Godless Communism Research Articles

“Godless Communists” :Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932 (review)

Godless Communists Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By William B. Husband, (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2000. Pp. xvii, 241. $36.00.) One of the major paradoxes concerning the history of religion in the modem world is how Russia, the most religious country in early twentieth-century Europe, became an officially atheistic state after 1917. In his new book William Husband, associate professor of history in Oregon State University, provides an institutional history of the early Soviet atheism campaigns against Russian orthodoxy, the faith to which the of Russians belonged. Rather than framing his study in a comparative context, he accepts the premise that Russians' collective behavior is distinctive, and he begins his book by asking: why do Russians act the way they do? (p. xi). Rejecting the traditional narrative of oppression versus resistance, he broadens his discussion to include the population's on-going reception of antireligious policies. His thesis is that the fate of the antireligious campaigns was decided by the of Russians who neither resisted nor participated in antireligious policies. Given the Bolshevik party's commitment to official atheism, the 1917 revolution was an event which forced this silent majority to publicly choose their religious position, a choice which they no longer had after the complete consolidation of the Stalinist dictatorship in 1932. In the end this chose accommodation, integrating religion into non-spiritual concerns. Husband concludes that therefore both the Communist state and the Orthodox Church failed, since neither atheism nor traditional piety prevailed. They failed because the Bolsheviks did not understand how deeply rooted Orthodoxy was in daily life, and the Orthodox Church compromised itself morally, in part by inciting violence as a means of resistance. Husband's book is extremely well researched. On the basis of recently released documents from central Russian archives he uncovered numerous acts both against and in the defense of religion. In discussing these acts, the author thoughtfully examines motivating factors and in the process elucidates the many meanings Soviet citizens attached to religion. The best sections of the book are those that are based on the voices of rank and file individuals, revealed in a variety of sources, such as petitions, ethnographic surveys, and questionnaires. His analysis of accommodation in the language, form, and content of respondents' answers to the latter is particularly well nuanced. His discussion of how some party members privately accommodated religion, particularly concerning religious holidays and the piety of their family members, demonstrates how porous the boundaries can be between belief and atheism, terms that he illustrates were constantly being defined and redefined by both communists and parishioners. Although Husband does not place his study within the context of broad historiographical debates, his study sheds light on several, including the interplay between the Soviet state and society, whether the use of force was primarily initiated from above or below, and the extent to which Soviet citizens internalized communism. …

'Godless Communists': Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By WILLIAM B. HUSBAND Bolsheviks and the Bottle: Drink and Worker Culture in St Petersburg, 1900-1929. By LAURA L. PHILLIPS

'Godless Communists': Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By WILLIAM B. HUSBAND Bolsheviks and the Bottle: Drink and Worker Culture in St Petersburg, 1900-1929. By LAURA L. PHILLIPS

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:Levitt, Marcus C. and Andrei L. Toporkov, eds., Eros and Pornography in Russian Culture / Eros i pornografiia v russkoi kul'turePeterson, Dale E., Up from Bondage: The Literatures of Russian and African American SoulSpiegel, John (Jnos), Dimensions of Laughter in “Crime and Punishment”Brandist, Craig and Galin Tihanov, eds., Materializing Bakhtin: The Bakhtin Circle and Social TheoryVon Gardner, Johann, Russian Church Singing. Vol. 2. History from the Origins to the Mid‐Seventeenth CenturyFaraday, George, Revolt of the Filmmakers: The Struggle for Artistic Autonomy and the Fall of the Russian Film IndustryVasil'ev, M. A., Iazychestvo vostochnykh slavian nakanune kreshcheniia Rusi. Religiozno‐mifologicheskoe vzaimodeistvie iranskim mirom: Iazycheskaia reforma kniazia VladimiraHrushevsky, Mykhailo, History of Ukraine‐Rus'. Vol. 7. The Cossack Age to 1625Thomson, Francis J., The Reception of Byzantine Culture in Mediaeval RussiaKagan, Frederick W., The Military Reforms of Nicholas I: The Origins of the Modern Russian ArmyZnamenski, Andrei A., Shamanism and Christianity: Native Encounters with Russian Orthodox Missions in Siberia and Alaska, 1820–1917Baumgart, Winfried, The Crimean War, 1853–1856Tuminez, Astrid S., Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign PolicyGorizontov, L. E., Paradoksy imperskoi politiki: Poliaki v Rossii I russkie v Pol'she (XIX–nachalo XX v.)O'Rourke, Shane, Warriors and Peasants: The Don Cossacks in Late Imperial RussiaClark, Charles E., Uprooting Otherness: The Literacy Campaign in NEP‐Era RussiaWehner, Markus, Bauernpolitik improletarischen Staat: Die Bauernfrage als zentrales Problem der sowjetischen Innenpolitik 1921–28Zhuravlev, Sergei, “Malen'kie liudi” I, “bol'shaia istoriia”: Inostrantsy moskovskogo Elektrozavoda v sovetskom obshchestve 1920‐kh–1930‐kh gg.Husband, William B., “Godless Communists”: Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932Brooks, Jeffrey, Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Soviet Public Culture from Revolution to Cold WarBarber, John and Mark Harrison, eds., The Soviet Defence‐Industry Complex from Stalin to KhrushchevBalzer, Marjorie Mandelstam, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global PerspectiveKay, Rebecca, Russian Women and Their Organizations: Gender, Discrimination and Grassroots Women's Organizations, 1991–1996Sperling, Valerie, Organizing Women in Contemporary Russia: Engendering TransitionColton, Timothy J., Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New RussiaMarkowitz, Fran, Coming of Age in Post‐Soviet RussiaAlexander, James, Political Culture in Post‐Communist Russia: Formlessness and Recreation in a Traumatic Transition

Zeugen für Christus: Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts (review)

Zeugen fur Christus: Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts. Edited by Helmut Moll, 2 vols. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh. 1999. Pp. brie, 651; xxiv, 652-1308. DM 98, 00.) This massive work is a fruit of Pope John Paul II's words in his 1994 apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente: In our century the have returned, many of them nameless `unknown soldiers' as it were of God's great cause. As as possible, their witness should not be lost of the church .... local churches should do everything possible to ensure that the memory of those who have suffered martyrdom should be safeguarded, gathering the necessary documentation (par. 37). These pages record, in meticulous detail and where possible with pictures, the stories of some 700 Germans of both sexes who, in the century just closed, suffered violent deaths out of hatred for the faith: under Nazism and Communism, in mission countries, and while resisting rape (martyrs of purity) or defending its victims. number of these witnesses for Christ is far more than we initially supposed, writes the Bishop of Mainz and President of the German Bishops' Conference, Karl Lehmann, in a foreword. work is a monument to German industry. Criteria for inclusion are taken from those established by the learned canoeist Prospero Lambertini and later Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) for the canonization of martyrs: a violent death, motivated by hatred of the Church and the faith, and willing acceptance of God's will despite mortal danger. No one is included whose death did not with certainty satisfy all three conditions. Writing of the in the Nazi period, the editor says: The church points with pride to its not in order to cover up its failures, but out of gratitude. More than 160 diocesan priests and almost sixty male religious were martyred by the Nazis. There were also 110 lay of both sexes: among them a seventeen-year-old apprentice, and two nineteen-year-olds, one a female convert from Judaism. oldest lay were 73 and 74 respectively. Women comprised fourteen percent of the total, many of them highly educated people in prominent positions or persons of Jewish origin. It is certain that there were many times more than we were able to find, the editor writes. He also pays tribute to the many non-Catholic martyrs, part of the 12,000 commemorated by Pope John Paul II at an Ecumenical Commemoration of Twentieth-Century Witnesses to the Faith in Rome's Colosseum on May 7,2000. list of communism's victims, starting in 1917-a laywoman and 108 priests including five bishops and an abbot-consists mostly of Volksdeutsche, ethnic Germans settled for generations in Russia or the Balkans. This category also includes more than sixty martyrs of purity, most of them religious Sisters (the oldest 93 and 88 respectively) but many laywomen as well. Of the eighteen killed while trying to defend victims of rape, thirteen were priests, two religious Sisters. list of over 170 missionary begins in Papau New Guinea in 1904 and ends in Zimbabwe in 1988. Army Lieutenant Michael Kitzelmann, age 26, was shot on the Russian front in 1942 for writing in a letter: At home they remove the crucifixes from the schools, and here they tell us we're fighting against godless communism. Before his execution he forgave the sergeant who had denounced him. His farewell letter to his loved ones said the Catholic chaplain had just visited him: God has granted me the grace of a holy death. I go ahead of you to our heavenly homeland. Divine Redeemer, grant me a merciful judgment when I come to you. Praised be Jesus Christ! university student Robert Limpert, deeply religious and an open critic of the Nazis, distributed fliers demanding that his home town of Ansbach be declared an open city. On April 18,1945, with the American troops already on the town's outskirts, the local Nazi commander personally hanged Limpert on the wall of the city hall. …

Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky (review)

Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky. By Andrii Krawchuk. (Ottawa: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, and Basilian Press. 1997. Pp. xxiv, 404. $49.95.) Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky (1865-1944), a scion of high Polonized nobility, was for almost half a century the metropolitan to Ukrainians, most of whom were poor peasants. Had he remained a Catholic of the Roman rite instead of reverting to the Eastern Catholicism of his distant ancestors, his life would have lacked the sharp poignancy that creates the major interest in his life and work. As a committed pastor of a flock facing discrimination, first within the Habsburg Monarchy, then in the Polish Republic, and ending in the unprecedented tribulations of Soviet and Nazi occupations, Sheptytsky did not have the luxury of simply expounding his views on Christian ethics. times of his life made the simplest injunction- Thou shalt not kill, the title of one of his major pastoral letters-a politically charged position. Placed within the crucible of ideological and geographical struggles, arrested by the Tsarist government, exiled by the Soviets, detained by the inter-War Polish regime, groundlessly accused of collaboration with Nazi Germany, Sheptytsky struggled most valiantly for the souls of youths caught in the vise of economic depression and political repression. He deplored the growth of terrorist nationalism, seeing in it the obverse side of godless communism and a negation of all he and his Church stood for. affirmation of life runs through Sheptytsky's whole life, and Krawchuk aptly titled the last chapter of this book The Sanctity of Life: Resistance to Nazi Rule;' that includes a brief discussion of the aid Sheptytsky was able to proffer Jews. main value of Krawchuk's study is that he eschews the potential of high drama in Sheptytsky's life to focus on his interpretation of Christian ethics. Krawchuk's research is solid, his expositions carefully presented. close focus on the topic deprives the reader of a sense of the approachable Sheptytsky, but it provides us with a wealth of information not available previously. book is comprehensive and balanced to the point of at times being dry. Nevertheless, given the dearth of scholarly material on Sheptytsky, this is a welcome fault. While stressing Sheptytsky's open opposition to Nazi policies, Krawchuk provides a useful appendix on the thorny matter of Sheptytsky's alleged letter of qualified support of the Galician Division, the German-founded military unit that fought briefly on the Eastern front. …

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia 1917-1932

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia 1917-1932

"Godless communists": atheism and society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932

An interpretation of early initiatives to create an atheistic society in Soviet Russia. It examines how effective Soviet antireligious policies and tactics were at achieving this goal and demonstrates that the majority of Russians stood between the extremes of church and government, with religion being just one of a matrix of social, cultural and economic changes the country faced under the new regime. Drawing on archival and ethnographic sources, journals, newspapers and eyewitness accounts, William B. Husband shows how strategies of accommodation and resistance employed by the masses had a greater impact on the future of religion in Russia than did either atheist extremists or spiritual zealots. He compares the mindset of a faith-based society with the Bolshevik materialist worldview, emphasizing how religion functioned not only as a belief in the sacred but also as an entrenched system for ordering family and community relationships, explaining natural phenomena, and marking life passages such as birth, marriage and death. The work demonstrates how developments between 1917 and 1932 shaped attitudes towards religion and atheism that still endure.

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By William B. Husband. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. 241 pp. $36.00

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By William B. Husband. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. 241 pp. $36.00

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By William B. Husband. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. xvii, 241 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. $36.00, hard bound.

"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932. By William B. Husband. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. xvii, 241 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. $36.00, hard bound.

Church, State and Propaganda: The Archbishop of York and International Relations, A Political Study of Cyril Forster Garbett, 1942-1955 by Dianne Kirby

BOOK REVIEWS353 Church, State and Propaganda: The Archbishop of York and International Relations, A Political Study of Cyril Forster Garbett, 1942-1955. By Dianne Kirby (Hull: University of HuU Press. 1999. Pp. vi, 303. £14.99 paperback .) Christianity has played a major role in the growth and development of western civUization. Marxists and other secularists, however, have taken a critical view of religion and have even predicted its demise. Events of the twentieth century, which has seen two world wars and the Holocaust, seemed to confirm its declining significance in the contemporary world. But communism has collapsed and Christianity appears to be thriving. Important in any discussion of modern religion is its connection with politics, and Dianne Kirby re-evaluates the poUtical role of the AngUcan Church and the actions of the Archbishop of York, CyrU Forster Garbett, and shows how religion became a defense against godless communism. According to the author, "This study ventures into the field of 'the most contested concept'—ideology, bringing together the poUtical and the reUgious in a way not previously attempted" (p. 1). After a brief biography of Garbett (1875-1955), which emphasizes his concern for the poorer members of society and his early work in the AngUcan Church, Kirby begins her analysis of Garbett's view of the relationship of church and state in 1942, when he was enthroned as Archbishop of York. As Archbishop, he effectively promoted the war effort and worked with the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office. Consequently, Garbett came to believe that the church had an important part to play in modern society as an equal partner with the state. Kirby successfully demonstrates how this principle guided Garbett in his defense of a Christian western civilization against the evils of atheistic communism and shows how Archbishop Garbett responded to the anxiety created by fear of Soviet domination. The perilous situation in Greece and Eastern Europe, the debates in England concerning the use of nuclear weapons, and the relationship with the United States aU provided platforms for Garbett to denounce communism. In addition to descriptions of the Archbishop's visits abroad and his encounters with statesmen and other churchmen, extracts from speeches, diary entries, and newspaper reports give the reader an insight into his personality and mission. "Garbett saw the struggles against first fascism and then communism as righteous contests which permitted the Church to assume a significantly meaningful role in the Ufe of the nation whereby it was able to re-establish its position as an authoritative institution " (p. 266). Kirby has made good use of archives and printed sources to describe the complexities of the ColdWar era and the actions ofArchbishop Garbett to combat the growth of communism. She certainly understands his goals. The author also has a good grasp of the political environment in postwar England and the intricacies of international diplomacy. Her descriptions of Garbett's numerous foreign trips, his relations with diplomats, and his ideas on the important role of Christianity in the secular world prove that religion and ideology, as repre- 354BOOK REVIEWS sented by the Archbishop ofYork, did exert a constructive influence in the troublesome period following World War II. Rene Kollar St. VincentArchabbey Latrobe, Pennsylvania American and Canadian L'Amérique du Nordfrançaise dans les archives religieuses de Rome 16001922 . Guide de recherche. Under the direction of Pierre Hurtubise, Luca Codignola, and Fernand Harvey. (Sainte-Foy Québec: Les Presses de l'Universit é Laval, Les Éditions de l'IQRC. 1999. Pp. xü, 202. $32.00 Can.) AU guides, catalogues, and calendars save historians innumerable hours. This is particularly the case, when, as in the present book, the professionals who put the volume together are scholars actively working in the craft. The authoreditors of the Guide carefully divided the chores. As the introduction explains, Hurtubise and Roberto Perin contextualized the opus in the historical essay on "Rome et l'Amérique du Nord française." Codignola and Matteo Sanfilippo, who worked together in composing "Archivistes, historiens et archives romaines," were responsible for the archives and libraries of Rome. Harvey joined Codignola in drawing up helpful chronological tables. The Guide leans toward Canada—a tUt obvious and intended—but it does...

The Dream of the Millennium

The Dream of the Millennium

Bashing the bishops

George Orwell said it was not necessary to live in a totalitarian society to be corrupted by one. In Ireland, Catholic oppression was condoned in the name of the battle against godless communism

Editorial: Religious Fundamentalism and the Public Schools

During past two decades, public schools of America have largely come to be perceived by religious fundamentalists as dominated by humanism. Writing almost a decade ago, Senator Jesse Helms expressed a view that is widely shared today by religious fundamentalists: When U.S. Supreme Court prohibited children from participating in voluntary prayers in public schools, conclusion is inescapable that Supreme Court not only violated right of free exercise of religion of all America; it also established a national religion in United States—the religion of secular humanism. In seventies and eighties, humanism has gradually become a code word for explaining all evils in American society, largely replacing communism, as used in fifties and sixties as greatest threat facing America and its democratic institutions. Godless communists and their fellow travelers of only a few decades ago are now labeled humanists. In words of Tim LaHaye, one of founders of Moral Majority, humanism is the world's greatest evil. In a series of widely distributed books on humanism, LaHaye charges that most of evils in world today can be traced to humanism, which he sees as having taken over government, media, and education in America. Similarly, Pat Robertson is fond of arguing that humanists have stolen government, courts, and public schools from America's God-fearing majority, and it is up to Christians to win back these institutions. The allegedly pervasive influence of humanism is seen by its foes as constituting a new form of religious establishment.

Democratic Kampuchea—CIA to the Rescue

As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, press accounts about the non-western world, in particular Cambodia, are often as interesting for themselves, as “works of art,” as for information about conditions within the country concerned. For over three years the mainstream western press generally treated the regime of “Democratic Kampuchea” (DK) and its leader, Pol Pot, as very nearly the worst known to human history; and calls for intervention to displace them were heard even from usually responsible quarters. Yet when they finally were displaced, following a war largely provoked by their own actions, and by a polity whose record on human rights had always seemed much better, not only was little rejoicing heard, but the remnants of the DK regime became recipients of recognition and support by the powers who had cried out most loudly against them. Clearly concern with human rights or atrocities was of secondary importance to considerations of international power politics; and if no one was willing to suddenly declare Pol Pot a bulwark of the Free World against Godless Communism, the atrocities over which he had presided tended to be implicitly forgiven as his role in an anti-Vietnamese coalition was emphasized.

Toward Detente II

Forty years ago, when the world was plunging headlong toward total war, the Soviel Union was America's ally. Ten years later the same Soviet Union was being scorned as the home of “Godless communism” and the enemy of everything sacred to ihe “free world.” With the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. the two nations were facing each other across an abyss so large that nuclear war seemed a distinct possibility. Ten years after that, at the Moscow Summit of 1972. an American president with unimpeachable anti-Communist credentials was supping with yesterday's devil in the very capital of world communism; Nixon and his hosts managed to produce an “orgy of agreements” (the phrase is Max Frankel's), including the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 1) and the start of an era called detente. Within six years another American president was announcing that “America is now free of the inordinate fear of communism.”

Deliver us from evil; guest editorial.

It is a not-so-pious platitude of godless communism that 90% of the world is steeped in misery and wretchedness. Adding together the massive millions of China, India, Russia, and the uncounted masses of dark Africa, one indeed finds the number to be formidable, especially when the number is compared to the near-minute 170 million Americans who live in comfort. In misery one finds discontent. Discontent breeds the potential for revolution. Moscow-trained professional revolutionists throughout the world are fanning the passions of this discontent. We have witnessed the earth-shaking results. Including the neutrals of the world, if there really are such things, the professional revolutionists of Stalin have succeeded in wrenching half of all man-kind from freedom and plunging them behind a curtain of silence, of iron and bamboo. From the time of the Bolshevik revolution, through the flight to freedom of Viet-Nam at this very moment, hundreds of thousands of