Antireligious Work in the East Siberian Region in 1936 in the Survey of a Representative of The League of Militant Atheists

Abstract

The article characterizes the antireligious work of Irkutsk, Cheremkhovsky and Ziminsky districts of the East Siberian Territory in the middle of the fourth decade of the XXth century based on the memos by M. P. Kuznetsov, a representative of the Central Council of the League of Militant Atheists (Union of the Militant Godless). On behalf of the Council and the Permanent Central Commission on Cults, he made a trip to a number of regions of Eastern Siberia, as a result of which he compiled several memos. Two of them are devoted to assessing the state of anti-religious work in Irkutsk, the administrative center of the East Siberian Region, as well as in Cheremkhovsky and Ziminsky districts. The documents are interesting due to both statistical data and analytical comments of the author. The research is based on the complex use of the fundamental principles of historical knowledge, as well as general and special scientific methods. We draw a conclusion that the subjectivism of the author of the memos is obvious and given the fact that he was a representative of the League of Militant Atheists, the data presented by him should be treated with caution. At the same time, the documents under consideration are an interesting source on the history of religions in Eastern Siberia. They supplement the available data on Irkutsk, Cheremkhovsky and Ziminsky districts of the East Siberian Region. Taking into account the availability of similar memos on a number of other administrative units of Eastern Siberia, it becomes possible to make a comparative analysis of the anti-religious activities of the authorities from the standpoint of an objective assessment of the available materials.