The Setting

Abstract

This chapter describes how in the 1920s to 1930s, the Soviet state attempted to eradicate religion by targeting the most visible forms of devotional life. Tens of thousands of religious elites were arrested and executed; holy objects were seized; and churches, mosques, and synagogues were converted into granaries, warehouses, and museums of “Marxist-Leninist Scientific Atheism.” Meanwhile, Soviet populations were inundated with anti-religious propaganda, as local branches of the state-backed League of Militant Atheists proliferated. The chapter goes on to show how in the war years, however, religious repression ceased. The arrest and execution of religious figures was almost entirely curtailed. A pivotal moment came in 1943, when Stalin invited three Metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church to a late-night meeting in Moscow and offered them a “new deal,” allowing for unprecedented religious freedoms.