Issue Update: the Anti-Cult Movement and Religious Regulation in Russia

UNITED STATES COMMISSION on INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ISSUE UPDATE Gayle Manchin The Anti-cult Movement and Religious Regulation Chair in Russia and the Former Soviet Union Tony Perkins Vice Chair By Jason Morton, Policy Analyst Anurima Bhargava Vice Chair Introduction Religious regulation in Russia and the countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) Commissioners presents a complex landscape that is easily misinterpreted or oversimplified. Advocates Gary Bauer for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in the region are often frustrated by attempts James W. Carr to communicate with government officials, who claim their discriminatory measures are intended to defend religious freedom and human rights, or argue such measures Frederick A. Davie are a democratic response to the needs and concerns of citizens. Such rhetoric draws Nadine Maenza on a specific historical experience that must be understood to be effectively countered. Johnnie Moore This report provides essential context and recommendations to enable advocates and policymakers to more effectively respond to FoRB abuses in the region. Effective Nury Turkel solutions must prioritize education about the value of FoRB for social stability, as well as information about existing obstacles to its implementation. Erin D. Singshinsuk Executive Director Anti-cultism By the time the Russian government banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in April 2017, Alexander Dvorkin, a Russian anti-cult activist, had spent years lobbying for strong measures against groups he frequently refers to as “totalitarian cults” and “destructive USCIRF’s Mission sects”—and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were at the top of his list. In an interview with state media shortly after the ban, Dvorkin claimed that the group maintains “strict control over every aspect of its members’ lives, including even the most intimate moments of their family lives as spouses have to report on one another.” Just as in the days of To advance international Stalin, “All members have to keep an eye on each other, to spy on one another,” he said. freedom of religion or Dvorkin believes that the international human rights community, especially those who advocate for freedom of religion and belief, enable these destructive organizations to belief, by independently prey on society. According to him, “the struggle for human rights is being supplanted assessing and unflinchingly with the struggle for the rights of organizations which violate human rights.” Banning the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to his mind, was not a violation of fundamental freedoms, but confronting threats to this rather an essential step for their preservation. fundamental right. The contemporary Russian anti-cult campaign has diverse roots. It is an oversimplification to attribute contemporary Russian religious regulation to a vague “Soviet mentality” or to the desire of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for spiritual hegemony. Indeed, the rhetoric of “brainwashing,” “mind control,” “zombification,” and “totalitarian sects,” which is frequently used to justify harsh measures, draws on fears www.USCIRF.gov 732 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite #A714 @USCIRF Washington, DC 20401 [email protected] USCIRF Issue Update: Religious Regulation202-523-3240 in Russia July 2020 July, 2020 about the Soviet past and its subjugation of the individual for the rest of Soviet history and beyond. The law to a malevolent collective. And while the ROC has been required all religious groups to register with the state in a major supporter of the anti-cult movement, there is order to receive legal status, made all religious activity ongoing opposition to its aims and methods among both outside the confines of a recognized church illegal, clergy and laity. and banned the religious instruction of minors or the distribution of religious literature. While both the Soviet legacy and the ROC are major influences, current attitudes about and approaches Over the lifespan of the Soviet Union, official policies to religious minorities also stem from other factors, about religion continued to evolve. In 1943, at the height including post-Soviet socio-economic developments, of World War II, Stalin rehabilitated the ROC’s standing in the Putin regime’s desire for national unity, individual Soviet society in order to harness the Church’s popularity fears about family security or change generally, and for the state. The ROC was allowed to restore its depleted transnational concerns about the perceived dangers hierarchy, but the state would now approve or appoint from new religious movements (NRMs). The anti-cult most leaders through the newly-formed Council for movement, an international network supported locally by Russian Orthodox Church Affairs. The ROC became the ROC, the government, and concerned citizens, unites a quasi-state religion with privileged status. Other all these factors. traditional religions like Islam enjoyed similar status in regions where they dominated and were regulated by the The anti-cult movement first emerged in the West Council for Religious Affairs. Religion was increasingly during the 1970s and 80s, after traumatic events such treated as a marker of ethnicity and, if tightly controlled, as the Jonestown Massacre (1978) raised fears about was cited as a testament to the supposed diversity of the perceived threat of secretive groups. In France, Soviet socialism. Later laws reinforced the primacy of the movement found fertile ground in the nation’s legal registration, carefully delineating the eligibility secular ethos and historical struggle of reason versus requirements and permitted activities. Registered religious superstition. In the late-1990s and early 2000s, a fragile groups were generally deemed safe and even useful, while Russian state eager for stability and unity adopted the those who failed or refused to register, like the Jehovah’s message, fueling a crackdown on religious minorities that Witnesses, were deemed “enemies of the state.” has yet to diminish or end. As the once dynamic Soviet economy stagnated in In turn, the Russian model has had a significant impact the 1960s and 70s, Soviet citizens began to question in other countries of the FSU, such as Kazakhstan, their system, and many found meaning in religion Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, where anti-cult ideas and spirituality—both traditional faiths like Orthodox influence both religious regulation and policies related to Christianity, as well as new groups previously unknown anti-terrorism and the fight against “extremism.” In that in the region. For instance, in 1971, the founder of the context, the anti-cult movement continues to conduct Hare Krishna movement visited a Moscow “orientalist” a highly effective disinformation campaign against and helped to inspire profound interest in the group religious minorities with devastating consequences for among disillusioned Soviets. The state tried to curtail their human rights. To adequately address the ongoing this trend through propaganda and harsher measures violation of religious freedom in Russia and Central Asia, but it continued, and in 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, the it is essential to understand the logic of this movement last leader of the Soviet Union, symbolically embraced and its enduring appeal in the region. the ROC, allowing a massive celebration of the Church’s thousand-year anniversary. In September 1990, the Religious Regulation in the Soviet Union Soviet Union officially ended its policy of state-sponsored Contrary to popular perception, the Soviet Union atheism and approved a surprisingly tolerant law on never outlawed religion: it regulated it. Both Karl Marx, freedom of conscience at a time when people were philosopher, and Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet “flocking to church in record numbers.” One month later, Union, were convinced that old beliefs were rooted in the Soviet Republic of Russia passed a law on freedom of human suffering and would simply fade away as the worship that guaranteed religious freedom for all. attainment of communism removed any underlying need This law shaped official policy towards religion in for them. Yet as the Russian revolution developed into Russia for much of the 1990s, even after the Soviet civil war and famine, Soviet animosity towards religion Union collapsed in 1991. The collapse of the union was in general, and the ROC in particular, intensified. accompanied by an even more dramatic collapse of Anti-religious campaigns accelerated over the course post-Soviet economies and societies, as a few private of the 1920s, culminating in a 1929 Law on Religious individuals monopolized former state assets and average Associations that set the pattern for religious regulation 2 USCIRF Issue Update: Religious Regulation in Russia July 2020 citizens saw incomes and pensions disappear. At the by the sudden shift in social norms. Many Russians same time, the trickle of religious interest during the perceived any and all religion as somewhat strange, and late-Soviet era became a flood as beleaguered citizens NRMs as particularly so: especially if their friends or sought stability and reassurance. In 1991, the Jehovah’s family members had joined one of these groups. In 1993, Witnesses received legal status and The Church of Dvorkin founded the Saint Irenaeus of Leon Information- Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which had only Consultation Center (SILIC) under the auspices of the ROC 300 members in 1991, grew to 2,000 by early 1993. and with the blessing of then Patriarch Alexey II. Almost Although the majority of society

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