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SOVIET ANTIRELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS and PERSECUTIONS Also by Dimitry V

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SOVIET ANTIRELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS and PERSECUTIONS Also by Dimitry V SOVIET ANTIRELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS AND PERSECUTIONS Also by Dimitry V. Pospielovsky A HISTORY OF SOVIET ATHEISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, AND THE BELIEVER Volume 1: A HISTORY OF MARXIST-LENINIST ATHEISM AND SOVIET ANTIRELIGIOUS POLICIES Volume 3: SOVIET STUDIES ON THE CHURCH AND THE BELIEVER'S RESPONSE TO ATHEISM (forthcoming) THE RUSSIAN CHURCH UNDER THE SOVIET REGIME (2 volumes) RUSSIAN POLICE TRADE-UNIONISM: EXPERIMENT OR PROVOCATION? RUSSIA'S OTHER POETS (co-editor and co-translator) Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions Volume 2 of A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice, and the Believer Dimitry V. Pospielovsky Professor in Modem European and Russian History University of Western Ontario, Canada M MACMILLAN PRESS ©Dimitry V. Pospielovsky 1988 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Pospielovsky, Dimitry V. Soviet antireligious campaigns and persecutions.-(A history of Soviet atheism in theory and practice, and the believer; v. 2). 1. Religion and state-Soviet Union­ History-20th century I. Title II. Series 322'. 1'0947 BL65.S8 ISBN 978-0-333-44674-4 ISBN 978-1-349-19002-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19002-7 This modest summation of the persecutions of faith in the USSR is dedicated to Alexander Ogorodnikov, Leonid Boro­ din, Valeri Senderov, Deacon Vladimir Rusak and countless other Christians persecuted for their faith and for spreading the word of God in the face of militant atheism. Contents General Introduction to the Three-Volume Work lX Acknowledgements XVl Preface XVlll 1 The Early Persecutions, 1971-21 1 2 Contempt and Hate Propaganda, 1919-39 19 3 Persecutions, 1921-41 47 The NEP Era ( 1921-8) 47 1929-41 61 4 An 'Interlude': From 1941 to Stalin's Death 91 5 Renewal of the Incendiary Propaganda, 1958- 85 98 Under Khrushchev 98 After Khrushchev 108 6 Persecutions under Khrushchev 121 The Closure of the Churches 122 Demoralizing the Remaining Parishes 128 Monasteries and Pilgrimages 135 Parents and Children 142 7 Persecutions after Khrushchev 145 The Closing of Churches 146 The Orthodox 146 The Old Believers 151 The Roman Catholics 152 The 'Unregistered' Ones 154 The Uniates 157 The 'True and Free' Adventists 157 The Evangelical Christian Baptists 159 The Pentecostals 162 Persecutions of Clergy and Laity 163 Vll Vlll Contents Epilogue 188 Appendix 1 193 Appendix2 213 Notes and References 229 Bibliography 260 Index 265 General Introduction to the Three-Volume Work Religious belief and the Churches have survived in the Soviet Union in the face of almost seventy years of continuous persecution, unprecedented in history in intensity, although varying in degree and thrust, depending on the external and internal circumstances. According to approximate calcula­ tions, given in our book on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviets, the toll of Orthodox clergy has been in the region of 40 000 priests, probably as many monks and nuns, and incalculable millions oflay believers. The number of functioning Orthodox churches has been reduced from over 60 000 (this includes parish and monastic churches and institutional chapels) before the revolution to less than 7000 in the late 1970s. Other religions, except perhaps the Baptists, have seen the numbers of their churches and temples reduced by at least the same proportion. And yet in the last decade and a half or so, more and more voices in the Soviet Union have been heard claiming not only religious survival but even revival, primarily of Christianity and Islam. According to all oral evidence, both of Soviet-Russian clergy remaining in the Soviet Union and of recent emigres, this neophytic phenomenon is almost entirely limited to those under 40 years of age, while their parents mostly remain outside any religion. Hence, whatever the numbers and proportions, the current 'churchifi­ cation' of the intelligentsia is largely not a carry-over from one generation to the next, nor is it a simple revival of a tradition, because the tradition of the Russian intelligentsia, at least since the 1860s, has been predominantly one of a rather passionate atheism and positivism. 1 The main purpose of this study is a step-by-step presentation and analysis of the changing styles, strategies and tactics of the I. See Vekhi,acollection of essays on the Russian intelligentsia by N. A. Berdiaev, S. N. Bulgakov, M. 0. Gershenzon, A. S. Izgoev, B. A. Kistiakovsky, P. B. Struve, S. L. Frank (Moscow, 1909; repr.: Frankfurt/M.: Possev, 1967). Also: Jeffrey Brooks, 'Vekhi and the Vekhi Dispute', Suroey, vol.l9, no. I (86) London, Winter 1973. IX x General Introduction to the Three-Volume Work never-ending Soviet attack on religion and on believers. This will include as detailed and documented an account as possible of the direct persecutions, of which the most massive occurred in the following periods and under the following pretexts: February 1918 to late 1920. A bloody attack on the clergy and active laity was conducted under the pretext of their opposition to communism, their real or alleged sympathy for the Whites, and the resistance of lay believers to the nationalization of all church property in accordance with the Soviet decree of 23 January 1918. 1921 to 1923. This wave of arrests of clergy and laity, with executions of some of the most influential and popular church leaders, was officially motivated by their resistance to the confiscation of all church plate of any value, including liturgical vessels. 1922 to 1926. Persecution of the traditional Orthodox Church and her faithful clergy and laity for their refusal to join the state-supported Renovationist schism. 1926 to 1927. Arrests, exile and imprisonment of masses of bishops, as well as some regular parish clergy faithful to them, for an attempt to elect a patriarch secretly. 1928 to 1934. Arrest and liquidation of clergy and lay activists for refusing to accept Metropolitan Sergii's wording of the Declaration of Loyalty to the Soviet State and for breaking administrative connections with him. 1929 to 1930. The beginning of mass liquidation of rural parishes and their clergy and lay supporters under the guise of the collectivization and 'dekulakization' campaign. 1933 to 1934. Destruction of the remaining monastic communities and the liquidation of monks and nuns, along with many members of the urban and rural clergy, particularly renowned preachers and spiritual fathers. 1936 to 1939. Almost total liquidation of religious temples, clergy and active lay believers of all faiths. 1959 to 1964. Khrushchev's physical attack on the Church and all other religious faiths, closure and destruction of the majority of the temples reopened during the religiously 'tolerant' era of 1941 to 195 7, arrests and deportations of large numbers of clergy and laity-all under the pretext of imminent construction of communism, incompatible with faith in the Supernatural. General Introduction to the Three-Volume Work XI These are just highlights of the most massive attacks, which will be accounted for and discussed in greater detail in their proper context. The other aim of this study is to trace the continuing religious life in the country: how the believers preserve their faith and even multiply their numbers in these conditions; how, if at all, they are affected by this aggressive state atheism and anti­ religious propaganda; finally, how and why there is growing movement of adult baptisms and return to the Church after all these years of concerted attack, and this despite the absence of any organized religious education. Finding sources for this study was a complex and uneven process. There was no problem in locating masses of the officially printed Soviet antireligious propaganda of all cate­ gories: from the allegedly scholarly studies of the Soviet 'religiologists' to the primitive attacks on religion in the mass press and, in particular, in the Soviet specialized general circulation antireligious journals, newspapers, brochures and books. The available data on the direct Soviet persecutions of the Church are more difficult to assemble. Only a very small percentage can be obtained from official Soviet publications. Official admissions of persecutions have been made only where they could be blamed on the Church's hostility 'to the young Soviet republic' (the Civil War Years), or on the believers' resistance to the implementation of Soviet laws on the nationalization of church property or confiscation of church valuables (1918 to 1922), or, finally, on Stalin's excesses. But even the gross understatement is the rule. Therefore, most of the material on persecutions comes from testimonies of witnesses, unofficial letters and secret diocesan reports smug­ gled abroad, the multiple samizdat publications of the last two decades (which even include, on occasion, internal secret party documents not meant for print, with open admissions of persecutions) and statements (written and oral) by the emigres from the Soviet Union of all periods. Most of the existing Western studies of Soviet atheism limit themselves to the official Soviet sources. Only a small minority of Western scholars, such as Professor Bohdan Bociurkiw, the Rev. Michael Bourdeaux and his co-workers at Keston College, make wide use of samizdat in reporting persecutions of religion in the Soviet Union; however, in most cases these relate to the xn General Introduction to the Three-Volume Work post-Stalin era.
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