Anti-religious Campaign Research Articles

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE OLD BELIEVERS’ RELIGION IN BURYATIA IN THE 1920S: IMPLEMENTATION METHODS

Purposeful struggle against religion became one of the most important directions in the ideology of the Soviet country in the 1920s. For Old Believers, who had been living in settlements along the Selenga River (near the City of Verkhneudinsk) since the 1760s, this meant a continuation of the conflict situation in communication and interaction with the contemporary government. The Old Believers, who for decades had been trying to preserve the specifics of the old Orthodox religion, fulfilled the entire list of economic and military duties, but resisted the decisions of the tsarist administration to eliminate the schism (sealing chapels, monitoring the activities of preceptors, conversion in coreligionism etc.). The Soviet power, established in the 1920s in Buryatia, demonstrated continuity in the perception of the Old Believer religion as a problem. Hence, the article sets a task of characterisation of the methods of the struggle of the Soviet government against the Old Believer religion in the 1920s. The goal of the research is an attempt to study the anti-religious campaign of the Bolsheviks in the settlements of the Old Believers of the Buryat-Mongol autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which can complete the ideas about their way of life, the attitude to the authorities in the turning point of the early Soviet power. The object of the study is the Old Believers’ population of the Buryat-Mongol ASSR, the subject is the religious and cultural policy of the Soviet power. In the long-term planning of the Bolsheviks was the complete suppression of the religious worldview among the population rather than elimination of the schism in the Orthodox Church (as before), hence the methods of achieving the goal were completely different – defamation of character of the preceptors, in many ways identical with the practices of working with other religions, promotion ideas that religion is the main reason for their ignorance and lack of freedom, etc., among the Old Believer youth. In the 1920s (in contrast to the next decade of repressive politics) the authorities approached religion with caution, their methods were mainly aimed at creating a negative information background and supporting that part of the Old Believers who sought changes in their lives.

Group-based meta-emotion and emotion responses to intergroup threat.

In a secularizing world, religious groups are increasingly threatened by anti-religious groups. We present two studies investigating religious peoples' responses to anti-religious threats. We expected intergroup threats to shape group-based emotions and behavioural intentions through a novel pathway whereby threat affects group-based meta-emotions: the ingroup's perception of the outgroup's emotions towards the ingroup. In Study 1, we experimentally manipulated threat and group salience with participants from two different cultures (British and Latinx/Hispanic). Study 1 demonstrated non-interactive effects of threat increasing negative emotional responses and of group salience strengthening emotional responses. The results illustrated the role of group-based meta-emotions in predicting outgroup-directed emotions and behavioural response intentions. Study 2 used a different manipulation of threat in an American sample and an identity-based manipulation of salience to assess the impact of real-world anti-religious campaigns involving symbolic and realistic threats. Both threat types increased negative group-based meta-emotions, negative outgroup-directed emotions, desire to respond, and opposition to the anti-religious campaign compared to no threat. Overall, religious identity salience had little impact on outcomes. The indirect pathway through meta-emotion replicated, suggesting the importance of considering this novel meta-emotion pathway in intergroup relations.

The Role of Ethnographers in the Invention of Socialist Traditions in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

Abstract This study, based on archive document research and analysis of publications by Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) ethnographers, discusses the process of invention and implementation of Socialist traditions and the role of scientists in this. The introduction of Soviet traditions in Latvia did not begin immediately after the Second World War when the communist occupation regime was restored. The occupation regime in the framework of an anti-religious campaign turned to the transformation of traditions that affect individual’s private sphere and relate to church rituals – baptism, confirmation, weddings, funerals, Latvian cemetery festivities – in the second half of 1950s, along with the implementation of revolutionary and labour traditions. In order to achieve the goals set by the Communist Party, a new structure of institutions was formed and specialists from many fields were involved, including ethnographers from the Institute of History at the LSSR Academy of Sciences (hereinafter – LSSR AS). Ethnographers offered recommendations, as well as observed and analysed the process, discussing it in meetings of official commissions and sharing the conclusions in scientific publications, presentations, etc.

ANTIRELIGIOUS CAMPAIGN OF THE SOVIET POWER DURING LATE 1920S AND "PIONERSKAYA PRAVDA" NEWSPAPER

Purpose: The article made in the framework of such a new, but dynamically developing trend for post-Soviet historiography, that is the history of Soviet childhood, aims to identify and study the role and the place of periodicals for children in Soviet educational practices.
 Methodology: The work also used the methods of historical psychology, in particular, child psychology, in order to identify specific ways of educational impact on target reading group among children.
 Result: The results of the study are represented not only by potential informational capability description of such a historical source that is poorly studied by domestic and foreign source science, as the Soviet periodicals for children (in particular, the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda"), but also by the determination of the Soviet child media space possibilities concerning the education of "militant atheists". The materials of the article can be used in the process of the Soviet history of Russia, the history of religion, the history of childhood teaching, as well as the history and source study of periodicals in the USSR.
 Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students.
 Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of the Antireligious campaign of the Soviet power during late 1920s and "Pionerskaya Pravda" newspaper is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner.

Письменные источники на тибетском языке из фондов Национального музея Тувы

В фондах Национального музея Республики Тыва хранится коллекция рукописей и ксилографов на тибетском языке, которая насчитывает примерно 20000 единиц хранения. Статья рассматривает историю формирования и исследования коллекции, анализируются различные аспекты изучения тибетских рукописей и ксилографов. Источниками выступила внутренняя документация музея (книги поступлений) и ряд научных работ по теме.Первое поступление предметов зафиксировано в 1954 г. Фонд пополнялся неравномерно, в разные годы и из разных источников, но все же можно предположить, что основная часть коллекции тибетских рукописей и ксилографов поступила из бывших библиотек буддийских монастырей Тувы.Почти 80% всей коллекции тибетских рукописей и ксилографов в фондах Национального музея в Туве составляют тексты культового и религиозно-обрядового содержания и труды буддийского канона. Один из них — редкий буддийский канон Ганджура, единственный в Туве. Был издан в Монголии, в Урге в 1908–1910 гг., найден в пещере в Кызылском районе, вероятно спрятанный во время репрессий священнослужителей 1930-х гг. Состоит из 94 томов и имеет 9 разделов. Представлены их названия на тибетском языке и санскрите.Значительную часть тибетской коллекции в музее составляют небольшие по объему канонические сочинения из Ганджура в многочисленных изданиях-дубликатов. Отдельной группой является учебная литература, которая использовалась при изучении буддийской философии в монастырях. Ее не издавали в Туве, завозили из Бурятии и Монголии. Но тексты религиозно-обрядовой и бытовой практики издавали в печатнях крупных монастырях-хурээ Тувы. Мы можем судить об этом по коллекции резных ксилографических деревянных досок-клише, которые использовали для книгопечатания. Подчеркивается, что тем самым музейные коллекции проливают значительный свет на развитие буддизма в Туве.

해빙기 소비에트 정부의 중앙아시아 이슬람 정책의 특징 : 반-종교 캠페인(anti-religious campaign)’과 ‘반-제국주의 아젠다(anti-colonial agenda)’사이에서

The Soviet government, which advocated atheism, is believed to have adopted consistently repressive policies against Islam. But in fact, depending on domestic and international circumstances, sometimes oppressed, sometimes formed a partnership with the Islamic communities. After the October Revolution, the revolutionary government implemented repression policies against religion in general. But as the war between Germany and the Soviet Union broke out in 1941, the Soviet government, which decided to draw the support of religious communities, tried to appease the Orthodox, Judaism, and Islamic communities.BR However, as the Cold War system was established, it led to different course of actions for different religions. In particular, after Stalin`s death, Khrushchev, who wanted to strengthen his power, launched a massive anti-religious campaign, denouncing Stalin’s appeasement policy on religion. The Orthodox Church was subjected to massive repression as part of this de-Stalinist movement. Judaism and Islam were influenced not only by this domestic situation but also by the external conditions set by the Cold War. The Jews of the Soviet Union were oppressed as Israel, as a new nation, took a pro-Western line. But the policy on Central Asian Muslims was that of relative appeasement.BR Moreover, the Thaw in the wake of Khrushchev’s coming to power was a time when the anti-colonial struggle in Asian and African countries came to fruition and became liberated from Western empires. Many of these new independent states were mostly Muslims. The Soviet Union, which wanted to bring them under its sphere of influence in the Cold War, used Central Asian Islamic organizations to smooth up the relations with former colonies believing in Islam. The Spiritual Board of Central Asia served as a spring board for the Soviet government in the course of strengthening relations with the newly independent Islamic countries. In return, the Soviet Muslims were allowed to relatively freely engage in religious activities.

The National and Confessional Diversity of the Population in the Soviet Projects and Documents Regulating Burial

This article examines how issues of national and confessional diversity of the country were reflected and resolved in Soviet official documents concerning the funerary sphere. Analysis of such sources as decrees, rules, instructions, regulations and their projects concerning cemeteries and funerals demonstrates that their discourse and content reflected approaches in national politics, changes in the economic course, and objective and subjective conditions at different stages of the country’s history. Methodologically, the issues considered are included in the research contexts of the history of national politics, imperial history, economic history, and the history of Soviet social engineering. Until the end of the Great Patriotic War, despite state-proclaimed atheism and anti-religious campaigns, a targeted elimination of denominational cemeteries was not seriously considered in the context of the campaigns. Rather, their disappearance was a result of growth and redevelopment of cities and, consequently, the “relocation” of cemeteries from the centre to the outskirts and the emergence of new cemeteries. The latter were arranged without considering the national-confessional principle and were often called “international”, which emphasised their difference from the former denominational cemeteries. The emergence of a project in 1946 which divided burial space according to the denominational principle, in fact, proposed the establishment of denominational cemeteries and reflected changes in national policy from the 1930s, i.e. the strengthening of power-state and nationalist tendencies. However, this too radical an approach for state atheism was mitigated in Soviet documents of the late 1940s — 1970s concerning the burial sphere: they recommended to consider “national” customs with regard to the funerary issue and burial space with the prevalence of quasi-secular “clean” form of Sovietness. As the analysis of the 2014–2017 bill demonstrates, the confessional criterion is in demand in Post-Soviet time again as very significant for differentiating burial space and the national and confessional diversity of the population.

"Привести помещения ЗАГС в соответствующий культурный вид...": органы ЗАГС в антирелигиозной кампании конца 1950-х - первой половины 1960-х гг.

The documents presented in the publication from the funds of the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region on local material demonstrate a separate plot of the anti-religious campaign of the late 1950s - the first half of the 1960s - introduction of civil ceremonies and rituals into the family ritual ceremonies. The most important role in solving this problem belonged to the registry offices, which were supposed to ensure solemnity and make memorable procedures for registering marriage and birth.

Положение приходских священно- и церковнослужителей в России в 1917–1930 годах

This article is devoted to analysis and tries to describe the situation of the parish (white) clergy in Russia in the period from 1917 to 1930-ies of XX century. The aim of the work is based on the study of documents, legal sources, theses, and sources of periodicals to trace the change of position of the clergy, not only in cities but also in rural areas, one of the most difficult periods in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. For the writing of this article the author used the following methods: system (analysis of the situation of clergy and the development of relations between the clergy and the state in the specified chronological period), the historical-genetic (the desire to identify regularities of change of the social status of the priests and members of clergy in accordance with the constantly changing conditions of life in the country). The result of this work was that the position of the parish clergy, from 1917 until 1941, has undergone drastic changes not only in economic but also in social and ethical terms. The main factors of these changes (and not in a good way) were: a decrease in the number of parishioners and conduct a service, deprivation of state assistance in providing material support to the clergy, restriction of rights, the constant waves of anti-religious campaign and repression. However, despite the tightening of conditions of life, the clergy continued to perform their duty and remained faithful to his Homeland that could not go unnoticed and further leads to the change of relations between the Soviet government and representatives of the clergy, but still with a predominance of anticlerical sentiment in the society until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The results allow drawing attention to one of less studied issues in the history of the life and work of the parish clergy with the possibility of a further examination with the involvement of the instruments of the clergy in exile in Europe and America.

The Value of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Preservation of the National Religious Rights оf the Ukrainians: 60s–70s of the 20th Century

In the article we studied the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as an integral part, a national factor in the religious process of the Ukrainians, living in western regions of the USSR during the 1960s and 1970s. The research gave a comprehensive analysis of the place and role of the church in nation-building and preservation of ethnic and national identity of the titular representatives of the Ukraine’s nation during the Soviet anti-religious campaign. We described the activities of the Greek Catholic clergy, whose aim was the consolidation of national-patriotic forces and the formation of religious opposition among the Ukrainians. The article also outlined the policy vectors of the atheistic communist ruling elite and revealed their essence, covered violent reorientation of Greek Catholics to Orthodoxy. In terms of religious oppression and persecution, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church continued its development of underground and become a consolidating factor in Western Ukrainian struggle for their national and religious rights. It has become an important factor in ethnicity creation and a spiritual and cultural self of the Ukrainian people.

Ethnic Germans of Ukraine in the Context of Soviet-German Relations (1920-1950s)

The aim of the publication is the study of ethno-political, socio-economic, demographic and other processes taking place in the environment of the German ethnic group of Ukraine in the context of the Soviet-German inter-state relations during 1920-1950s. The author analyzes the attitude of governmental bodies to the German ethnic community, causes, mechanisms of realization, demographic, social and political consequences of political repressions of the Stalinist regime against ethnic Germans, mass deportation of the German population from the regions of traditional accommodation in the interwar period.
 The author emphasizes that the repressive actions were caused by and closely related to administrative-imperative methods of implementation of domestic policies, the militarization of the economy, collectivization of village, violent grain procurements, antireligious campaigns etc. Repressions of the “nationalists” (German, Polish, etc.) were linked with the international factor - the aggravation of the situation in the world. The deterioration of relations between the USSR and Germany and Poland as well as the corresponding strengthening of anti-German and anti-Polish propaganda campaign led in particular to a special bias of Soviet authorities towards the German and Polish population, which was considered as a potential base for “Nazi” activities in the country.
 This publication analyzes the social and legal status of “volksdeutsche” during World War II, the attitude towards “ethnic Germans” of Ukraine from Nazi occupation regime. The status and nature of ethnic Germans staying in the mode of special settlements, repatriation and problems of separated families in the postwar years have been considered.
 The author has paid special attention to the problems of lifting restrictions in the legal status of the majority of the German population of the USSR as a result of the German-Soviet negotiations in Moscow in 1955, the attempts of ethnic Germans and the government of Ukraine to ensure ethnic, social, cultural, religious and spiritual needs of the German ethnic community under conditions of modern Ukrainian state – building and deepening of democratic processes in Ukrainian society.

МУСУЛЬМАНСКАЯ ОБЩИНА МОСКВЫ В 1917–1930-Е ГГ.

The article deals with the relationship between the Bolshevik government and the Muslim ummah of the Soviet Russia in the first decades of the Bolshevik period through the example of the Muslim community of Moscow. Besides, there is considered the issue of the level of religiosity among the Muslim population of Moscow in connection with the anti-religious campaigns and the implementation of the program “atheistic five-year plan” in 1932-1937.The author emphasizes two steps in the relations of the state and Islam. The first period, 1917 - the early 1920s, was characterized by the intensification of the spiritual life of the Muslim community and its willingness of cooperation with the Bolshevik government. It was the reaction to the implementation of the Bolshevik slogan of the right of religious freedom. The second period, the early 1920s - 1930s, was associated with conducting anti-religious campaigns, including the ones against Islam. Most mosques were closed. These events were based on the new socialist values. In 1937 all national organizations were recognized wrecking, whereupon most national cultural institutions in Moscow were closed.The author admits that under the influence of thedaily socialist propaganda pressure, the Muslim population of Moscow hid their religious feelings. At the same time, the author points out that the belief in people’s minds still occupied an important place. This conclusion is based on the documents from the Central Municipal Archives of Moscow (TSMAM), as well as the statistics showing a high rate of Muslims in Moscow. The greatest attention of the Soviet Government during the period was paid to the atheistic education of children. In this regardthe atheistic propaganda was asuccess, but it does not mean that many people abandoned their faith. Under the circumstances, people learned to hide their religion. Despite the efforts to fi ght against Islam in schools, the faith of many pupils of the capital, especially of the Tatar nationality, was strong thanks to family education.

АНТИРЕЛИГИОЗНАЯ КАМПАНИЯ В ОТНОШЕНИИ МУСУЛЬМАН САРАТОВСКОГО ПОВОЛЖЬЯ В 1930-е ГОДЫ

АНТИРЕЛИГИОЗНАЯ КАМПАНИЯ В ОТНОШЕНИИ МУСУЛЬМАН САРАТОВСКОГО ПОВОЛЖЬЯ В 1930-е ГОДЫ

"Drunk tree": illustrations published by medical periodicals of the Ukrainian SSR as an instrument to overcome alcoholism in the 1920s

Alcoholism remained one of the most urgent problems of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1920s. In the article, the author analyses activities of the Bolsheviks aimed to solve these problems with the help of illustrative materials of medical periodicals. The author found that after the abolition of the dry law the Soviet authorities intensified their agitation and propaganda activities, in which doctors were actively involved. Anti-alcohol topics were reflected in a number of illustrations and articles of the popular science magazine Put’ k zdorov’yu” (The Way to Health). In order to counteract the spread of alcoholism, the published illustrations and texts showed a negative influence of alcohol on the body, they exposed existing myths about its positive effects on humans, emphasized the role of drunkenness in the spread of tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, and demonstrated the negative impact of the latter on children. They also illustrated various types of deviant behavior of people under the influence of alcohol intoxication, as the fate of children of alcoholics, in particular child prostitution, and further - prostitution in general, disorderly conduct and criminality. A special attention was paid to family and financial problems caused by drunkenness, etc. The author finds that on pages of the magazine not only a negative image of the alcohol-addicted people was created, but also ways to overcome this social disease were offered. In particular, one promoted activities of the workers’ clubs, summer clubs in the gardens, reading-rooms, cinema, theaters, and teahouse; calls for a healthy lifestyle, physical education were made. At the same time, the Soviet government used the anti-alcohol campaign to achieve other political goals, in particular discreditation of the tsarist government, and the pre-revolutionary order at all, and dissemination of the negative image of the NEP-men, within the framework of the anti-religious campaign. Key words: anti-alcohol campaign, Soviet power, Ukrainian SSR, 1920s, journal graphics, medical periodicals.

Soviet Ideology in Workers’ Memoirs of the 1920s–1930s (A Case Study of John Scott’s and Borys Weide’s Memoirs)

Ideology was the basis of Bolshevik policy and was used as a means of control over society. Key Bolshevik ideological postulates were created and disseminated in the 1920s–1930s. The goal of this study is to analyze the influence of Soviet ideology on workers of the 1920s–1930s in the memoirs of John Scott and Borys Weide, who participated in the building of Magnitogorsk and DniproHES, respectively. Based on the memoirs, the article investigates the dissemination of ideology and describes its main tasks in the 1920s–1930s, such as “the building of socialism,” and the glorification and formation of the “new Soviet man.” These two constructs have several components, which are considered in the article. For example, glorification of “the building of socialism” was achieved through demonstrating Soviet “achievements” in industry, “superiority” to “capitalist countries” of the West, etc. To form the “new man,” images of “self” and “other” were created and an anti-religious campaign was conducted. The study focuses on the writing style of workers’ texts, as the memoirs were written in a formalized “Bolshevik” language through which their authors demonstrated their loyalty to the state. Also studied are changes in workers’ attitudes to the state despite ideological influence.

Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

ABSTRACTAt the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state.

Building A Heaven on Earth: Religion, Activism, and Protest in Japanese-Occupied Korea by Albert L. Park

Reviewed by: Building A Heaven on Earth: Religion, Activism, and Protest in Japanese-Occupied Korea by Albert L. Park Hwansoo Kim, Assistant Professor Building A Heaven on Earth: Religion, Activism, and Protest in Japanese-Occupied Korea, by Albert L. Park, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015, xi + 320p. Albert Park’s Building A Heaven on Earth is a welcome addition to scholars’ intensifying call for a modern Korean historiography that moves beyond modernist- (including Marxist) and nationalist-centered approaches. Park compellingly argues against these two interpretative extremes by presenting three [End Page 135] religious communities in 1920s and 1930s colonial Korea that experimented with an alternative vision of religion, modernity, capitalism, and nation. The YMCA, Presbyterian, and Ch’ŏndogyo organizations, led by Hong Pyŏngsŏn (1888–1967), Pae Minsu (1896–1968), and Yi Tonhwa (1884–1950), respectively, responded to the deleterious effects of modern and capitalist onslaughts on peasants at the margins of colonial Korean society and mobilized rural agrarian campaigns, both spiritual and economic, to actualize a heavenly kingdom on earth. In placing the origins and developments of these nation-wide communities at the center of scholarly debates on nationalism, colonialism, and modernity in colonial Korea, Park makes a number of theoretical and interpretive contributions to the field. First and foremost, Park problematizes the aforementioned interpretative approaches, both of which are linear-, urban-, secular-, and capitalist-centered, by focusing his argument on the rural, religious, and cooperative environments of these movements. Park contends that these modernist and capitalist approaches, represented by scholarship centered on the notion of colonial modernity and the nationalist paradigm, prevent a nuanced understanding of the period’s complex history and overlook the significant power operative in religious communities, a power which gave displaced peasants, in an opportune and careful manner, "an alternative vision of modernity" (p. 3) as well as of religion and nation. Secondly, Park debunks the theory of secularization that claims that, with modernization, society will progress and religion recede into superstition, losing its relevance to the modern individual. He sets forth new interpretive frameworks for modernity, which scholars of cultural/ post-colonial studies have advanced in recent years. These frameworks include Fredric James’s and Charles Baudelaire’s sense of a new "feeling" (p. 14), Talal Asad’s inseparability of "the religion and the secular" (p. 17), and Courtney Bender’s and Ann Taves’ mutually mirroring and generative forces of religion and secularity (p. 17). Thirdly, Park utilizes these frameworks to effectively bring to light how religion can skillfully rearticulate its own symbols, ideas, and worldviews at different times and in different situations, allowing it to bring global and local forces under the rhetoric of tradition. In other words, religious leaders are experts in combining traditional and modern (also global and local) elements creatively and tangibly. With these theoretical and interpretative [End Page 136] underpinnings, Park presents the three faith-based movements, whose period of activity spanned from 1920 to 1937 in colonial Korea. He maintains that these were collectively "one of the largest and most powerful rural campaigns in Korean history" (p. 12). The following articulates the main argument structuring Park’s book: In response to the contradictions of modernization and the antireligious campaigns, leaders from the Ch’ŏndogyo, the Presbyterian Church, and the YMCA rearticulated conventional religious languages and transformed religion into a vehicle to question the norms of modernity, pursue social change in response to modernization, and achieve political, economic, and social justice. (p. 10) The book is divided into two parts of three chapters each, with six chapters altogether plus a conclusion. The first three chapters provide political, economic, and intellectual backgrounds for the origins of the faith-inspired rural movements. Chapter 1 outlines how the decline of the Neo-Confucian order from the late nineteenth century to 1919 left a vacuum in which the popularity of western Christianity and the indigenous Ch’ŏndogyo could grow. This chapter also traces the ways in which these traditions molded a new set of languages, worldviews, and communities that could withstand the chaos and animosity resulting from the period’s tumultuous changes and bestow new meaning and direction to the displaced Korean people. Chapter 2 details the full...

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

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.

Persecution of believers as a systemic feature of the Soviet regime

The article focuses on the anti-religious policy of the Soviet Union adopted in relation to believers and religious organizations. The reasons for the persecution of religion, churches and believers, such as the conceptual framework of Marxist ideology, desire for total power, and creation of an ideocratic state are analyzed. The main stages of the anti-religious campaign led by the Bolshevik government are determined. Major anti-religious practices, such as legal restriction of all forms of religious life, discrimination against the clergy and believers, atheist education and anti-religious propaganda work are studied. It may be concluded that persecution of believers is a systemic feature of a totalitarian regime.

Pentecostals and Charismatic Protestants in the Republic of Komi and Nenets Tundra

Between 2010 and 2012, an extended team of scholars studied contemporary Protestant groups in Russia. The project was labelled Center for the Study of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in Russia1 (CSPCMR) and was led by Aleksandr Panchenko from the European University in Saint Petersburg and Patrick Plattet from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Besides Russia and the USA, scholars from Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, and Estonia were involved in this collaborative research effort. The host institution of the project was the European University in St. Petersburg. The aim of the project was to analyse the Protestant-charismatic (P/c) Christianity in various regions of post-Soviet Russia. The project proceeded from the notions concerned with global effects of the rapid extension of P/c Christianity in the contemporary world. In the anthropology of Pentecostalism, problems of continuity and change, globalisation and indigenisation, preservation of prePentecostal ontologies, creating the new morality and approaches to economy and politics have been discussed (Coleman 2000; Robbins 2004a, 2004b). The Estonian team’s specific task was to analyse contemporary Protestant missions and churches in the north-eastern corner of European Russia, in the Republic of Komi and the European Nenets tundra. The first Pentecostal churches were established in Russia in the 1920s. Beginning in the 1930s, Pentecostals were persecuted and during the anti-religious campaign of the 1950s and 1960s they became a special target for Soviet repressions. Pentecostals were accused of fanaticism (a stereotype mainly based on the practice of ‘speaking in tongues’) and even ritual murder. As a result, most Pentecostal churches in Russia continued to exist without official registration (Lunkin 2004; Nikolskaya 2009; Panchenko 2013). Beginning in the late 1980s, numerous foreign Pentecostal missions started to proselytise in the