What Is Happening to Religion in the Soviet Union?
FOR over fifty-five years now, the Soviet Union has been a land of many mysteries to outsiders. During most of that time, not much information was available on the life of people behind the “iron curtain.”
However, in recent years the Soviets have opened their doors to more and more foreign visitors. These have been allowed to tour much of the country and to talk to all kinds of people. Gradually, an accurate picture of the political, economic, scientific and cultural life of the nation has emerged.
But an accurate picture has been more difficult to come by in regard to one aspect of Soviet life—religion. What is happening to religion there? Is it still alive after five decades of Communist rule? Is it perhaps flourishing? Or is it dying? What does the future hold for it?
Conflicting Reports
In recent years conflicting reports have appeared in the foreign press about religion in the Soviet Union. Some of the reports, taken at face value, suggest a religious “revival” is occurring there.
For instance, the New York Times carried this headline: “RELIGION BELIEVED GAINING IN SOVIET.” The 1972 Britannica Book of the Year reported: “Religious services were going on in virtually every major city of the country and a certain proportion of young people were turning to religion.”
The German magazine Stern commented on a cathedral that authorities in the city of Novgorod had turned into a museum. Visitors there were said to be making the sign of the cross, praying and listening to religious music. This was taken as an evidence of growing religious interest.
Thus, from such reports, one might conclude that there is indeed a religious upsurge in the Soviet Union.
However, when one examines a wider variety of evidence, including other eyewitness accounts, a different picture begins to emerge. These other reports conclude much the same as that of one historian who said bluntly: “Organized religion, apart from pockets of zeal and devotion, appeared to be a dying institution” in the Soviet Union.
Accordingly, there is the need to search underneath the surface appearance. Many things must be taken into account in trying to determine the state of religion in the Soviet Union today. And when all the factors are considered, there are definite conclusions that can be drawn. One of these conclusions may be very surprising to you!
Helpful in this search is an examination of the history of Church-State relations in the Soviet Union. It enables us better to understand why certain things have happened, and what the trend is.
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.
All of these religions wondered about their position in relation to the new government. Very soon they were to find out. They were all to be struck full force by the gigantic winds of change that began blowing in November of 1917.