was hostility of soviet leaders consistent to religion

• Introduction

  Hostility means opposition towards
• (1) Lenin


  -argued that religion was an enemy of freedom and those who respected Christian teachings would never embrace communist ideology

  -Communist policies tended to persecute the Church

  -1918 Degree Concerning Separation of Church and state took away traditional privileges

  -Government hostility towards Christianity extended through terror

  -Use of Cheka - Jan 1918 - Orthodox priests massacred in Moscow.

  -He destroyed Islamic groups such as Sufi groups in Turkestan and seized property of waqfs.

  -Encouraged Muslims to join the party during 1920s, demonstrating that communists were less antagonistic towards Islam.

  -Mostly attacked and tightened religious activity and had varied attitudes towards different religions.
• (2) Stalin

  -more pragmatic approach towards religion

  -1920 - NKVD attacked groups that defended islam i.e Jadids and Sufi groups (similar to Lenin). By 1936 they had been destroyed.

  -WW2, religion was good for morale so stalin embraced it.

  -Eased restrictions of church - reopened 414 churches in 1945 and ended censorship of religious material.

  -Stalins attitudes was inconsistent, Lenin was more dedicated to the destruction of religion for ideological reasons whereas the religious alliances was a strategy to win the war.
• (3) Khrushchev

  -K goal was to fulfill Lenins mission - revive the anti religious campaign of the 1920s

  -Thus approach to religion was more aligned with Lenin's leadership rather than that of Stalin's approach.

  -From 1958 - anti religious propaganda reintroducded, closed catholic monasteries and activity kept under surveillance

  -In particular, he targeted religious women who made up 80% of Protestant Christians

  -Campaigns were quite successful - reduced the number of orthadox churches from 8000 in 1958 to 5000 in 1964.

  -Evident that K was very harsh towards religion and consistent in terms introducing measures to restrict religious activity.
• (5) Brezhnev


  -Under Brez leadership, hostility towards religion less of a priority - illustrating harsh attitudes towards was not consistent throughout time period at all.

  -Emphaised spreading the philosophy of atheism rather than attacking religious groups or practices - this did not lead to reduction in people professing religious faith.

  -It remained stable at 20% from 1960 to 1985

  -ended K anti-religious campaigns and B shift in power led to a shift in communist ideology

  -Soviet gov decribed Islam as a 'progressive and revolutionary creed'

  -Hostility towards religion was not a factor under Brezhnev, rather much more lenient.