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Religion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dominated by the fact that it became the first state to have as one objective of its official ideology the elimination of existing religion, and the prevention of future implanting of religious belief, with the goal of establishing state atheism (gosateizm).[1][2][3][4] However, the main religions of pre-revolutionary Russia persisted throughout the entire Soviet period and religion was never officially outlawed. Christians belonged to various denominations: Orthodox (which had the largest number of followers), Catholic, Baptist and various other Protestant denominations. The majority of the Muslims in the Soviet Union were Sunni, with the notable exception of Azerbaijan, which was majority Shia. Judaism also had many followers. Other religions, practiced by a small number of believers, included Buddhism and Shamanism.[5]
The vast majority of people in the Russian Empire were, at the time of the revolution, religious believers. After the October Revolution saw the Bolsheviks overthrow the Russian Provisional Government and establish the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the communists aimed to break the power of all religious institutions and eventually replace religious belief with atheism.[6][7][8] As part of the campaign, churches and other places of worship were systematically destroyed,[9][10][11] and there was a "government-sponsored program of conversion to atheism" conducted by communists.[12][13][14] "Science" was counterposed to "religious superstition" in the media and in academic writing. The communist government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[2] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the persecution.[15]
Political cartoon of Christmas 1921: clergy, imperialists and capitalists follow the Star of Bethlehem, while workers and the Red Army follow the Red Star.
^Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed
^ ab"Revelations from the Russian Archives: ANTI-RELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS". Library of Congress. US Government. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
^Kowalewski, David (October 1980). "Protest for Religious Rights in the USSR: Characteristics and Consequences". Russian Review. 39 (4): 426–441. doi:10.2307/128810. JSTOR 128810.
^Ramet, Sabrina Petra., ed. (1993). Religious Policy in the Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press. pp. 4. ISBN 9780521416436.
^Chakars, Melissa (2014). The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia. Central European University Press. p. 235. ISBN 9789633860144.
^Arto Luukkanen (1994). The Party of Unbelief. Helsinki: Studia Historica 48. ISBN 951-710-008-6. OCLC 832629341. OL 25433417M.
^Anderson, John (1994). Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3. ISBN 0-521-46784-5.
^Why Stalin Tried to Stamp Out Religion in the Soviet Union
^How churches in the Soviet Union were desecrated and repurposed
^How did the Soviets use captured churches?
^10 beautiful Moscow churches destroyed in Soviet times
^Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, page 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.
^Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History, by Dilip Hiro. Penguin, 2009.
^Adappur, Abraham (2000). Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West. Intercultural Publications. ISBN 9788185574479. Retrieved 14 July 2016. Forced Conversion under Atheistic Regimes: It might be added that the most modern example of forced "conversions" came not from any theocratic state, but from a professedly atheist government — that of the Soviet Union under the Communists.
^Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p.494"
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