Soviet Union and Religion

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Avatar for tyler775
3 years ago

Religion was a very touchy subject in the Soviet Union. Religion was considered incompatible with Marxist-Leninist doctrine. As Vladimir Lenin put it:

"Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class."

"Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practice charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man." -Novaya Zhizn by Vladimir Lenin

The Soviet Union was officially state atheist with the state incorporating positive atheism or non-theism its workings. The USSR was particularly harsh towards the Russian Orthodox Church since it supported the White Army (the army that opposed the Bolsheviks and socialism during the Russian Civil War) and the former Tsarist autocracy. Believers were allowed to worship in private, but public displays were expressly forbidden. All cemeteries and funeral organizations were placed under the control of local Soviet deputies in 1929:

 Decree of SNK RSFSR #23-24, 1929: All cemeteries.. and all funeral organizations are hereby placed in the control of local Soviet deputies. (People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Tolmachev)

While opposed to anti-Semitism, the Soviets and Bolsheviks were hostile to Judaism as a religion from the very beginning. In 1919, Soviet authorities destroyed Jewish community councils that were traditionally responsible for maintaining synagogues. Jehovah's Witnesses were deported during Operation North: an operation where many Jehovah's Witnesses and their families to Siberia on April 1-2 of 1951.

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3 years ago

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great article about the soviet union sir i really don't have knowledge about this.

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