Anti-religious Campaign Research Articles

Антирелигиозная кампания Н.С. Хрущева как неотъемлемая часть идеологической составляющей СССР в 1953–1964 гг.

The article presents an analysis of the policy pursued by N.S. Khrushchev in 1953–1964 in the aspect of state-confessional relations. The normative legal acts contributing to the implementation of the anti-religious campaign are investigated. The methods by which the named policy was supposed to be implemented are listed. The article shows the situation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the period under study: statistical data on the number of Orthodox churches and monasteries in the USSR are presented. The authors of the study concluded that the policy is ineffective: the results of the policy are presented, the reasons for its failure are indicated.

Religious Policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1994–2023. An Attempt to Understand the Issue

The main goal of my article will be to analyze North Korea’s religious policy from the death of Kim Il-sung to the present. I intend to take a closer look at the views of Polish and foreign researchers on this matter, focusing especially on the aspirations of the Kim dynasty towards divine worship.At the beginning, I would like to present the theoretical aspects of religious policy, paying particular attention to the definition of the above term and its most important methodological assumptions. In this respect, it will be important to describe the problem of religious freedom. Then I try to trace the times of reign of individual Korean dynasties that referred to Confucianism. In the further part of my considerations, I present the aggressive anti-religious campaign of the North Korean communists, who, among others, Juche ideology has been striving for total mind control of the country’s inhabitants since the 1950s, which was visible in the cult of the first leader of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung. I also touch on the problem of a certain softening of the rhetoric towards religion at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, manifested in the existence of facade churches to improve the country’s image on the international arena.In conclusion, I intend to answer the question of how the religious policy of the DPRK has evolved over the decades. Moreover, it will be important to answer the question of what role religion played in shaping the Kim dynasty, which still rules North Korea to this day.

«Люди в черном»: семантизация понятий сектант и баптист в антирелигиозной кампании 1958—1964 годов

In the post-revolutionary era, the population's adoption of a new political vocabulary demanded the Soviet authorities to play the role of the interpretant. They engaged in the pro­cess of assigning meanings to new concepts through mass media and fiction. Simultaneously, established concepts had to undergo reshaping to align with the new worldview of the 'Soviet citizen’. The transformation of the semantic structure of religious vocabulary, ideologically marked, reflected the shift in the fundamental values of Soviet society. This article, employing component and contextual analyses, explores the target semantization process of key concepts during Khrushchev's 1958—1964 anti-religious campaign, specifically focusing on 'sektant' and 'baptist'. Through mass media and propaganda literature, a set of semantic features for these terms was imposed on the children's audience in ideological contexts. The analysis of linguistic material from numerous sources such as the newspaper Pionerskaya Pravda, Pioner and Koster children's magazines, and selected works of children's literature reveals that the target audience — school children — led to the emergence of semantic primitives. This in­vol­ved significantly narrowing the semantics of the words 'sektant' and 'baptist.' Linguistic tools such as new lexical pairs ('sectarian-Baptist,' 'fanatics and bigots,' 'subversives and villains') and linguistic markers related to colour, sound, appearance, age, and location were employed. These tools helped develop a negative image of a Protestant believer and ultimately transformed the concepts of ‘sectant’ and ‘baptist’ into political labels.

Особенности организационной жизни Смоленской и Дорогобужской епархии при епископе Иннокентии (Сокале) (1959–1964 гг.)

This article deals with the person of Bishop Innokentiy (Sokal) of Smolensk and Dorogobuzh and with the organizational specifics of life at the Diocese in 1959–1964, which was the period of an antireligious campaign characterized as a war against the religion and the believers. Bishop Innokentiy’s return migration played a substantial role in his service. The hierarch’s relations with the foreign church circles of Yugoslavia where he had served as a priest for 30 years forced the authorized agent of the Smolensk Oblast Board for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church at the USSR Council of Ministers to be courteous and make considerable concessions to the new head of the Diocese of Smolensk. At the time Bishop Innokentiy was appointed diocesan archbishop, the Diocese of Smolensk had 54 working churches and 59 registered clerks. The organizational life of the Diocese of that period was at the peak of its prosperity, which was accounted for the high administrative status of Bishop Innokentiy’s predecessor, Bishop Mikhail (Tchub), as well as the active position of the latter. Things started to get steadily worse in 1959, which was accounted for the growing pressure on the Russian Orthodox Church from the state and Bishop Innokentiy becoming less active. In 1964, which was the last year of Bishop Innokentiy being the head of the Diocese of Smo-lensk, the diocesan clergy consisted of 39 priests and 5 deacons and had 38 registered com-munities of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1959–1964, the number of clerks at the Diocese of Smolensk and Dorogobuzh decreased by 29%, and the number of churches got reduced by 30%.

Peculiarities of the transformation of children’s Christmas holidays into New Year Tree holiday on the pages of the pioneer periodical press in the fi rst third of the twentieth century

The article presents an analysis of articles of the newspaper «Pionerskaya Pravda» and the magazine «Pioneer» of the second half of the 1920s – 1930s, which reflected the state of the problem of the anti-religious campaign influence on the conduct of Christian holidays, in particular, Christmas celebrations. It is established that in the early years of Soviet power, the attitude towards Christmas holidays and their attributes was quite neutral, however, by the end of the 1920s it had changed to extremely negative. Against the background of the nationwide struggle against religion, active propaganda was carried out to eradicate Christmas holidays and ban their celebration. At the same time, the Soviet pioneers were actively involved in the destruction of churches, in conducting explanatory work among the population, including their relatives and friends, about the harm and anti-scientific nature of religion. However, by the mid-1930s, the USSR returned to celebrating children’s winter holidays, in which Christmas was transformed into New Year Tree holiday. The pedagogical basis of it was the reliance on the development of the creative abilities of the child, which allows us to consider the holiday of the New Year tree as one of the important legacies of the Soviet school for the modern school.

A Symbiosis of Religious Affections and State Socialism: Bulgaria’s Foreign Cultural Policy of the late 1970s85-100

State Socialism aimed to create a utopian atheist society, where religion was supposed to become superfluous and therefore disappear. Despite the strong anti-religious campaign in 1950s’ and 1960s’ socialist Bulgaria, religion did not vanish but remained in the periphery of public and private life. That applied not only to traditional orthodox Christianity but also to different Theosophy-based groups and ideas, which became influential in the policy of the cultural minister of the 1970s Lyudmila Zhivkova. Her large scaled international cultural projects and the lively bilateral relations with India, Nepal and Sri Lanka not only aimed at increasing the country’s diplomatic prestige but also at popularising Zhivkova’s esoteric conception of national and personal development for which I introduce the term “esoteric nationalism”. Further discussing Bulgaria’s active participation at the general assembly of the United Nations in 1979, this paper will argue that non-hegemonic religious ideas were not always considered hostile by the Eastern European totalitarian authorities. Moreover, the Bulgarian case exemplifies the potential which an esoteric-socialist symbiosis had nationally and internationally.

Ritual agency and moral panics: toward the anthropology of blasphemy and sacrilege

The introduction to the journal issue's special theme on “The Icon and the Axe: Discourses on Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Russian Culture” deals with some theoretical aspects of anthropological research focusing on blasphemy, sacrilege, and desecration. The history of religious, secular, and post-secular cultures from the Middle Ages to the present day involve different types of discourses on blasphemy and sacrilege. Local cults of sacred sites, miraculous images and objects employ the concept of desecration to articulate the rules and norms of communication between humans and supernatural agents. Organized forms of sacrilege, like Reformation iconoclasm or Soviet anti-religious campaigns, aim at transformation of habitual ritual activities along with formation of new types of human and non-human agency. Present day “blasphemy panics” produce new identities and ideas of the moral order. The Russian history and culture of the recent centuries provides examples of coexistence and evolution of all these types.

Инициативная сельская журналистика в системе формирования обратной связи органов власти и населения в Камчатском округе в 1928–1930-х гг. (на примере материалов газеты «Полярная звезда»)

The article analyzes the measures of the district authorities aimed at stimulating the Selkor movement in the Kamchatka District, as well as the most relevant topics covered by correspondents from the field. The study was based on documents from the collections of the State Archives of the Kamchatka Territory and publications of rural correspondents in the newspaper “Polyarnaya Zvezda” in 1928–1930. The analysis and systematization of the topics of articles of rural correspondents were carried out, the most relevant topics were identified. These include notes on the exposure of the kulaks, the activities of reading huts, the organization of revolutionary holidays, the conduct of fur procurement, the anti-religious campaign, the popularization of collective forms of economic activity, and others. The author shows the informational interaction of the editorial office of the newspaper “Polyarnaya Zvezda” with rural correspondents, which was carried out through a special heading “Mailbox”. The messages in the sections “What was done according to the notes” and “Responses to the notes”, created to provide feedback from the authorities with the population, are given special attention in the article.

«Как они меня заставляли отказаться от Бога…»: казус советского верующего 1960-х годов

The article reconstructs the events of the late 1950s and early 1960s on the basis of archival materials and publications in the Soviet periodical press. They took place in the town of Ocher, Perm region. A small group of Evangelical Christian Baptists gathered in the town. At the end of 1959, a schism occurred within the community. Several women experienced a new religious conversion. They became followers of the Pentecostals. The schism proceeded against the backdrop of intense religious experiences. One of the believers described her experiences in letters and sent them to the Ocher District Committee, then to the Perm Regional Committee of the CPSU. As part of the anti-religious campaign, these letters were provided. Friendly courts were held. Feuilletons and accusations were published in the regional periodical press. The destinies of believers were to be decided by the local atheistic community. The purpose of the study is to identify the socio-cultural circumstances of the life of believers in the local community of the town of Ocher, and to see it through the prism of the small social and cultural technologies of Soviet life. The methodological basis of the study is a microhistorical approach focusing on the context and details of everyday life. The author shows the believer's ability to intertwine in his or her own mind and emotional experiences his or her religious experience and the figurative world of the Soviet everyday life. This ability is considered as an essential characteristic of Soviet religiosity, which had been formed by the middle of the 20th century. The biographical incident of Natalya Ershova, the vicissitudes of her fate allow us to notice the breaks in the social reality in which the 'ordinary' Soviet person lived. Due to this, one can identify and describe the character and specific subjectivity of the Soviet believer.

The system of atheistic propaganda in the period of Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign 1958-1964 (based on archival materials of Kalinin region)

The system of atheistic propaganda in the period of Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign 1958-1964 (based on archival materials of Kalinin region)

«ПРЕДПРИНИМАЕТ ВСЕ ВОЗМОЖНОЕ ДЛЯ ТОГО, ЧТОБЫ УКРЕПИТЬ УСТОИ ЦЕРКВИ»: АДМИНИСТРАТИВНАЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ЕПИСКОПА ИОАННА (СНЫЧЕВА) В КУЙБЫШЕВСКОЙ ЕПАРХИИ С 1965 г. ПО 1972 г.

The author examines one of the key areas of Bishop Ioann (Snychev)'s episcopal activity: his administrative activity in the Kuibyshev Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1965-1972. The analysis of the reports of the plenipotentiary of theCouncil for Religious Affairs in the Kuibyshev oblast, the diary entries of Bishop Ioann (Snychev) and people close to him, as well as the memoirs of believers made it possible to study the ways in which the bishop could solve the problems that confronted him after the Khrushchev anti-religious campaign of 1958-1964 as well as the relationship of the bishop with state and church authorities. Bishop Ioann (Snychev) managed to strengthen the Kuibyshev diocese during the years of “stagnation” that were difficult for theRussian Orthodox Church. During the period of his leadership of the diocese, the staff of priests increased, parishes were preserved during the constant danger of their closure (especially in the Ulyanovsk deanery), communication was established with the authorities.

ОТЫРАР КІТАПХАНАСЫНЫҢ БЕЙНЕ ЖӘНЕ НАРРАТИВ СЕМИОЗИСІ: ЖОҒАЛҒАН АҒАРТУШЫЛЫҚТЫ ІЗДЕСТІРУ БАРЫСЫНДА

The article explores the image of the Otrar library – one of the most famous places of historical memory of the Kazakh society. We traced the genealogy of this image and its reflection in 4 identified narratives of historical memory: academic (scientific), media (public history, fiction, media), folklore and official (state). The reasons for the popularity of this image, starting from the second half of the twentieth century, and the role of the scientific and creative intelligentsia in the reinvention of the historical subjectivity of the Kazakhs in the process of Soviet nation-building and the anti-religious campaign of 1958-1964, when in order to preserve the cultural heritage of medieval monuments of Central Asia within the framework of the concept autochthonism and “the struggle for progressive folk traditions”, local elites intensified archaeological research, reception and development of this heritage, derived from the classification of “religious” to the definition of “folk”. During this period, the image of medieval urban culture begins to form as a chronotope of the golden age in the historical memory of Kazakhstan society. It is there that the Great Silk Road is located, a developed urban culture, the great and tragic pages of Otrar, the Second Teacher of the world - Al-Farabi, the actualization of whose biography largely revived interest in Otrar and influenced the emergence of the image of the Otrar library in the historical memory. There, urbanization ceases to be a modern problem and becomes a cultural heritage. Within the framework of the article, the mechanisms of formation and overcoming of the cultural trauma of "non-historicity" of the sedentarized nomadic culture by the Kazakh national intelligentsia of the 1950s-1960s were studied. The Otrar library, as a place of historical memory, plays the role of the argument of the “lost enlightenment” in these narratives.

«To end this nest»: Evangelical Lutheran community of Samara in the period of anti-religious campaign (1918–1930)

This study analyzes strategy of anti-religious campaign against Lutheran community of Samara in 19181930. Main source of study is official regulations, business documentation and press materials. The author singled out two stages in the existence of Evangelical Lutheran Community of Samara community in the period of anti-religious campaign. First stage: Soviet officials suppressed religious organizations that were perceived as threat for the new ideology. Lutheran Community of Samara city lost its property and the right to carry out educational activities, and also became obliged to maintain a regular document flow accountable to the provincial executive committee. Second stage: The situation changed radically, when the strategy against religious organizations began to tighten in the conditions of industrialization and collectivization: in addition to propaganda, physical persecution of Lutherans appeared. In addition, the author of the article examined in detail the process of closing the Samara Lutheran church, which clearly demonstrated the desire of local authorities, on the one hand, to implement the instructions of the central government in a preventive manner, and on the other hand, to justify their own actions. The article proves that in the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the Samara City Council, the activists of the German section were replaced by religious Lutherans

Between Moscow, Warsaw and the Holy See: The Case of Father Andrzej Fedukowicz Amidst the Early Soviet Anti-Catholic Campaign

This article offers a micro-history of Soviet anti-religious actions during the mid-1920s through a reconstruction of the investigation of Father Andrzej Fedukowicz and his forced collaboration with the Soviet secret services. In November 1924, Fedukowicz was forced to sign a letter to Pope Pius XI and a year later committed suicide to avoid the humiliation caused by his actions. This article reveals how elaborate the Soviet secret services’ techniques for dealing with uncontrolled religious allegiances had become during the seemingly religiously tolerant NEP era which replaced the overly repressive measures of the Civil War period. It aims to challenge the conventional impression of powerful and effective Soviet secret services. Detailed analysis of the process of fabrication used by the secret services shows how often the rudimentary methods of the secret police could easily threaten the success of the entire operation. In this regard, the limited results the secret services had achieved by relying on individual assets led to toughening of mass repression and a more aggressive anti-religious campaign after 1929.

Religious Freedom of Indigenous Beliefs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Following the recent changes in laws regarding national identity card for the adherents of indigenous beliefs in Indonesia, this study tries to examine 21 types of regulations to see how freedom of indigenous beliefs is in Indonesia from their adherents’ perspective. This is done through conducting semi-structured, in-depth interviews with three groups of indigenous beliefs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The types of regulations examined are taken from The Religion and State Project Round 3 by Jonathan Fox of Bar-Ilan University that has been used widely to gather cross-country data on religious freedom. The result of the interviews shows that there are at least four restrictive regulation points, namely on places of worship, surveillance, antireligious campaign and religious education.

ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ АДВЕНТИСТСЬКИХ ГРОМАД ЗАКАРПАТТЯ В УМОВАХ КРИЗОВИХ ЯВИЩ: АНТИРЕЛІГІЙНА ДЕРЖАВНА ПОЛІТИКА ТА ВНУТРІШНІЙ РОЗКОЛ В ЕПОХУ «ЗАСТОЮ» (1965–1985 РР.)

The article attempts to analyze the functioning of the Seventh-day Adventist religious community in Transcarpathia in the conditions of crisis phenomena anti-religious policy of state bodies and internal crisis during the “stagnation” of 1965–1985. For this purpose, a wide archival and scientific base was involved, which helped to carry out a deep comprehensive analysis of this topic. It was found that with the liquidation of the spiritual center and a powerful anti-religious campaign, the religious community was on the verge of ceasing to exist in the Soviet Union. In such extremely difficult conditions, religious leaders managed to adapt to negative circumstances, maintain the administrative vertical and gradually develop the religious community. An organizational samizdat was formed on the territory of Transcarpathia. Carrying out planned religious activities, the Adventist community of Transcarpathia slowly developed, expanding the existing network.

The Image of Jehovah's Witnesses in State Publications in the USSR

The paper presents a description of the image of Jehovah's Witnesses in the anti-religious books of Soviet authors. A comparison is made of anti-religious books from the times of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. The main points that Soviet authors drew upon when describing the Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and its adherents in the Soviet Union are described. Under Khrushchev, anti-religious texts were imbued with offensive rhetoric in an attempt to humiliate members of this denomination in the minds of Soviet society. In turn, during the Brezhnev era, there was a significant decrease in the emotional and offensive coloring of the description of the Jehovah's Witnesses’ activities. A comparison is made of the use of such caustic statements during the anti-religious campaign and after it. Although the emotional coloring of statements during the Brezhnev era about Jehovah's Witnesses was noticeably reduced, it did not disappear completely. Since Soviet anti-religious publications about Jehovah's Witnesses occurred at the time of the confrontation between the USSR and the USA, any organization centered in the United States was automatically considered hostile and anti-Soviet. The intransigence of the views of the USSR and the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding the activities of the UN international organization was stated. Descriptions of the attitude of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union to various social and political spheres of life are presented, in particular, to participation in elections to government bodies, military service, etc. Separately, a description of the attitude to nationality and citizenship is indicated. The low educational level of adherents of this denomination in the USSR is mentioned. A certain transformation was also found in the description by Soviet authors of the members of the Religious Organization since the 1970s, which, in particular, was expressed in the refusal to identify the views of the leaders of this denomination in the United States with the position of its followers in the Soviet Union on a number of issues regarding the spheres of social and political life societies.

The concept of “scientific atheism”: The history of its construction and introduction into philosophy and political practice (1954–1964)

The main purpose of the article is to reveal the socio-historical context of the emergence of the concept of “scientific atheism”, designed to solve ideological and political problems in the USSR in 1954–1964. The article shows how the concept of “scientific atheism” turns into a conceptual category, is filled with new content, forms an appropriate discourse and becomes a tool that produces socially significant meanings used in the practice of ideological production during the period of building socialism in the USSR.The author demonstrates how the understanding of atheism that existed in previous Marxist literature as a philosophical criticism of religion, based on the natural sciences and philosophical materialism and connected with the study of the historical forms of religion and its modern features, was rejected. Such an understanding of atheism did not satisfy the current political demand associated with the new tasks of communist construction. The article shows that a special role in the construction of the ideological component of the concept of “scientific atheism” in the early 1960s was played by I.D.Pantskhava, head of the Department of History and Theory of Atheism at Moscow State University, and also the secretary of the Central Committee L.F.Ilyichev, who headed the Ideological Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which, in the wake of a new anti-religious campaign, initiated the development of practical recommendations in the field of atheistic upbringing of the population, among which the need to form the theoretical content of scientific atheism as an independent philosophical discipline aimed at solving urgent political problems stood out. The article introduces previously unknown archival materials into academic circulation, shedding light on the 1964 discussion about the features of Marxist atheism and the subject of “scientific atheism”.

ЛИТЕРАТУРНО-ОБЩЕСТВЕННАЯ ПОЗИЦИЯ СОВЕТСКОГО НЕМЕЦКОГО ПИСАТЕЛЯ АНДРЕАСА ЗАКСА В ВОПРОСАХ РЕЛИГИИ И ЦЕРКВИ (1930–1960-Е ГГ.)

The Soviet-German writer Andreas Saks (1903–1983) is known as an atheist, an activist of anti-religious propaganda in the 1930s carried out in the Republic of the Volga Germans, and as an author satirizing the religious superstitions of people and the vices of clerics. Applying the biographical approach of intellectual history the author of the article reconstructs A. Sack’s literary and social position on matters of church and religion. As sources for that the author uses Sack’s anti-religious humorous stories as well as his unpublished reviews of the works by Astrakhan novice writers where he expresses his views on the church, clerics and religiosity. There is a conclusion in the article that in those anti-religious works Andreas Saks remained tactful and delicate as he derided the religious superstitions of individual people, mostly, from an older generation who were baptized before the October revolution of 1917. Theomachism and the insulting the people’s religious feelings are not found in his works. It may reflect the Soviet Germans’ “cultural resistance” to the antireligious and anti-clerical campaigns waged by the communist authorities, to the closures of churches and repressions against the clerics in the 1930s. On the other hand, that reflects the writer’s understanding of man’s religiosity as “a complex existential issue” and his realization of big difficulties in “an ideological fight” against church and religion.

Зарождение позднепротестантского движения в Беларуси в конце XIX - начале ХХ в.

The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century is a period of upsurge in the Evangelic movement: the number of supporters is gradually increasing, their activities are becoming more active and becoming institutionalized, at the beginning of the century new Protestant beliefs appear in America. Gradually, the rise of the Evangelic movement more and more covers European countries, and the Belarusian lands participate in the global process of the spread and development of late Protestantism. On the basis of documentary archival sources, the author analyzes the process of the emergence of Baptist, Evangelical Christians, Adventists and others Evangelicals in the context of the religious policy of the Russian Empire, as well as in the conditions of Soviet politics in the BSSR and Polish policy on the territory of Western Belarus. The article notes that the process of the emergence of new Evangelic denominations in the late 19th - early 20th century in the western regions of Belarus takes place later than in the eastern ones. The later development of Baptism and other late Protestant denominations in Western Belarus was primarily associated with the spread of Evangelicals through the Western Ukrainian, Polish and Baltic lands, in contrast to the eastern part of Belarus, which has close ties with Russian lands and experienced a stronger influence of Russian Protestantism at the end of the 19th century. Geopolitical and political changes that took place during the First World War and Russian revolutions, in particular the establishment of the Soviet regime and the conclusion of the Riga Peace Treaty, according to which the territories of Belarus were divided into two parts, became the main trigger and played a decisive role in the development of the Evangelical movement. Firstly, in connection with the division of Belarus into western and eastern parts, the annexation of Western Belarus to Poland, active anti-religious campaigns in Soviet Russia and the creation of the “Iron Curtain” in 1929, the organizational orientation of Western Belarusian communities to the West changed. Secondly, geopolitical transformations and differentiation of the strategy of religious policy in the BSSR and in Western Belarus, the development processes of the movement predetermined the formation of the modern landscape of the evangelical movement - a pronounced religiosity of the western region and the presence of a large number of religious communities and a gradual decrease in these indicators towards the eastern border of Belarus.