The Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet State

Author(s):  
PHILIP WALTERS

Author(s):  
Yu.N. Tsyryapkina

In this article the author examines state-church relations in Central Asia in the 1940s - mid 1960s illustrated by the example of the Tashkent Deanery during the period of the development of the Russian Orthodox Church under the patronage of the institute of state commissioners for the Russian Orthodox Church. On the basis of an analysis of unpublished archival sources, the author describes the process of reconstruction of parishes on the territory of the Tashkent and Central Asian dioceses, analyzes the economic and property relations between the state and the church, and the financial activities of the Orthodox parishes of the Tashkent deanery. The author focuses on issues related to the staff of Orthodox priests assigned to parishes, their level of education. The author briefly touches on the problem of Catholics and representatives of the Armenian Gregorian Church, who were not allowed to establish houses of prayer. The article provides statistics of the rituals requested in Tashkent in the context of the Assumption Cathedral and the Alexander Nevsky Church. The author comes to the conclusion that the demand for Orthodox rituals in the churches of Tashkent was associated with the high proportion of the Russian population living in the capital.







Author(s):  
Stanislav N. Jayrunov ◽  

The article highlights the relationships between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the «Russian Orthodox Church») in the late 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of collectivization of the villages, which was accompanied by the destruction of traditional life, a dramatic violation of the usual way of life. The focus is on the policy of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church, expressed in the closure of churches and monasteries, militant atheism and repressive measures against priests. The examples from the Ryazan and Tula districts of the Moscow Region analyze the protest movement of peasants against the anti-religious policies of the authorities, active and passive forms of resistance. At the end of the article, the author concludes that the resistance of the peasants to the anti-church policy of the authorities was fatally doomed to be defeated.



2021 ◽  
pp. 31-62
Author(s):  
Jeff Eden

This chapter describes how in the 1920s to 1930s, the Soviet state attempted to eradicate religion by targeting the most visible forms of devotional life. Tens of thousands of religious elites were arrested and executed; holy objects were seized; and churches, mosques, and synagogues were converted into granaries, warehouses, and museums of “Marxist-Leninist Scientific Atheism.” Meanwhile, Soviet populations were inundated with anti-religious propaganda, as local branches of the state-backed League of Militant Atheists proliferated. The chapter goes on to show how in the war years, however, religious repression ceased. The arrest and execution of religious figures was almost entirely curtailed. A pivotal moment came in 1943, when Stalin invited three Metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church to a late-night meeting in Moscow and offered them a “new deal,” allowing for unprecedented religious freedoms.



Author(s):  
Dmitry S. Bakharev ◽  
Elena M. Glavatskaya

This article focuses on the decline of the Russian Orthodox Church landscape during the period 1917-1941 in one of the key Russian provincial cities — Ekaterinburg (named Sverdlovsk in 1924). It was during this period that the Soviet state carried out the most comprehensive attacks on religion, closing churches, destroying religious organizations and their buildings as well as persecuting religious leaders. We use the “religious landscape” concept to analyze the evolution of the religious situation in the city. However, we studied not only the main markers of religion in Ekaterinburg, but also the number of parishioners and the frequency of everyday religious rites. The study is based on documents extracted from the local archives and statistical aggregates. This allowed us to reconstruct the decline of the Orthodox landscape and its main features in three different periods between 1917 and 1941. We argue that the Bolsheviks’ anti-religious measures in the 1920s should be considered as part of the general European secularization, which started before 1917. The data obtained give grounds to put forward a hypothesis about the weak effect of the Bolsheviks’ measures regarding the Orthodox Church nucleus — its active parishioners, for about 25% of the city’s population kept practicing the main religious rites until the mid-1930s.



2019 ◽  
pp. 236-249
Author(s):  
Вячеслав Александрович Гончаренко

В статье рассматриваются особенности советского документального кино о жизни и деятельности Русской Православной Церкви в советском государстве. Кинематограф является важным элементом идеологии и пропаганды, поэтому советское государство уделяло особое внимание смысловому содержанию выходящих на экран кинокартин. Несмотря на атеистическую идеологию и массу антирелигиозной литературы и кинопродукции, в СССР начиная с 1945 года были сняты фильмы с нейтральным или даже с позитивным отношением к Церкви, которые рассказывают о её существовании и деятельности. В начале статьи автор размышляет о месте и значении кинематографа в жизни общества и государства. Далее рассматривает и анализирует документальные фильмы, которые касаются жизни и деятельности Русской Православной Церкви. The article deals with the peculiarities of the Soviet documentary cinema about the life and activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet state. Cinematography is an important element of ideology and propaganda, that is why the Soviet state paid special attention to the semantic content of the released films. Despite the atheistic ideology and the mass of anti-religious literature and films, from 1945 onwards, the Soviet Union made films, which presented the existence and work of the Church in a neutral or even positive light. At the beginning of the article the author reflects on the place and importance of cinematography in the life of society and the state. The author then examines and analyses documentaries which deal with the life and activities of the Russian Orthodox Church.



Author(s):  
Yana Yu. Guseva ◽  

The article reveals the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the initial period of World War II on the territory of the Saratov Volga region. The author explores the rapid change in state policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church: from openly hostile to benevolent by the end of 1942. On the analysis of concrete facts, the author identifies the most important reasons for such a transformation. Among them, the author also highlights the mass opening of churches in the occupied territory. Information about the loyal attitude of the invaders towards the believers reached the Saratov region and caused a certain unfavorable reaction of the population for the authorities. The transition of the state from the policy of defeating the Russian Orthodox Church to the restoration of its activity took place so quickly that it surprised the believers and confused the functionaries of the lower echelons of power who did not receive information about the causes of this phenomenon.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document