Anti-church campaign in the 1920s in Kazakhstan (on the materials of the archives of Kazakhstan)

Abstract

On the basis of archival documents, the anti-church campaign in Kazakhstan in the 1920s was studied on the seizure of church valuables under the pretext of helping the starving population of the Volga region. The purpose of the study is to analyze the regional features of this process, which influenced the further policy of the Bolsheviks in relation to churches and their property. The subject of the study is the activities of district commissions for the seizure of church valuables. Historical events are considered in dynamics, their causal relationships are revealed during the campaign period. The main goals of the anti-religious policy of the state are shown. The relevance of the study is due to the need to introduce into scientific circulation previously unused archival documents that make it possible to objectively highlight the features of the confessional policy of the Soviet state in the 1920s in Kazakhstan. The study of state-confessional relations at the regional level gives a more complete picture of the socio-political history of the designated period. The study of this problem seems to be relevant at the present time, when the role of religion in the public life of the country has noticeably intensified. The methods of scientific knowledge were used, the principles of scientific objectivity and historicism were used in the context of the problem of the relationship between the state and the national outskirts. Statistical research methods and the method of historical comparison were used to identify regional features in state-confessional relations. The retrospective method made it possible to identify the reasons for the transformation of the religious policy of the state, the attitude of the authorities towards believers in the 1920s in Kazakhstan.