★ Religion and Culture Flashcards
★ What was the Bolshevik view on Religion?
★ Atheism was encouraged, religion seen as backwards
★ Aimed to destroy the tie between Soviet citizens and the Orthodox Church
★ Believed that religion would quickly wither away after the Church lost all its power
★ People’s Commissariat for Enlightenment was established
★ Churches and monasteries destroyed or turned into public toliets
★ Thousands of bishops, monks and clergy systematically killed
★ League of the Godless
★ What was Lenin’s impact on religion?
★ January 1918: Decree for the Separation of Church from State - outlawed religious instruction in school and disallowed the Church from having property
★ 1921: Union of the Militant Godless founded to convince citizens that God didn’t exist, children were ‘ Octobered ‘ not baptised
★ Living Church movement claimed that the Oct Rev was a Christian deed
★ 55% of Christians still practicising by 1920s
★ What was Stalin’s impact of religion?
★ 1927, Patriarch Serguis agrees to stay out of politics in return for State recognition of the Orthodox Church
★ Stalin killed many clergy in the Purges, Sundays no longer a holy day, Religious schools shut and Churches destroyed
★ Anti-religious drive affected Islam, Buddhism and Judaism
★ After Cultural change, Religion was allowed again
