Abstract
Khrushchev’s brutal antireligious attacks and persecutions went by almost unnoticed in the West, partly because the predominantly agnostic Western media wanted to see a liberal in Khrushchev and did not care much about religion, but partly also because the features of antireligious campaigns prominent in the 1920s and 1930s were almost absent now. True, a special antireligious mass propaganda journal did appear in 1959. But this Science and Religion (NiR), although aggressive and vulgar at times, as the following blasphemous illustrations demonstrate, was not comparable to the viciousness of Bezbozhnik or Bezbozhnik u stanka. The methods and excuses applied in the mass closure of churches and other forms of persecutions will be discussed in the next chapter. Plenty of unofficial and semi-official reports were available in the West about these brutalities and terror. Many of them even found their way to the Western media, yet the outside world paid little attention to these ‘unconfirmed’ reports. These were several reasons why this onslaught drew so little world public attention at the time.
‘Should theologians explain the Universe even from the scientific [materialistic] point of view but in the name of religion and even God Himself … we shall not stop our fight against religion [because] religion will never cease to be a reactionary social force, an opiate for the people …’ (Evgraf Duluman, Kiriushko and Yarotsky, Nauchnotekhnicheskaia revolutsiia …)
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Chapter 5: Renewal of the Incendiary Propaganda, 1958–85
Ibid, p.92; G. Vasil’ev, ‘Bogoslov — podstrekatel’, NiR, no. 10 (1966) pp. 25–6; Alla Trubnikova, ‘Klikushi v pokhode’, and Tainik v taburetke’, Oktiabr’, no. 7 (1962) pp. 130–42, and no.9 (1964) pp. 161–77, respectively.
P. Voskresensky, ‘Dukhovnyi otets Vadima Shavrova’, NiR, no. 5 (1960) pp. 32–7. For Levitin’s rebuttal, see his ‘Moi otvet zhurnalu Nauka i religiia’, (20 June 1960, Dialogs tserkovnoi Rossiei (Paris: Ixis 1967) pp. 4369
E. Baller, ‘Vospityvat’ voinstvuiushchikh ateistov’, NiR, no. 2 (Oct. 1959) pp. 78–9.
L. Zavelev, ‘Istoriia novogo Iova’, NiR, no. 7 (July 1960) pp. 36–43
M. Khomenko, ‘Zhitie vladyki Andreia’, NiR, no. 8 (1962) pp. 62–9
V. Siuris, a former priest, ‘Chomu is zrixia dukhovnoho sanu?’, Voiovnychyi ateist, no. 7 (July 1961) pp. 25–7
N. Kar’kov, ‘K komu zhe idti ispovedovatsia?’, NiR, no. 6 (1960) pp. 61–5. The fraudulence and fixed stereotypes of such publications and clergy character-assassinations are revealed particularly when well-known (alas, not for the average Soviet citizen) historical facts are thus twisted: for instance, the story of the 1921–2 famine and Patriarch Tikhon’s attitude to it. Contrast: Unsigned, ‘Padenie sviateishego patriarkha’, NiR, no. 3 (1964) pp. 88–90; and Pospielovsky, The Russian Church, vol. 1, ch. 3. Attacks against Archb. Iov continued even after he had served his prison term and became a diocesan bishop once again.
For example, V. Ushakov, Pravoslavie i XX vek (Alma-Ata: Kazakhstan, 1968) pp. 52–6. Had there been any substance in these accusations, neither of the bishops would have been reappointed soon after their release.
A. Osipov, ‘Bitva za dushi chelovecheskie’, Oktiabr’, no. 10 (1963) pp. 163–70.
S krestom na shee’, Lit. gaz., (2 Oct. 1962). Other similar slanderous material on monasteries and pilgrimages: three letters by former theology students, ‘Podumaite o svoei sud’be!’ and ‘Dnevnik inokini’, NiR, no. 4 (1962) pp. 27–33. Particular attacks on the Pochaev Monastery: Iu. Melmiichuk, ‘V Pochaeve kolokola zvoniat’, NiR, no. 2 (1960) pp. 57–9
O. Shamaro, ‘Meshkantsi bratskoho korpusu’, Voi. at., no. 12 (Dec. 1961) pp. 18–24
Shamaro, ‘Bessilie “chudotvornykh sviatyn”’, NiR, no. 1(1962) pp. 26–30
E. Maiat, I. Uzkov, ‘Rushatsia monastyrskie steny’, NiR, no. 9 (1961) pp. 22–31.
Levitin, Zashchita very vs SSR (Paris: IXOYC, 1966) pp. 32–62.
For example, N. Proskuriakova, ‘Marnovirstvo — voroh zdorov’ia’, Voiovnychyi ateist, no. 7 (Kiev, 1963) pp. 12–15.
Tainik’, pp. 163–5 et passim. Similar slanderous stories on the Old Believer and ‘True Orthodox’ hideaways in: Shamaro, ‘Vernopoddannye bezvozvratnogo proshlogo’, NiR, no. 3 (1959) pp. 49–54
‘Na beregu chernoi magii’, NiR, no. 1 (1963) pp. 21–9
L. Khvolovsky, ‘Byvshie liudi’, NiR, no. 7 (1964) pp. 24–32.
E. Sergienko, ‘Sviatye pis’ma’, NiR, no. 4 (1977) pp. 55–8.
L. Anninsky, ‘Sila dukha i vera v Boga’, NiR, no. 10 (1965) pp. 44–7
A. Ivanenko. ‘Nad tsym varto zamyslytys’, Liudyna i svit, no. 7 (July 1965)
Larisa Kuznetsova, ‘Na tikhoi ulitse’, NiR, no. 1 (1974) pp. 44–9; V. Kharazov, ‘Dosadnaia istoriia’, NiR, no. 7 (1979).
A. V. Belov and A. D. Shilkin, Ideologicheskie diversii imperializma i religiia (M.: Znanie, 1970) p. 34.
M. Kosyv, ‘Pokutniki— kto oni?’, NiR, no. 8 (1975) pp. 56–7
L. Smirnov, ‘Iavlenie bogomateri s pomoshch’iu nozhnits i kleia’ (including the photo), NiR, no. 1 (1966) p. 95.
Lev Ovalov, ‘Pomni obo mne’, NiR nos 1–6 (1966), particularly nos 4 and 5, pp. respectively 80–93 and 77–89.
Michael Bourdeaux, Patriarch and Prophets (London: Macmillan, 1969); Pospielovsky, Russian Church, vol. 2, ch. 10.
In addition to the above titles, see inter alia: Belov and Shilkin, Religiia v sovremennoi ideologicheskoi bor’be (M.: Znanie, 1971)
V. V. Konik, Tainy religioznykh missii (M.: Molodaia gvardiia, 1980)
Belov, Sviatye bez nimbov (M.: Sovetskaia Rossiia, 1983)
Evgenii Vistunov, Priglashenie v zapadniu (L.: Lenizdat, 1984). The latter also contains a relatively detailed, if falsified, history of the Narodno-trudoroi soiuz (NTS), and descriptions (also falsified) of the Leningrad Christian-feminist movement and its participants. All of them, as well as several Soviet citizens who had cooperated with the NTS, are depicted as only using the label of Christians to camouflage their subversive activities. NTS — or, in full, the Toiling Alliance of Russian Solidarists — is a patriotic Russian anti-communist organization working towards a ‘national revolution’ and moral renewal in Russia, since its foundation by Russian émigré youth in 1930. Its underground activities inside the USSR and among Soviet citizens abroad, its refusal ‘to die’ in accordance with the ‘biological laws of emigrant communities’, and its ability to replenish itself from among the ranks of new waves of émigrés, make it particularly hateful to the Soviets, who constantly label it as a Western intellegence services’ front organization.
Belov and Shilkin, Ideologicheskie, Religiia v sovremennoi ideologicheskoi bor’be (M.: Znanie, 1971), and Diversiia
V. V. Konik, Tainy religioznykh missii (M.: Molodaia gvardiia, 1980); and a multitude of other similar publications.
Cited from A. Babiichuk, ‘Molodiozhy ideinuiu zakalku’, NiR, no. 1 (1985) p. 10. It is interesting that the resolutions of that ideological plenum do not mention religion by name, but only ideological diversions and the necessity to struggle for a better ideological education of the Soviet people. Soviet ‘religiological’ publications constantly refer to that plenum, and cite excerpts from speeches, as in Babichuk’s article, in the way of a guidance for the intensification of anti-religious struggle. In most such quotations it is merely declared, ‘as stated at the plenum’, thus giving the impression that such direct appeals were contained in one of its resolutions (or perhaps there was an unpublished secret resolution to this effect as well).
G. Belikova, ‘Strannaia sud’ba Sashi Karpova’, NiR, no. 9 (1984) pp. 37–40
A. Shamaro, ‘Delo igumenii Mitrofanii’, NiR, no. 9 (1984) pp. 41–5
D. Koretsky and Shamaro, ‘“Sviataia” Nastia’, NiR, no. 3 (1984) pp. 45–50
A. Shuvalov, ‘Piushchee dukhovenstvo’, NiR, no. 6 (1984) p. 40
F. Nikitina, ‘V belom klobuke s zhandarmskim axelbantom’, NiR, nos 11 and 12 (1982) pp. 41–3 and 42–4, respectively
N. Aleev, ‘Ne ukradi, a sam ukral’, Pravda vostoka (1 January 1970) p. 4.
Vladimir Tendriakov, ‘Chudotvornaia’ (The Miracle-Working Icon), Chrezvychainoe (M.: Sovremennik, 1972) pp. 91–178; the story was first published in the early 1960s.
M. G. Pismanik, Lichnost’ i religiia (M.: Nauka, 1976) pp. 18–21.
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© 1988 Dimitry V. Pospielovsky
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Pospielovsky, D.V. (1988). Renewal of the Incendiary Propaganda, 1958–85. In: Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19002-7_5
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