Lenin and Religion 1

Question 1

1. What did Marx famously claim that religion was?

2. Why was the Communist govt suspicious of organised religion? (2)

Answer 1

1. The ‘opium of the masses.’
2. Their values were sometimes opposed to Communist values.
   Their organisations were independent from the Communist government.

Question 2

1. Which legal reform gave peasants the right to seize land belonging to the church?
2. Which legal reform meant that the church lost all of its privileged position in society?
3. Which legal reform guaranteed freedom of conscience for all Soviet people?

Answer 2

1. October 1917 Decree on Land.
2. January 1918 Decree Concerning Seperation of Church and State.
3. 1922 Soviet Constitution.

Question 3

1. Lenin was convinced that the Church was what?
   - Therefore, what did he use to try and undermine the church?
2. Give one example of terror towards the church (specific killing).
3. What did the Politburo issue to the Cheka in November 1918?
   - What happened to Roman Catholic priests in the first half of 1918?
   - Why were they treated differently?
4. The new govt also used __________ against the church and seized their ________.

Answer 3

1. An enemy of the revolution.
   - Terror.
2. November 1917, Archpriest Ivan Kochurov was murdered outside Petrograd.
3. A secret order sanctioning the mass execution of priests.
   - Deported.
   - They were a traditionally persecuted minority.
4. Propaganda, property.

Question 4

1. What did Communist leaders encourage local Muslims to do?
2. Why were the Communists less antagonistic towards Islam?
3. However, the Soviet authorities still tried to weaken Islam. Give an example of how they did this.

Answer 4

1. Join the Party.
2. No official link between Islam and Tsarism.
3. Closed mosques, discouraged pilgrimages, attacked Islamic shrines.