“How accurate is it to say that the Soviet government’s largest threat to its control of the people was from religion 1917-85?”

Question 1

“How accurate is it to say that the Soviet government’s largest threat to its control of the people was from religion 1917-85?” Threat of Religion

Answer 1

• Lenin was also critical of the Russian Orthodox Church, the dominant organised religion in Russia. For Lenin, the Russian Orthodox Church was an essential ally of the Tsar. Moreover, the Church was an extremely rich institution, and some Russian Orthodox priests led lives of immense privilege while working people were poor.
• The new Communist Government was suspicious of organised religion because they believed that it could organise in opposition to the government.
• Lenin was convinced that the Church was an enemy of the revolution, and therefore he used terror to try to undermine the Church. In the first year of the revolution senior priests in the Orthodox Church were terrorised.
• During the 1920s Soviet authorities initiated campaigns against Islamic groups. Communists objected to Islam for two main reasons. First, they claimed that Islam encouraged ‘crimes based on custom’, particularly those infringing women’s rights. Secondly, they recognised that Islamic organisations had the loyalty of many people in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and therefore they wanted to destroy the religion in order to extend their own power.

Question 2

“How accurate is it to say that the Soviet government’s largest threat to its control of the people was from religion 1917-85?” Peace with Religion

Answer 2

• During the Second World War Stalin made a pragmatic alliance with the Church. One of his strategies for winning the war was to appeal to the patriotism of the Russian people to boost morale and inspire them to fight. Stalin reached out to the Church during the war for a number of reasons: The Russian Orthodox Church was linked to Russian national identity.
• Early in the war Stalin reached an understanding with leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Sergey urged Christians to fight for the motherland. proclaiming Stalin ‘God’s chosen leader’.
• In return, the government changed its policy towards the Church: From the outset of war anti-religious propaganda ceased. Communist publications, such as Bezbozhnik (‘The Godless’), were officially closed.
• During the Second World War, the easing of restrictions on the Church led to growth. The Orthodox Church grew and the priesthood expanded from 9254 in 1946 to 11,827 in 1948.
• Under Brezhnev, the government started supporting anti-American Islamic groups. As a result, from the late 1960s the Soviet Government described Islam as a ‘progressive, anticolonial and revolutionary creed’ that was compatible with socialism.

Question 3

“How accurate is it to say that the Soviet government’s largest threat to its control of the people was from religion 1917-85?” Threat of Western Influence

Answer 3

• Fashion from the USA, particularly clothes associated with the flapper style, and jazz were extremely popular with young people in Soviet cities in the early 1920s . Party leaders claimed that the new fashion and the rhythmic new music encouraged sexual promiscuity and drunkenness. From the mid-1920s, Communist Party bosses were using the OGPU to break up parties where Jazz was played.
• Khrushchev’s government was concerned that women would be seduced by consumerism into lives of wanton glamour and reckless shopping. Consequently, there was an official campaign against young women who adopted Western fashion, so called stilyaga. Female sexuality was also a cause of official concern. The government assumed that fashionable clothes implied sexual promiscuity. As a result there were official campaigns against Western fashion and “loose women’ in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• The government continued to try to combat the ‘Western influence’ of fashion. However, during the 1970s trade with the West increased, so Soviet cinemas showed films from the US and Western Europe that effectively showcased Western fashion. Soviet directors followed the lead of popular US films.

Question 4

“How accurate is it to say that the Soviet government’s largest threat to its control of the people was from religion 1917-85?” Dissidents in Art & Culture

Answer 4

• There was a small amount of room in Soviet art in the 1930s to dissent from Stalin’s artistic vision. One way of doing this was to celebrate the achievements of Lenin rather than Stalin. The world famous Soviet filmmaker, Dziga vertov did this in his 1934 trilogy Three Songs about Lenin.
• Khrushchev’s ‘thaws’ did not allow all Soviet artists to publish their work through official government-owned publishing houses. Therefore, from the late 1950s, writers produced `‘samizdat (self-published) magazines and books Alexander Ginzburg is the best-known figure in the underground samizdat movement.
• The new post-Khrushchev leadership were extremely concerned about Khrushchev’s ‘cultural liberalism’, which they believed was undermining faith in the Soviet Union. Indeed, in early 1965 they commissioned a KGB report which stated that there were 1292 anti-Soviet authors who had written almost 10,000 anti-Soviet documents. In order to send a clear message that the thaw was over, the new leadership ordered the arrest and trial of Sinyavsky and of Daniel, two authors who had been allowed considerable freedom under Khrushchev.
• During the 1970s a group called the Moscow Conceptualists attempted to make art which was a rebellion against everyday life’. The art that they produced was supposed to expose the truth about Soviet society and therefore be an antidote to official propaganda.