Religious Policy in the Soviet Union

Religious Policy in the Soviet Union

Author: Sabrina P. Ramet

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0521416434

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Church-state relations have undergone a number of changes during the seven decades of the existence of the Soviet Union. In the 1920s the state was politically and financially weak and its edicts often ignored, but the 1930s saw the beginning of an era of systematic anti-religious persecution. There was some relaxation in the last decade of Stalin's rule, but under Khrushchev the pressure on the Church was again stepped up. In the Brezhev period this was moderated to a policy of slow strangulation of religion, and Gorbachev's leadership saw a thorough liberalization and re-legitimation of religion. This 1992 book brings together fifteen of the West's leading scholars of religion in the USSR. Bringing much hitherto unknown material to light, the authors discuss the policy apparatus, programmes of atheisation and socialisation, cults and sects, and the world of Christianity.


Religion in the Soviet Union

Religion in the Soviet Union

Author: F. Corley

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1996-08-27

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 0230390048

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The Soviet government's attitude to religion in theory and practice is shown in this wide-ranging collection of annotated texts from the newly-opened archives. Included are documents from the KGB, the Central Committee, the Council for Religious Affairs and numerous other official bodies. For the first time in English we see the bureaucrats' own view of how religious believers should be controlled, following the story from the persecutions of the early Soviet years to the openness instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev.


Believing in Russia - Religious Policy after Communism

Believing in Russia - Religious Policy after Communism

Author: Geraldine Fagan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-23

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1136213309

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This book presents a comprehensive overview of religious policy in Russia since the end of the communist regime, exposing many of the ambiguities and uncertainties about the position of religion in Russian life. It reveals how religious freedom in Russia has, contrary to the widely held view, a long tradition, and how the leading religious institutions in Russia today, including especially the Russian Orthodox Church but also Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist establishments, owe a great deal of their special positions to the relationship they had with the former Soviet regime. It examines the resurgence of religious freedom in the years immediately after the end of the Soviet Union, showing how this was subsequently curtailed, but only partially, by the important law of 1997. It discusses the pursuit of privilege for the Russian Orthodox Church and other ‘traditional’ beliefs under presidents Putin and Medvedev, and assesses how far Russian Orthodox Christianity is related to Russian national culture, demonstrating the unresolved nature of the key question, ‘Is Russia to be an Orthodox country with religious minorities or a multi-confessional state?’ It concludes that Russian society’s continuing failure to reach a consensus on the role of religion in public life is destabilising the nation.


The Dangerous God

The Dangerous God

Author: Dominic Erdozain

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1609092287

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At the heart of the Soviet experiment was a belief in the impermanence of the human spirit: souls could be engineered; conscience could be destroyed. The project was, in many ways, chillingly successful. But the ultimate failure of a totalitarian regime to fulfill its ambitions for social and spiritual mastery had roots deeper than the deficiencies of the Soviet leadership or the chaos of a "command" economy. Beneath the rhetoric of scientific communism was a culture of intellectual and cultural dissidence, which may be regarded as the "prehistory of perestroika." This volume explores the contribution of Christian thought and belief to this culture of dissent and survival, showing how religious and secular streams of resistance joined in an unexpected and powerful partnership. The essays in The Dangerous God seek to shed light on the dynamic and subversive capacities of religious faith in a context of brutal oppression, while acknowledging the often-collusive relationship between clerical elites and the Soviet authorities. Against the Marxist notion of the "ideological" function of religion, the authors set the example of people for whom faith was more than an opiate; against an enduring mythology of secularization, they propose the centrality of religious faith in the intellectual, political, and cultural life of the late modern era. This volume will appeal to specialists on religion in Soviet history as well as those interested in the history of religion under totalitarian regimes.


Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States

Author: John Anderson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1994-09-22

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780521467841

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Provides a systematic and accessible overview of church-state relations in the Soviet Union. This text explores the shaping of Soviet religious policy from the death of Stalin until the collapse of communism, and considers the place of religion in the post


A Sacred Space Is Never Empty

A Sacred Space Is Never Empty

Author: Victoria Smolkin

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-10-29

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0691197237

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When the Bolsheviks set out to build a new world in the wake of the Russian Revolution, they expected religion to die off. Soviet power used a variety of tools--from education to propaganda to terror—to turn its vision of a Communist world without religion into reality. Yet even with its monopoly on ideology and power, the Soviet Communist Party never succeeded in overcoming religion and creating an atheist society. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty presents the first history of Soviet atheism from the 1917 revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews with those who were on the front lines of Communist ideological campaigns, Victoria Smolkin argues that to understand the Soviet experiment, we must make sense of Soviet atheism. Smolkin shows how atheism was reimagined as an alternative cosmology with its own set of positive beliefs, practices, and spiritual commitments. Through its engagements with religion, the Soviet leadership realized that removing religion from the "sacred spaces" of Soviet life was not enough. Then, in the final years of the Soviet experiment, Mikhail Gorbachev—in a stunning and unexpected reversal—abandoned atheism and reintroduced religion into Soviet public life. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty explores the meaning of atheism for religious life, for Communist ideology, and for Soviet politics.


Religion, Conflict, and Stability in the Former Soviet Union

Religion, Conflict, and Stability in the Former Soviet Union

Author: Katya Migacheva

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780833099846

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Religion has become increasingly important in the sociopolitical life of countries in the former Soviet Union. This volume of essays examines how religion affects conflict and stability in the region and provides recommendations to policymakers.


Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics

Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics

Author: Sabrina P. Ramet

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 9780822308911

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Religious organizations in many countries of the communist world have served as agents for the preservation, defense, and reinforcement of nationalist feelings, and in playing this role have frequently been a source of frustration to the Communist Party elites. Although the relationship between governments and religious groups varies according to the particular country and group in question, the mosaic of these relationships constitutes a revealing picture of the political reform shaping the lives of Soviet and East European citizens.


Soviet and Muslim

Soviet and Muslim

Author: Eren Tasar

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0190652101

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World War II and Islamically informed Soviet patriotism -- Institutionalizing Soviet Islam, 1944-1958 -- SADUM's new ambitions, 1943-1958 -- The anti-religious campaign, 1959-1964 -- The muftiate on the international stage -- The Brezhnev Era and its aftermath, 1965-1989