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ABSTRACT Soviet Religion Policy Through Religious Dissidents From ABSTRACT Soviet Religion Policy through Religious Dissidents from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev: A Comparative Study of Aida Skripnikova and Valeri Barinov Lauren L. Tapley, M.A. Thesis Chairperson: Barry G. Hankins, Ph.D. In an attempt to eradicate belief in God and religion from the lives of its citizens, the Soviet Union arrested, tried, and imprisoned thousands of religious believers during its seventy-year reign. Two of the most influential of these believers were Aida Skripnikova and Valeri Barinov. Skripnikova, arrested and tried on three separate occasions beginning in the mid-1960s, was known for her zealous work and tireless efforts to help other religious prisoners. Barinov, arrested numerous times in the early 1980s, utilized his musical talent to evangelize the youth in Leningrad. Spanning nearly two decades, Skripnikova and Barinov witnessed four changes in Soviet leadership from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev. By examining Skripnikova’s and Barinov’s lives and trials, an understanding, and perhaps even a pattern of liberalization, can be seen in the religion policy of the Soviet Union from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. Soviet Religion Policy through Religious Dissidents from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev: A Comparative Study of Aida Skripnikova and Valeri Barinov by Lauren L. Tapley, B.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of History ___________________________________ Jeffrey S. Hamilton, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee ___________________________________ Barry G. Hankins, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Christopher Marsh, Ph.D. ___________________________________ David W. Hendon, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2009 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright 2009 Lauren L. Tapley All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... iv Dedication..................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2. Aida Skripnikova...................................................................................... 25 Chapter 3. Leonid Brezhnev and Religion Policy ..................................................... 57 Chapter 4. Intermission: Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko ....................... 69 Chapter 5. Valeri Barinov and The Trumpet Call...................................................... 89 Chapter 6. Mikhail Gorbachev and Reform............................................................... 123 Chapter 7. Conclusion................................................................................................ 143 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 155 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the research and writing of this project, I received help and advice from a number of people whom I would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank. The first of these people is Dr. Barry Hankins, who answered countless questions and was willing to go above and beyond to help me succeed in being able to write my masters thesis on Soviet History. Without his willingness to act as my thesis supervisor and committee chairperson, I would have been unable to research and write my master thesis on my chosen field within history. I would also like to thank Dr. Christopher Marsh, not only for recommending that I use the Keston Center for my research but also for bringing to my attention the horrific plight of religious dissident Aida Skripnikova. Because of the vast number of religious dissidents imprisoned in the Soviet Union, Aida could have slipped unnoticed from my attention if Dr. Marsh had not mentioned her. I would also like to thank Dr. Marsh for allowing me to work as a student in the Keston Center during the research and writing of this project and for his willingness to act as a member on my thesis defense committee. Thirdly, I would like to offer a sincere thank you to Dr. David Hendon, who was willing to act as the third person on my defense committee. Although Dr. Hendon and I had not spoken since I began graduate school, he was more than obliging when I asked him to join my committee. Dr. Hendon’s devotion and commitment to his students and the discipline of history made him a natural choice for me. I would also like to thank Baylor University’s J.M. Dawson Institute of Church State Studies, and particularly Larisa Seago, the Keston Center’s archivist, for the advice iv and help given to me while researching my thesis. As the only person at Baylor to have spent any considerable time with the Keston Center, Larisa’s knowledge about location and content of the material was invaluable. Finally, I would like to thank Michael Bourdeaux and the entire original Keston College staff in Oxford, England for the years devoted to collecting and cataloguing the materials housed in the Keston Center. Many from Keston risked their lives to bring the Western world the truth about religious persecution taking place in Communist countries and their dedication should not go unnoticed. Containing hundreds of thousands of documents, books, photographs, trial transcripts, and personal memoirs from prisoners, the Keston Center is dedicated to those who have suffered for their religious beliefs in Communist and post-Communist countries for their religious beliefs, making it one of the most vast and significant research facilities in the world. v DEDICATION To Mom, Dad, and Holly for all their love, support, and encouragement vi CHAPTER ONE Introduction The Soviet Union was the first modern Western country that attempted to systematically eliminate religion and belief in God in the everyday lives of its citizens. Elaborate propaganda campaigns, strict governmental censorship, and harsh prison sentences were carried out in order to effectively erect atheism as the official belief system in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of churches were seized and destroyed while others were turned into storehouses, public toilets, or museums of atheism. Whole congregations and “religious sects” were forced to undergo absurdly complicated registration procedures in order to secure the legality of regular worship services and even then suffered persecution. Many congregations, for various reasons, were unable to gain proper registration and were forced to carry out their worship services clandestinely in private homes or forests. Believers willing to defy Soviet law in obedience to God eventually came to be referred to as dissidents. Two religious dissidents who suffered tremendous persecution in the Soviet Union were Baptists Aida Skripnikova and Valeri Barinov. Aida was part of the Reform Baptist movement that broke away from the mainstream Baptist group, and her community was never granted registration. Valeri was part of the mainstream registered Baptists, who were willing to cooperate with the regulations put in force by the Soviet state. Both Aida and Valeri received prison time for their religious and evangelism activities—Aida for her religious zeal and desire to distribute Bibles in the Soviet Union and Valeri for his evangelism method to reach the lost youth of Leningrad through 1 Christian rock music. This paper will focus on Aida and Valeri, their early lives as Christians, their experience of religious persecution, and the question of whether visible liberalization can be identified in Soviet religion policy. Aida was imprisoned in 1968, whereas Valeri was imprisoned in 1984, and therefore by examining Soviet religion policy during the time of their imprisonment, it can be discerned if liberalization was carried out. To understand religious persecution in the Soviet Union during Aida and Valeri’s lives a general background on persecution and dissidents prior to the 1960s is necessary for framework, and because Aida and Valeri were both Baptist, a more detailed look at Baptists will be taken throughout the paper including their entry into Russia in the 1850s. The term dissident employed for those like Aida and Valeri is ill fitting in many ways, partially because the term ignores the fact that many believers were simply trying to live in compliance with their religious beliefs and not directly criticize or rebel against the Soviet state. However, persecuted believers were lumped in with other persecuted groups including political and literary critics, who openly challenged and protested against the Communist government. Regardless of the meaning, “religious dissident” gradually became a favorite phrase displayed in newspapers throughout the West, depicting stories of the harsh harassment and prejudicial treatment believers in the Soviet Union faced everyday. Children of believers were often remanded to the custody of the state and placed into orphanages because of their parents’ desire to raise them in a religious environment. Other children were isolated or berated for their religious belief by teachers and classmates at school. Believers, themselves, were liable to lose their job if their employer 2 found out they were religious, at which point the local police or KGB would
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