Religion

Question 1

In which three ways did lenin persecute the Church?

Answer 1

1. Legislation
2. Terror
3. Establishing the Living Church

Question 2

How did Lenin persecute the Church using legislation?

Answer 2

1. Decree on Land 1917

2. Decree Concerning Separation of Church and State 1918

Question 3

How did the Decree on Land 1917 antagonise the Church?

Answer 3

• gave peasants the right to seize land belonging to the Church

Question 4

How did the Decree Concerning Separation of Church 1918 antagonise the Church?

Answer 4

• took away the traditional privileges of the Orthodox Church

Question 5

Give 2 pieces of evidence that Lenin used terror to terrorise the Church.

Answer 5

1. In November 1917, Archpriest Ivan Kochurov was murdered outside Petrograd.
2. Orthodox Priests in Moscow were massacred in January 1918 following a Church decree excommunicating the Bolsheviks

Question 6

What was the Living Church?

Answer 6

A state church, that removed traditional leaders and had a decentralised structure

Question 7

When did Lenin establish the Living Church?

Answer 7

1921

Question 8

How did Lenin think the Living Church would limit the power of the Church?

Answer 8

Lenin hoped that the decentralised/ less organised structure would make it harder for the new Church to oppose the regime.

Question 9

Summarise Lenin’s attitude to Islam.

Answer 9

• initially backed attacks on property held by Islamic institutions, but later reversed this policy.
• overall less antagonistic towards Islam because there had been no official link between Islam and Tsarism.

Question 10

What happened in 1922?

Answer 10

Soviet constitution drawn up, which guarantees freedom of belief.

Question 11

Give 2 examples of how Stalin’s policies had religious implications.

Answer 11

1. Many churches were closed and turned into grain stores as a result of collectivisation
2. Stalin’s terror purged certain ethnic groups eg. Islamic groups/ For example, Sufi groups in Turkestan were destroyed by 1936.

Question 12

What was Stalin’s religious policy during the war?

Answer 12

• made pragmatic alliance with the church

- stalin asked for church leaders to support the government’s war effort.

Question 13

Give a piece of evidence that the Church supported stalin in the war

Answer 13

Russian Metropolitan leader Sergei urged Christians to fight for Stalin

Question 14

Give 2 pieces of evidence that Stalin gave concessions to the Church

Answer 14

1. the ‘Godless’ magazine terminated = ended anti-church propaganda
2. 414 churches re-opened during WW2

Question 15

Summarise Khrushchev’s attitude to religion

Answer 15

• abandoned compromise

- major anti-religious campaigns from 1958

Question 16

Name 5 ways in which Khrushchev attacked religion.

Answer 16

1. closure of churches that re-opened during WW2
2. Anti-religious propaganda reintroduced
3. placing Orthodox convents under surveillance
4. refusing believers access to holy sites
5. advocating space race disproving religion

Question 17

Explain how Khrushchev used the Soviet space programme to attack religion.

Answer 17

Yuri Gagarin (soviet astronaut) famously said he found no god when he travelled to the heavens.
Khrushchev broadcast this all round the Soviet Union

Question 18

Summarise Brezhenev’s attitude towards religion

Answer 18

• ended Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaigns
• advocated atheism through education
• supported anti-American Islamic groups (significant shift from previous policy)

Question 19

Give an example of how Brezhnev supported Islam

Answer 19

In the late 1960s, Brezhnev established the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, which allowed Soviet Islamic leaders and scholars to have limited contact with Muslims in other countries.

Question 20

Give 2 examples of how Brezhnev did keep control over religious groups

Answer 20

• prayer meetings broken up and members dismissed from their jobs.
• 1979 - Brezhnev imprisoned Father Yukunin, for trying to draw attention to human rights abuses in the Soviet Union.