Moscow Synagogues’ Attendance in 1945–1950 According to the Head of the Religious Affairs Department in Moscow and the Moscow Region

Abstract

The main topic of the article is attendance at Moscow synagogues in 1945–1950 the 1940s. The sources used to prepare the article are the documents from the collection Р-3004 «Moscow and Moscow Region Representative of the Soviet for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR» stored in the Central State Archives of Moscow. The author analyzes the data contained in the reports and other documents of the Representative about the attendance of the synagogues and other aspects of Jewish religious life in Moscow. The problems of everyday functioning of Jewish religious communities under a totalitarian regime are considered. In addition, the article discusses issues related to the sources that the Representative himself had for preparing the attendance data, a methodology that he probably used to calculate the number of believers who came to synagogues. As follows from the reports of the Representative, state measures aimed at combating religion did not lead to a drop in synagogue attendance. The decline in attendance did not begin until the 1950s.