Abstract
This chapter examines the policies and institutions critical to understanding the relationship between religion and politics in the Soviet Union from the onset of the Cold War (roughly 1945) to its end (roughly 1991). The chapter opens with a brief discussion of the Cold War and the role of religion in its waging as well as a quick summary of pre-1945 religious policy in the USSR. A chronological survey of major developments in Soviet religious policy covers the postwar period of High Stalinism (1945–1953) and the renewed anti-religion campaigns of the post-Stalin era (1953–1984), ending with the Gorbachev era (1985–1991), highlighting the unexpected reversal in religious policy presented by the Millennium Celebration of 1988. A conclusion considers the results of seventy+ years of state antipathy toward religion and sets up the church-state relationship that has unfolded in post-Soviet Russia over the past three decades. Throughout, the chapter focuses on Soviet Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church but provides evidence and perspectives from multiple republics and faith communities.
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Further Reading
Davis, Nathaniel. 2003. A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy. Boulder: Westview.
Combining thirty years of diplomatic experience in Russia with archival research and interviews, Davis’ history of Russian Orthodoxy is the most reliable and up-to-date survey available. Besides being beautifully written, it includes enormous amounts of data and anecdotal evidence.
Smolkin, Victoria. 2018. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The first history of atheism in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, Smolkin’s nuanced and fascinating book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of religion, ideology, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Tasar, Eren. 2017. Soviet and Muslim: The Institutionalization of Islam in Central Asia. New York: Oxford University Press.
A multifaceted look at Islam in Central Asia during the postwar Soviet era drawing on deep archival work in multiple languages, Tasar’s work provides a view of religious institutions that decenters Moscow and Orthodoxy.
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deGraffenried, J. (2023). Religion and Politics in the USSR: The Cold War Era. In: Holzer, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Religion and State Volume II. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35609-4_6
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