Die Wiedergeburt der Ethnologie aus dem Geist des Atheismus. Zur Erforschung des „zeitgenössischen Sektierertums“ im Rahmen von Chruščevs antireligiöser Kampagne

Abstract

In the summer of 1959, researchers belonging to the Academy of Sciences began to conduct fieldwork in Russia’s Central Black Soil Area. They dedicated themselves to an issue that was for various reasons quite sensitive: “religious sectarianism”. In the context of the anti-religious campaign launched by Nikita Khrushchev, this research was, on the one hand, intended to scientifically underpin state propaganda. On the other hand, the research team headed by the ethnographer and specialist of religion, Aleksandr Klibanov, had to deal with the problem of how - as atheists on a state mission - to attain reliable information from their interview partners. As members of “sects”, the latter were regarded as potentially “subversive” and thus subject to persecution. In the field, the researchers thus developed forms of participant observation whose results were greatly appreciated by the state, but methodologically criticized as extremely questionable and unworthy of Party and Komsomol members. In this article, an exploration is made of the interplay between the various State, Party and scientific institutions as well as the interaction between Moscow and the regions where the research was conducted. This allows to identify important elements in the political framework of scientific work and methodological self-reflection within Soviet ethnography during the Thaw period.