Confessional policy of the Bolsheviks in the Сrimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920-1930s

Abstract

The article examines confessional politics in one of the most diffi cult periods for religious organizations that are the 20–30s of the XX century. At this time, active anti-religious work was carried out, so there were created some special organizations supposed to get rid of any manifestations of religious consciousness among the Soviet citizens. All the diversity of this policy is discussed on the example of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The policy that revealed the relation to the Orthodox and Muslim populations and took into account the national specifi cs of the region varied from relatively loyal attitude towards religious organizations in the 1920s to the events of the Great Terror of 1937–1938. The Crimean ASSR was multi-confessional. The authorities faced the need to compromise between the fi ght against religion and the desire not to aggravate confl icts with national minorities. The anti-religious policy was not supposed to confl ict with the policy of indigenousization. Throughout the pre-war twenty years, anti-religious work in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was not fully implemented and was poorly organized. The slowdown in the implementation of the anti-religious line was caused by both unsuccessful selections of the personnel and insuffi cient funding of the anti-religious activities carried out.