Religion in the Soviet Union
Religion in the Soviet Union

Author: Source Wikipedia

Publisher: University-Press.org

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9781230583341

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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 63. Chapters: USSR anti-religious campaign, Society of the Godless, Bezbozhnik, Religious persecution during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Ivolginsky Datsan, Religion in Latvia, Council for Religious Affairs, Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults. Excerpt: A new and more aggressive phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union began in the mid 1970s after a more tolerant period following Nikita Khrushchev's downfall in 1964. Yuri Andropov headed the campaign in the 1970s when it began to rise. This new persecution was following upon the 1975 amendments to the 1929 anti-religious legislation and the 25th party congress. The CC resolution in 1979 would play a key role in this period as well. The intensification of anti-religious activities had continued since the early 70s; between 1971-1975 over 30 doctoral and 400 magisterial dissertations were defended on the subjects of atheism and criticism of religion. In 1974 there was a conference in Leningrad dedicated to 'The Topical Problems of the History of Religion and Atheism in the Light of Marxist-Leninist Scholarship'. This persecution, like other anti-religious campaigns in the USSR's history, was used as a tool to eliminate religion in order to create the ideal atheist society that Marxist-Leninism had as a goal. The persecution was disguised under false pretexts, which the state used in order to promote or defend a better international image of itself. After Khrushchev left office, the anti-religious campaign led underneath him was criticized. The same anti-religious periodicals that had participated in the campaign criticized the articles of past contributors. The anti-religious propaganda in those years was criticized for failing to understand that causes of religious of belief as well as similarly failing to understand that...

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.