This article has been written for Easy History by Sophie Watkins.
The Full Stalinist Society Series:
- “Women and Children First”: Traditional Family Values and Motherhood
- “The Opium of the People” Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Persecuting Religion in the Soviet Union
- The Fine Line Between Love and a Life Sentence
Introduction to Soviet Atheism and Anti-Religious Rhetoric:
Karl Marx believed, in his critique of the political economy and capitalist system, that religion was invented by man as a way of easing the suffering endured within society – something that could blind people to the horrors of capitalism. He referred to it as the “opium of the people”, and believed that for society to evolve out of capitalism, religion had to be eliminated, which gave way for Marxist-Leninist scientific atheism, the antireligious arm of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. From the October Revolution until the fall of the Berlin Wall, antireligious rhetoric and atheist doctrine permeated the Soviet Union, with religious groups and ideologies being exterminated by the state, and the idea of Marxist-Leninist atheism rife in Soviet propaganda.
Under Stalin, the persecution of religion grew to unprecedented levels. The Russian Orthodox Church, the key religious institution within Russia, suffered greatly under Stalin, but other religious groups such as the Jews and Muslims also faced persecution. The Central Asian region, swallowed up by the Bolsheviks during the acquisition of the Russian Empire’s territory as the Soviet Union came into being, had been introduced to Islam as early as the ninth century. Islam was a powerful force in the region, however, under Stalin’s rule it was relentlessly persecuted. There is also some historical debate over the attitudes towards the Jewish population, which seemed to shift under Stalin into antisemitic rhetoric, with events such as the establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, relations with the Nazis, and the Doctor’s Plot during his tenure.
The ideal conclusion sought by the Soviet Union was an officially atheist state, but to achieve this, religious groups faced condemnation and levels of persecution as early as 1917, though this would only be exacerbated during Stalin’s period as Soviet leader.
A Note of Sources:
As with the last instalment of this series of articles, a range of background knowledge and wider reading from my undergraduate and postgraduate studies has aided the research and writing of this paper. The Soviet Union and Soviet society has been an academic interest of mine for many years, and reading further into the topic and writing about it through the lens of different topics is always a pleasure.
A range of academic articles make up the content and context of this piece, and they have been cited at the end, however the bulk of this text owes greatly to the work of writers in the fields of religious history.
The Russian Orthodoxy:
Prior to the establishment of the Soviet Union, the state religion was Russian Orthodoxy, the Russian arm of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which itself is one of the three main Christian denominations, the others being Protestantism, and Catholicism, with which Orthodoxy most closely aligned.
The state religion was very closely intertwined with its politics and the Tsars, having a substantial influence over Russia society in everything from education and the ‘ideal’ social model for the family, to the arts and architecture, being well-known for its onion-domed churches adorned in rich colours across the country.
The Soviets did not wish for religion to be practiced in the country, and saw it as a distraction from achieving a perfect, communist nation, and as such, the Bolsheviks had no need nor use for a state religion. Anti-religious sentiment was amped up under Stalin, who had a very clear atheist stance and no toleration for the Church; under his rule, churches were closed down, religious education was banned, members of the clergy were arrested and executed, and property belonging to the Church was confiscated and nationalised.
During the Second World War, however, the state’s approach to religion changed as Stalin realised the ability of the Church to unite the country and ignite patriotism – something the war effort desperately needed.
The Fate of Islam:
Islam was a widely practiced religion in parts of the Soviet Union when it was established, most notably in Central Asia, which had been home to Islamic ideology and practices since the ninth century. The Soviets perceived aspects of Islam, such as the paranja, a traditional female robe worn in Central Asia, to represent the oppression against women they believed to be rife amongst the Muslim community. Under Stalin, Hujum – a Soviet campaign that aimed to forcefully end Islamic practices that perpetuated male and female inequality – came into effect. Furthermore, in the 1930s, the Great Purge saw thousands of Muslim clerics arrested and executed. Religious schools had been closed down, and mosques that were not repurposed into industrial warehouses were otherwise shut down, most of them gone by 1941.
Anti-Semitism:
There is some debate among historians as to whether Stalin was antisemitic. There are cases of antisemitism in the Soviet Union, however, as with much of the Stalinist regime and the events that unfolded, the question remains as to how much of it came down to him? Speaking from a social standpoint, however, there are a number of incidences where anti-Jewish sentiment made an appearance under Stalin.
Within Soviet society in the 1940s, there was a general consensus that the Jewish population had a problematic ‘cosmopolitanism’ and lacked patriotism towards the state. There was a level of segregationary attitudes forming around the Jews, and Stalin had even planned to deport Jewish people from the country before his death in 1953, wiping the Jewish religion and its culture form Soviet society. 1953 was also famous amongst Jewish history for the Doctor’s Plot, a case that saw a group of Jewish doctors arrested and accused of plotting to assassinate Soviet leaders. Many believed this case to be exaggerated and largely fabricated, and used as a propaganda tool to excuse the
persecution and poor treatment of the Jews.
The establishment of a Jewish Autonomous Oblast and the deportation and displacement of Jews to that region of Siberia furthered a negative narrative amongst Soviet society about the Jewish people.
Conclusion:
Under Stalin’s rule, the Soviet Union’s approach to religion was an approach of eliminating those ideologies and persecuting its followers. The belief of the state was to be atheist, and yet in many ways the atheism of the Soviet Union manifested itself not only in anti-religious sentiment but the deportation and exclusions of Christians, Muslims and Jews. There are some ways in which the Church was relieved of this persecution, such as the reinstatement of the Church during the Second World War or the reduced persecution towards the Jewish community, despite its escalation later on. All in all, the Soviet Union did not wish for a state religion to be in place, and in doing so, by removing all religious
institutions from Russia and the states within the Union.
Sources:
- Institute of Scientific Atheism of the Academy of Social Sciences (1981), Questions of Scientific Atheism, Marx, Karl. [1843] 1970. “Introduction.”
- A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, translated by A. Jolin and J. O’Malley, edited by J. O’Malley. Cambridge University Press.
- Beemans, Pierre J. “Scientific Atheism in the Soviet-Union: 1917-1954.”, in Studies in Soviet Thought, vol. 7, no. 3, 1967, pp. 234–42.
- The Islamization of Central Asia: Politics, Economics and Society (2003) [Drafted by Timothy Hildebrandt, Asia Program Assistant Robert M. Hathaway, Director, Asia Program] The Wilson Centre
- VITALE, Alessandro. “ETHNOPOLITICS AS CO-OPERATION AND COEXISTENCE: THE CASE-STUDY OF THE JEWISH AUTONOMOUS REGION IN SIBERIA.”, in Politeja, no. 31/2, 2015, pp. 123–42.
- Kenworthy, Scott M., and Alexander S. Agadjanian. “The History of Christianity in Russia.” in Understanding World Christianity: Russia, vol. 5, Augsburg Fortress, 2021, pp. 97–147.
- Editor’s note: this is the only data I could easily find that represented the Muslim population in the USSR, though it is some decades after the time period being discussed by Sophie in the article. ↩︎
About the Author:
I am currently completing my Masters degree in History at the University of Lincoln, where I graduated from last year with my undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations. I have always loved reading about history and retelling it in my own words, analysing events and people and ironing out the hidden details. My main area of interest is the Russian Revolution, Soviet Union and Cold War and I’m also greatly interested in the history of sexuality and gender, and social history!
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