steps, but, because the loudspeaker wires had been cut by the authorities, there was no way Graham could preach even if the authorities had allowed him to do so.

In the years that followed, Franklin Graham and Will Graham have preached in 11 countries that were previously behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, openly sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ—without government censorship—to more than 657,000 people. We praise God for these opportunities and pray for many more in the years ahead.

Find out more about Billy Graham’s evangelistic efforts behind the Iron Curtain in the “Peace with God” gallery in the Library’s Journey of Faith tour. Admission is always free. Plan your visit today.