Religion

Lenin

• 1917 Decree on Land

  • Peasants could take any Church land

• 1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience

  • separated state and church

  • banned religious education outside home

• Cheka terrorised the Church

  • 1918 - Head of Orthodox Church under house arrest

  • Red Terror 1921-22 targeted police

• Priests denied food rations, suffrage and deported to camps

• All monastries closed and churches were destroyed

• “League of Godless Militants”

• Replacing baptism with Octoberings

Stalin pre-WW2

• Targeted priests under collectivisation

  • Churches converted into grain stores

  • Deported as Kulags

• Targeted through Great Purges 1936-39

  • Only 12 of 163 bishops weren’t imprisoned by 1939

Stalin post WW2

• Church supported war effort

• Compromise reached as religion played an important role in maintaining morale

• Some Churches reopened

• Patriarchate re-established

Khrushchev

• Abandoned compromise

• Closed Churches again

  • Within 4 years, 10,000 closed

• Priests were limited to spiritual advisor only

• Churches under Parish Council control

  • Dismissed priests as no longer needed

• Harassment increased by Secret Police

• Used Space Race to promote atheism

  • Yagarin saw no God

• Anti-religious propaganda returned

Brezhnev

• Religious persecution alienated Western leaders and damaged Foreign Policy

  • 1976 - Christian Committee for Defence of Believer’s Rights monitored human rights abuses

  • Leader (Father Yakunin) was imprisoned for 5 years for prop

• Allowed the Church to exist within it’s defined boundaries

  • Council of religious Affairs oversaw services and evangelism

  • Jews & Baptists impacted more

• Active persecution declined

  • Clergy were classified based on loyalty to Socialism