Attacks on religious beliefs and practices (Lenin)

• • Cheka attacked clergy.
  • Lenin created the Living Church.
  • Many attacks on Islamic groups also.
• • 1918 Decree on Separation of Church and State saw religion banned in schools.
  • Patriarch Vladimir tortured and shot in Kyiv.
  • Leader of Living Church questioned scientific beliefs.
  • Anti-Islamic museums opened near mosques.
• Legal Reforms of Religion

  • 1917 Decree on Land; gave peasants right to seize Church lands.
  • Decree concerning separation of Church and State, and of School and Church; Church lost privileged position in society; Church property nationalised; religious education banned.
  • 1922 Soviet Constitution; freedom of conscience.
  • Reality; difficult to enforce religious freedom; Soviet Courts had no sovereignty over the State; Lenin's actions threatened religious freedoms.
• The Church and the Terror (Lenin)

  • Lenin declared the Church an enemy of the revolution; in November 1917, Archpriest Kochurov murdered outside Petrograd; in 1918, Metropolitan Vladimir shot in Kyiv; Orthodox Priests massacred in Moscow following Church Decree against Bolsheviks.
  • Cheka; mass execution of priests; within 2 years, most popular priests were dead.
  • Catholics; treated better due to historic persecution by the Tsar; in first half of 1918, Catholic priests just deported; executions only began during Civil War.
  • 1921 Famine; Church assets used to fund famine relief; blamed priests.
• The Living Church

  • Structure; reformed Orthodox Church; ordinary people held power.
  • National Congress of 1923; Patriarch Tikhon deposed; new decentralised structure; intend to split Church and weaken national strength.
  • Archbishop Vedensky; debated Lunacharsky publically on science and religion; argued science could not disprove God.
  • Public Debates counterproductive; Central Committee banned Public Debates with the Church.
  • Faith in saints and miracles continued into the 1920s.
• Islam under Lenin

  • 1920s Anti-Islamic Campaigns; Islam claimed to encourage 'crimes based on custom' such as denying women's rights; Communists wanted to destroy loyalty of Muslim citizens to Islam rather than the Communist Party.
  • Anti-Islamic Terror; closed mosques, turning them into sports clubs; discouraged pilgrimages; attacked Islamic shrines; launched anti-veiling campaign.