Soviet policies on religious manifestations in Ukraine in the period of late stalin’s authority

• Main Author: Pavlo Satskyi
• Format: Article
• Language: Ukrainian
• Published: EIKΩN, publishing house of the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy 2018-10-01
• Series: Волинський благовісник
• Subjects: Orthodox Church Bakhmut; Donbass; church property
• Online Access: http://vb.vpba.edu.ua/1551

The article investigates the policy of the Soviet government regarding the activity of religious communities in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and manifestations of religious commitment in the period after World War II. The problem of manifestations of religiosity in the USSR was researched in scientific works by P. Bondarchuk and L. Alekseev. For the purposes of analysis, the author used the materials of KP(b)U and Komsomol of UkrSSR that provide concrete examples of the manifestations of religious commitment by the representatives of Komsomol activists, students, and party officials. Measures have been studied that were taken towards people who demonstrated religious commitment as well as the policy of party and Komsomol bodies for the prohibition of religious manifestations by party and Komsomol activists. The analysis of religious manifestations by the activists of the Bolshevik party and Komsomol organizations is based on the study of the general background of the Soviet policy in the field of culture and ideology during this period. In particular, the study reveals key aspects of the Soviet government's opposition against the spreading popularity of religious cults and communities, especially among the youth, in the context of relatively tolerant attitude to the development of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the post-war period, the ideological policy of the Soviet government was characterized by creating an alternative cult for society on a dogmatic basis, and religious organizations were actual competitors in terms of social influence. The study sets out premises for the spreading of religious manifestations in the society of Ukrainian SSR after World War II that were related to the general emotional state of society, sentiments of war veterans and repatriates and general population that survived war and occupation. Special preconditions for the dissemination of religious manifestations were created in the regions of the Ukrainian SSR which were annexed in 1939-1945 and where the activity of the Greek-Catholic, Roman-Catholic and Orthodox churches was widespread. Orthodox communities in these regions before their Sovietization were rather active and had not been exposed to the Soviet administrative influence that took place in the USSR. The author comes to a conclusion that, in the Ukrainian SSR after the end of World War II, the Soviet government pursued the policy aimed at tolerating Russian Orthodoxy as opposed to Roman- Catholic and Greek-Catholic communities and Protestants (in particular, Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses). At the same time, the Soviet authorities were trying to prevent the influence of any religious organizations on party and Komsomol activists and the youth in general. In further research, attention should be paid to the preconditions for the preservation of religiousness in society, under the conditions of the ideological dictatorship of the ruling party.