Religion’s Powerful Grip

To trace the story of religion in the Soviet Union, one must follow the footprints of the Russian Orthodox Church. It has been by far the most prominent religion in the land.

That Church had its beginning in 988 C.E. when Vladimir the Great of Kiev was baptized into the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christendom’s religion. It is said that he converted from his pagan religion in order to gain his wife Anna. She was the sister of the emperor of the then dominant Byzantine Empire. That empire had its capital at Constantinople, the chief seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Vladimir told his subjects that they must all submit to baptism as orthodox Christians. Whoever would not do so was considered to be an enemy of the State. Thus, from its beginning, the Russian Church was backed by secular force. When the Byzantine Empire collapsed in 1453, the Russian Orthodox Church was declared independent from control by Constantinople. Later, the chief religious head at Moscow was made a patriarch equal to the one in Constantinople. However, in 1692 Peter the Great abolished the position of patriarch, controlling the Church himself. And in 1721 the Russian Orthodox Church was officially made the national church.

As time passed, the Church became ever more closely linked with the oppressive rule of the czars (kings or emperors, from the Latin word Caesar). The czars required the people to conform to the Russian Orthodox Church and made it unlawful to convert to another religion. The ruthless czars and the self-seeking Church combined to keep the people in ignorance and poverty.

But then, in March of 1917, liberal-minded political groups staged a revolution and ousted the czar. With the czar gone, the Russian Orthodox Church saw a chance to become independent from State control. And the new provisional government encouraged such efforts. In August of that memorable year, the office of the patriarch was restored. With a new patriarch, Tikhon, and new freedom, it was thought that the Church would become even more powerful than before.

Ominous Winds of Change

But before that could take place, political winds of hurricane force blew across Russia! Another revolution took place in November 1917. This one brought to power the Bolsheviks (later called Communists). They swept away the existing order, including the provisional government.

In a few years, under the direction of Lenin, Communism consolidated its hold on Russia and other territories near it. Then, on December 30, 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) was declared to be in existence. Ultimately, fifteen republics came to make up the Soviet Union, including Russia, the largest of the republics. Today the Soviet Union embraces a greater land area than any other nation. Its population totals nearly 250,000,000, the third-largest in the world after China and India.

Coming into power over more than one hundred national groups, the Communist rulers were faced with people holding a variety of religious beliefs. Of course, the Russian Orthodox Church was by far the largest religion. But there were many others, especially in the territories that had come under Communist control more recently.

The Soviet Union’s Campaign to Crush Religion

WHEN the Communists gained control of Russia, they wasted no time before making known their purpose toward religion. It was to smash religion out of existence and to turn the country into an atheistic state.

True, in the early 1900’s, Lenin had written that there should be religious toleration. But once the Bolsheviks seized power it was clear that the government would regard religion as an enemy and would try to bury it. In his treatise Relationship of the Workers’ Party to Religion, Lenin said:

“‘Religion is opium for the people’​—this statement by Marx is the cornerstone of all the world concept of Marxism in the matter of religion. Marxism views all of today’s religions and churches, each and every religious organization, always to be organs of the [enemy] bourgeois reactionary forces.”

The Attack Begins

Right after seizing power in November of 1917, the new government issued a decree declaring that all lands, including church property, were now the property of the people (actually the government). This ruling paved the way for the confiscation of church property later.

Another decree stated that all citizens were equal no matter what religion they professed, or even if they did not profess any religion. The practical result of this was to condone and promote atheism.

Then, in early 1918, the government announced the complete separation of the Russian Orthodox Church from the State. At this time all church property was taken over by the Communists. Also, religious instruction was forbidden in schools. And all government payments to the churches stopped.

These steps were only part of the assault. Much more was to come. Vital from the government’s point of view was what needed to be done to the minds of people, especially the young. The first constitution in 1918 had stated that “the right to religious and anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.” But the constitution was amended in 1929 and the ‘right of religious propaganda’ was withdrawn. While the ‘right to anti-religious propaganda’ was kept, only the “right of profession of religious faiths” was allowed.

The 1929 ruling was very damaging to religion. It forbade all religions to do any social, educational or charitable work. It confined religious groups to the buildings allocated to them by authorities. They could not do anything to spread their religion. And since the children were now being taught only atheism in the schools, the long-range prospects for religion were ominous.

The Effect

All of these legal proceedings and the hostile attitude of government had their effect. From the first weeks of the revolution onward, churches across the country were attacked. They were pillaged, wrecked or converted into factories, warehouses, political meeting halls or museums.

Not only the Orthodox Church was involved. Other religions were attacked too. For instance, Roman Catholic clergymen were imprisoned, the Church’s property confiscated and restrictions placed on Catholic schooling. Standard Communist practice was to form societies of priests loyal only to Moscow, undermining the authority of the pope.

Under severe pressure, some religions disappeared altogether. The Uniate Church was one. This church was a hybrid of Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox Church. It had been strong among Ukrainians. But clergymen opposing Communism were imprisoned or exiled. Others of the clergy renounced their allegiance to the pope, abandoned their religion and enrolled under the banner of the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow.

Hand in hand with the confiscation of church property, the jailing or exiling of opposing clergymen, and the closing of churches, went a furious process of indoctrination through the press, radio, movies and the schools. Especially devastating was the antireligious atmosphere in the schools. Typical of the indoctrination was a ninth-year school textbook published in the Soviet Union, which said:

“The study of the laws of evolution of the organic world assists in the working out of the materialistic conception . . .

“In addition, this teaching arms us for the anti-religious struggle, by giving us the materialistic interpretation of the appearance of purpose in the organic world, and at the same time proving the origin of man from lower animals.”

The children were at the mercy of their atheistic teachers. And their churchgoing parents generally were unable to counteract that influence. Most of these parents knew little or nothing about the reasons for the teachings and practices of their own religion. So they were very ill equipped to stem the tide.

In addition, large organizations were arranged for the young people. There were the “Young Pioneers” for children, and the “Union of Communist Youth” for those between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. These organizations were filled with the ideas of Marx and Lenin. While membership was not compulsory, the social pressure to conform was tremendous. The natural desire of young people to want to be part of what is popular had its effect.

Thus, once in power, the Communists committed themselves to the uprooting of traditional religion. And for the first quarter of a century after 1917, the campaign against religion was maintained, although the assaults came in waves, more severe at some times than at others.

Why So Antireligious?

Many people in other countries were horrified at these attacks. But that was not the case with all the Russian people. There were masses of them who viewed what was happening as just retribution for the crimes the churches had committed.

To understand the way many Russians felt, one needs to understand that the churches, especially the Orthodox Church, were key elements in the oppression of the people by the czars. For their own selfish advantage, the clergy for centuries had catered to the rulers, ignored the needs of the people and kept them in ignorance. The majority of the people were held in virtual slavery to the rulers and wealthy classes. The clergy worked to keep it that way. Many of the clergy became greedy, immoral and hungry for power.

Historians acknowledge that the Orthodox Church in particular was grossly corrupt. In House Without a Roof Maurice Hindus writes:

“The village batushka [priest] was often himself an ignorant man, addicted to vodka and not averse to seducing an attractive woman parishioner. . . .

“The muzhik [peasant] . . . learned more about good and evil from the tales and ballads of wandering beggars and pilgrims than from the parish priest. . . .

“The fatal liability of the Russian Church was its complete subordination and subservience to the Czarist state, which in the words of Milyukov ‘paralyzed all living buds of religion.’”

This author also noted the words of Russian literary critic Vissarion Byelinsky, who wrote: “In the eyes of all Russians is not the priest the living symbol of gluttony, miserliness, sycophancy [self-seeking], shamelessness?”

Commenting on the Orthodox Church’s use of the armed might of the czars to further its own ends, the late Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev wrote in the book The Origin of Russian Communism:

“Can the hierarchs justify such anti-Christian ‘politics’? Why do they resort to force rather than deeds of love? . . . We observe with amazement the union of Church and State in this hateful work. It is this very subservience of the Church to the State that has resulted in the loss of faith on the part of so many people.”

That the sins of religion were greatly to blame for what happened in Russia is admitted even by religious leaders themselves. A theologian in a Communist land said in a report printed by Harper’s magazine:

“I am not a Communist, I am a Christian. But I know that it is we, we Christians alone, who are responsible for Communism. We had a burden to discharge in the world, and Jesus Christ left us no room to wonder what it was. We failed. We ‘said, and did not.’ . . . Remember that the Communists once were Christians. If they do not believe in a just God, whose fault is it?”

Without doubt, the corruption of the churches in Russia alienated many people from God, from the Bible, and from Christianity. They reasoned: ‘If this is the religion of God, then we prefer to believe that there is no God.’

Thus, there were reasons for the ferocious opposition of the Soviet Union’s leaders against religion. But, unfortunately, they did not distinguish between true faith in God and hypocritical religion. In their bitterness, they resolved to throw out all religion.

The Clergy Compromise

At first, many of the clergy resisted the inroads that the Communists were making against religion. But as time passed, more and more clergy compromised and became tools of the Communist government. But since that government was bent on burying religion, these compromising clergy were, in effect, assisting at their own funerals!

An example of this was the patriarch Tikhon. Unlike Jesus Christ, who was willing to die rather than compromise the truth, Tikhon compromised. In 1923, after being released from prison, he signed a declaration promising not to engage in anything harmful to the interests of the State. Shortly before his death in 1925 he called on all Russians “to sincerely stand for the Soviet power and to work for the common wealth and to condemn any open or secret agitation against the new order of the State.”

After his death, the Church was not permitted to elect another patriarch. But other high church officials generally followed his lead. This was made clear in 1927 when Sergei, a metropolitan (next in rank below a patriarch), issued a proclamation. The book The First Fifty Years notes that in it Sergei “promised the support and political co-operation of the Church and its followers.” He called on the clergy to give written guarantees of their loyalty to the Soviet government or face expulsion from the Church.

Despite all the compromises that the clergy were making, the Communists continued their many-sided campaign against religion. Especially during the political purges of 1936 through 1938 were the churches savagely attacked. While in 1930 Sergei had claimed the loyal support of 163 bishops, there were less than 12 left in 1939. It was said that 40 bishops had been shot. And an estimated 10,000 churches were closed. As The First Fifty Years says: “The church in 1939 was near to collapse.”

Change Toward Religion

Therefore the Communist rulers, including Stalin, saw the need to change their attitude toward religion. They realized that their campaigns against religion had alienated many religious people. So, from the autumn of 1941 onward, the Communist leadership started making concessions.

Before long, these efforts had their effect. In 1942 Metropolitan Sergei hailed Stalin as Russia’s “divinely anointed leader.” Then, in 1943, Stalin received leading officials of the Orthodox Church in his Kremlin office and authorized them to elect Sergei as the new patriarch. Thus ended a period of eighteen years without an official head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

More concessions were made. The publication of a Church journal was permitted. Several theological seminaries were reopened, as were many churches. The drive to destroy religion was muted. Also, limitations on other religions were eased.

Patriarch Sergei died in 1944. He was succeeded by Alexei. The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that Alexei assured Stalin of the “feelings of profound love and gratitude” with which all “church workers” were inspired. Now, church leaders everywhere pleaded with their followers to give their support to the Communist government. And the government rewarded some of the clergy for their effort by giving them medals.

Church leaders told their followers that the fight against the Nazi invaders was, not only in defense of the Soviet Union, but also in defense of Christianity. The churches took up collections to buy weapons. By January of 1943 the donations were enough to equip a squadron of fighter planes. Another contribution equipped a tank unit, and when this unit was turned over to the Red Army in a solemn ceremony, Metropolitan Nikoloy praised Stalin as “our common Father.”

Finally, by 1945, the German armies were rolled back. Soviet troops advanced into Germany. To commemorate these events, an assembly was convened under the direction of Patriarch Alexei. The assembly adopted a proclamation in which the victories of the Red Army were praised as victories of Christ over the forces of darkness. The proclamation stated: “Everyone can see whose weapons [those of the Soviets] our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed and whose weapons [those of the Germans] did not receive such blessing.” A few days later the Communist leaders expressed their gratitude for the effort put forth by the churches.

A Change of Heart?

Did the change in attitude by the government indicate a true change of heart toward religion? By no means. As the book Europe Since 1939 states:

“Strictly secular objectives impelled the Soviet masters, who were materialistic atheists, to extend concessions to religious sentiments. Religiously inclined citizens in the USSR, it was reasoned, would support the state at war more fully; animosity toward the Communist way of life among Christians in allied countries to the west would be tempered, and devout Orthodox Christians in the Balkan peninsula would sympathize more warmly with Russia.”

Did these tactics succeed? The author of the book just mentioned, Arthur J. May from the University of Rochester, states: “In greater or lesser degree, all of these aims were achieved through the moderation adopted by the Kremlin.” Another result he observed was that “in the sphere of religion, as indeed everywhere else, the cult of Stalin flourished.”

Religion had become useful to the Communists! How useful can be seen even after the war’s end. In the book The Soviet Union: The Fifty Years, edited by Harrison Salisbury, we read: “With the war’s end, church leaders fell in with the Cold War demands of Stalin’s foreign policy.”

At an Easter celebration in 1949, a typical incident occurred. During midnight services at Moscow’s Yelokhovsky cathedral, Patriarch Alexei pronounced God’s blessing on the leader of the Soviet state, Joseph Stalin. And, in 1950, Alexei sent a telegram to the United Nations Security Council protesting “United States aggression in Korea.”

It becomes obvious, then, that the Soviet leadership’s concessions were politically motivated. By this means the churches would be more cooperative. In addition, with the government approving only those clergymen loyal to the State, religion could be completely regulated in harmony with Communist goals.

There could be no doubt that the changes did not represent a real change of heart. The Communists’ objective was still the strangulation of all religion. But their tactics were becoming more subtle. They saw the advantage of using “salami tactics,” whittling away the power and support of religion gradually. This would avoid the undue arousing of opposition, or the creating of martyrs for religion, as had been the case with the head-on tactics used at first.

Of course, not everybody abroad or even in the Soviet Union was convinced that high church officials were all genuine churchmen. The extent of their compromising caused some of them to be accused of being government agents put in office to control the churches. The accusers pointed out that other high clergymen who had opposed Communism had been imprisoned or killed. But the favored clergy were able to move about freely and continue in their offices.

Whether such high clergymen were direct agents of the government or not, the effect was the same. They worked closely with the Communist government to accomplish its aims. And one of those aims was still the determination to kill religion.

Actions Show Objective Unchanged

That the government’s long-range policy of destroying religion had not changed could be seen in its official acts and pronouncements. For instance, despite the concessions made to religion in return for its support, the right to spread one’s religion was still forbidden. The profession of atheism continued to be a condition for membership in the Communist party.

Also, religious instruction continued to be forbidden in school. Atheism was still the official teaching, and it included anti-religious propaganda. Special attention was given to the promotion of atheism among the “Young Pioneers” and “Union of Communist Youth.” The party’s official policy was summed up in this counsel published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, the official journal of the youth league:

“Young Communists must be not only convinced atheists and opposed to all superstitions [religion], but must actively combat the spread of superstitions and prejudices among youth.”

The death of Stalin did not halt the Soviet’s long-range goals against religion. Toward the end of the 1950’s and especially in the early 1960’s under Premier Nikita Khrushchev, much pressure was brought to bear against all religious groups. The scope of it became evident later. New York Times correspondent Peter Grose reported:

“The extent of the damage done to the religious structure across the Soviet Union in the five years before 1964 is now becoming apparent. Dissident churchman in Russia have claimed that 10,000 places of worship were closed down by authorities in those years. . . .

“A vast bureaucratic structure was evolved to insure that church operations across the land were brought under the effective control of the civil power.”

Hence, while Communist leaders have made adjustments in their fight against religion, they have been, and continue to be, single-minded in their objectives. They work unceasingly toward wiping out religion in the Soviet Union.

Back before World War I, the 1911 edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica stated: “According to returns published [by Russia] in 1905 the adherents of the different religious communities in the whole of the Russian empire numbered approximately . . . 125,640,020.”

Since the population at that time was about 143,000,000, the number of persons who belonged to a religion then was more than 87 percent of the population. Likely the number of “believers” was even higher if those who believed in God but did not associate with a religion are added.

This reflects the basic fact that before Communism took over, Russia was heavily religious. The overwhelming majority of people belonged to some religion or expressed belief in the existence of God. But what has happened since then?

In 1937, the Soviet Union conducted a special census to determine the attitude of its people toward religion. About 50,000,000 citizens declared themselves to be “believers.” In 1939 the Soviet Union’s population was given as 170,000,000. So, in the late 1930’s, less than one third of the people in the entire country professed to be “believers.” After twenty years of Communist control, the number had dropped from about 90 percent down to about 30 percent.

In 1970 the New York Times published a report by the Minority Rights Group, a London-based research organization. The Times said: “The report estimates that the Russian Orthodox Church has the allegiance of 30 million people, in a Soviet population of 237 million.” And, in 1971, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner stated: “There is no official estimate of active Russian Orthodox believers in the Soviet Union. Unofficial estimates run to more than 20 million.”

Considering that “believers” in other religions total only a few million, the trend is unmistakable. Actually, the situation is worse for the churches, since many “believers” are not churchgoers as they were before the 1917 revolution.

The Daily Post of Kotorua, New Zealand, reports: “A recent survey in Pskov [in the western Soviet Union] showed 13 per cent of the town’s population considered themselves believers.” The newspaper interpreted the figure to mean that there was religious strength in the area. But the opposite is really the case. What it shows is that from about 90 percent who were “believers” before 1917, now only 13 percent are.

Thus, if the available figures show anything, they show that the people of the Soviet Union, after fifty-five years of atheistic indoctrination, are abandoning religion. The younger generations are being saturated with ideas that separate them from religion. And each year these make up a growing percentage of the population as the older “believers” die off.

Orthodox Church Devastated

The Russian Orthodox Church has suffered staggering losses. This is reflected, not only in the dwindling number of “believers,” but also in the number of churches, clergy and religious workers. The 1959 Encyclopædia Britannica said of the Orthodox Church: “In 1914 there were in Russia 55,173 churches and 29,593 chapels.” This is a total of about 85,000 buildings for religious services. But by 1955, only about 20,000 were left!

The same source listed the following:

1914 1955

Clergymen 112,629 32,000

Monasteries & Nunneries 1,025 70

These figures are similar to those given by other sources. For example, the book Europe Since 1939 reports that in 1959 the number of churches was about 20,000 and the clergy numbered about 32,000. It estimated that about 90 monastic establishments were still operating.

Then, during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, many other churches were closed. The New York Times cited “a study by two Orthodox priests in Moscow that 10,000 churches were closed during the latter part of Mr. Khrushchev’s regime, about half the number that had been open.” The Times added: “An official Soviet publication of 1966 put the number of churches open at 7,500.”

Typical is the situation in major cities. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reports: “Moscow in 1917 had more than 600 churches for a population of one million. There are today no more than 40 or 50 active churches for a population of seven million, and some are the size of small chapels.” An editor of The Christian Century, after five visits to the Soviet Union, verified this, stating: “How many Orthodox churches are open in Moscow? Forty.” Thus in Moscow, the heart of religion in pre-Communist days, the churches have practically disappeared. And, as the Herald-Examiner observes, “Rarely is a new one built.”

The situation in Leningrad is similar. The Christian-Century states: “Take Leningrad, a city of 5 million people. Fourteen churches are open there.” However, this report shows that these churches are “packed more than full every Sunday morning.” The reader might thus conclude that this represents a surge of interest in the Orthodox Church.

But such is not the case at all. To illustrate: If three churches had congregations of 1,000 each, but over the years membership had dwindled down to 500 each, and then two were closed, what would happen? Likely you would find about 1,500 people trying to get into the remaining church. A casual observer might conclude that there was a strong upsurge, indeed a “revival,” because that one church was “packed more than full.” But what actually happened? There were fewer persons supporting religion in the area. But because of the constant closing of churches, the one left was crowded.

Who Are the Religious?

Also, who are the people generally attending the Orthodox Church? New York Times correspondent Peter Grose observed:

“Every time I visited a Soviet church . . . There were always shabby old women in their kerchiefs sitting in the dark corners, breathing in the incense, seeming to have lost interest in life around them.

“If this was all that religion meant, then the builders of Communism should have little cause for concern, about the present or the future.”

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner’s report also said: “Those attending services are few, mostly elderly and mostly female.”

But what of reports that young people are turning to religion? New Zealand’s Daily Post said of this: “In Russia some young people (not many) have turned back to orthodox [religion] for aesthetic as much as spiritual reasons.” What this means is that a small number of young persons attend, not because they learn about the truths of God, but for reasons of art, culture, curiosity or even superstition. As the 1972 Britannica Book of the Year observed: “Young newcomers to the Orthodox faith did not understand the liturgy or care for the sermons, but were baptized into the faith nonetheless.”

In his book House Without a Roof, author Maurice Hindus comments on the fact that some young people are seen in the churches. He says:

“It would be foolhardy to speak of it as a popular movement. Overwhelmingly, Soviet youth is either atheistic or completely apathetic to Orthodoxy.

“Even in the Cossack Kuban, historically one of the most pious sections of the country, churchgoing has practically ceased among young people. While driving through Cossack villages on Sunday morning, I saw crowds of young people promenading the streets, playing in parks, but not going to church. Not in a single church did I see a significant number of young people.”

Hence, the conclusion is inescapable: The once all-powerful Russian Orthodox Church is dying. Peter Grose called it “a pale shadow of what it was before the Bolshevik Revolution.” And a theologian and historian of the Orthodox Church, Anatoly Y. Levitin, said:

“The Russian Church is ill, seriously ill. The most serious ailment is the age-old one of caesaropapism, the subjugation of the church to secular authority.

“In the Church there are bishops who are branches of a dead, sterile and useless fig tree. There are gangrened church members who are . . . infecting it with their putrified exhalations and injecting poison into its most secret depths.”

As Levitin indicates, the “gangrene” exists at the highest levels. This was again seen in 1971 when a new patriarch, Pimen, was installed to replace Alexei, who had died the year before. Of Pimen, the 1972 Britannica Book of the Year said: “He had shown full conformity to the official government policy.”

So much was this apparently the case that Time magazine of April 3, 1972, reported that a prominent Russian writer “accused Patriarch Pimen, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, of abject submission to the Kremlin’s antireligious policies.” As Time noted, the writer “reproached the church hierarchy for compliance with such measures as the closing of churches, the repression of dissident priests and the ban on religious education for children.”

For a certainty, the Russian Orthodox clergy continue to assist at the funeral of their own religion!