Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Religion ===
{{Main|Religion in the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Bezbozhnik u stanka 22-1929.jpg|thumb|left|Cover of [[Bezbozhnik (magazine)|Bezbozhnik]] in 1929, magazine of the Society of the Godless. The first five-year plan of the Soviet Union is shown crushing the gods of the [[Abrahamic religions]].]]
[[File:Christ saviour explosion.jpg|thumb|The [[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour]] in Moscow during its demolition in 1931]]
[[File:Sennaia-1900.jpg|thumb|The [[Saviour Church on Sennaya Square]] in Leningrad was one of many notable church buildings destroyed during the [[Khrushchev Thaw]].]]
[[File:Hujum.png|thumb|A [[paranja]] burning ceremony in the [[Uzbek SSR]] as part of Soviet [[Hujum]] policies]]
[[File:U.S.S.R.-Major religious groups. 4-61. LOC 75694086.jpg|thumb|Major religious groups in the Soviet Union as published by the [[CIA]]]]
[[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004">{{cite book |author=Eaton, Katherine Bliss |title=Daily life in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinsovie00eato |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-313-31628-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinsovie00eato/page/285 285] and 286 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> [[Eastern Christianity]] predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional [[Russian Orthodox Church]] being the largest [[Christian denomination]]. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were [[Sunni]]s, with [[Shias]] being concentrated in the [[Azerbaijan SSR]].<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004" /> Smaller groups included [[Roman Catholics]], Jews, [[Buddhists]], and a variety of [[Protestant]] denominations (especially [[Baptists]] and [[Lutherans]]).<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004" />

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.<ref>{{cite book |author=Silvio Ferrari |author2=W. Cole Durham |author3=Elizabeth A. Sewell |title=Law and religion in post-communist Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEucgny-0k4C |year=2003 |publisher=Peeters Pub & Booksellers |isbn=978-90-429-1262-5 |page=261 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622083150/https://books.google.com/books?id=QEucgny-0k4C |url-status=live}}</ref> The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former [[ruling class]]es.<ref name="Simon 1974">{{harvnb|Simon|1974|pp=64–65}}</ref>

In Soviet law, the 'freedom to hold religious services' was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the [[Marxist]] spirit of [[scientific materialism]].<ref name="Simon 1974" /> In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact used a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.<ref name="Simon 1974" />

The 1918 [[Council of People's Commissars]] decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that 'the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately.'<ref>{{harvnb|Simon|1974|p=209}}</ref> Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized [[Bible study (Christian)|Bible study]].<ref name="Simon 1974" /> Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed; the majority of them were demolished or re-purposed for state needs with little concern for their historic and cultural value.<ref>{{cite book |author=Atwood, Craig D. |title=Always Reforming: A History of Christianity Since 1300 |location=Macon, Georgia |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |year=2001 |url=https://archive.org/details/alwaysreformingh0000atwo |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-86554-679-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alwaysreformingh0000atwo/page/311 311] |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref>

More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |work=The Globe and Mail (Canada) |date=9 March 2001 |title=Johnson's Russia List #5141 - Why father of glasnost is despised in Russia |via=CDI |first1=Geoffrey |last1=York |url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5141.html# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120105914/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5141.html |archive-date=20 January 2012 |quote=In his new book, Maelstrom of Memory, Mr. Yakovlev lists some of the nightmares uncovered by his commission. More than 41 million Soviets were imprisoned from 1923 to 1953. More than 884,000 children were in internal exile by 1954. More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.}}</ref> Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941.<ref>D. Pospielovsky, ''The Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviet Regime'', vol. 1, p. 175.</ref> In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in Russia fell from 29,584 to less than 500 (1.7%).<ref>Dimitry V. Pospielovsky. ''A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer'', vol 2: Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions, St Martin's Press, New York (1988)</ref>

The Soviet Union was officially a [[secular state]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html |title=ARTICLE 124. |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102163245/http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html |archive-date=2 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/77cons02.html |title=Article 52. |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216062245/http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/77cons02.html |archive-date=16 February 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> but a 'government-sponsored program of forced conversion to [[Marxist-Leninist atheism|atheism]]' was conducted under the doctrine of [[state atheism]].<ref>Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, page 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.</ref><ref>Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History, by Dilip Hiro. Penguin, 2009.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Adappur |first=Abraham |title=Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44DYAAAAMAAJ |access-date=14 July 2016 |year=2000 |publisher=Intercultural Publications |isbn=978-81-85574-47-9 |quote=Forced Conversion under Atheistic Regimes: It might be added that the most modern example of forced "conversions" came not from any theocratic state, but from a professedly atheist government—that of the Soviet Union under the Communists. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314065732/https://books.google.com/books?id=44DYAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=14 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.<ref>USGOV1.{{full citation needed|date=August 2023}}</ref> In 1925, the government founded the [[League of Militant Atheists]] to intensify the propaganda campaign.<ref>{{cite book |first=Geoffrey |last=Blainey |title=A Short History of Christianity |publisher=Viking |year=2011 |page=494}}</ref> Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. While persecution accelerated following Stalin's rise to power, a revival of Orthodoxy was fostered by the government during World War II and the Soviet authorities sought to control the Russian Orthodox Church rather than liquidate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.

Convinced that religious [[anti-Sovietism]] had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin administration began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.<ref name="Janz 1998">{{harvnb|Janz|1998|pp=38–39}}</ref> Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. [[Radio Moscow]] began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader [[Patriarch Sergius of Moscow]] was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.<ref name="Janz 1998" /> The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ro'i, Yaacov |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |location=London |publisher=[[Frank Cass]] |year=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJBH5pxzSyMC |isbn=978-0-7146-4619-0 |page=263 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055620/http://books.google.com/books?id=bJBH5pxzSyMC |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Under [[Nikita Khrushchev]], the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when [[atheism]] was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.<ref name="Janz 1998" /> During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.<ref name="Victor Swoboda-1990">{{cite book |author1=Nahaylo, Bohdan |author2=Victor Swoboda |name-list-style=amp |title=Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR |location=London |publisher=[[Hamish Hamilton]] |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrG7vrPue4wC |isbn=978-0-02-922401-4 |page=144 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512050225/http://books.google.com/books?id=ZrG7vrPue4wC |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.<ref name="Victor Swoboda-1990" />

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the [[Brezhnev era]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark D. Steinberg |author2=Catherine Wanner |title=Religion, morality, and community in post-Soviet societies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR6X3EY8oPIC |date=2008 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-22038-7 |page=6 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617211211/https://books.google.com/books?id=LR6X3EY8oPIC |url-status=live}}</ref> Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch [[Alexy I]] with the [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]].<ref>{{harvnb|Janz|1998|p=42}}</ref> A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as 'active religious believers.'<ref>{{cite book |author1=McKay, George |author2=Williams, Christopher |title=Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publishing company)|Peter Lang]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpNBm-z7aOYC |isbn=978-3-03911-921-9 |pages=231–232 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512035801/http://books.google.com/books?id=xpNBm-z7aOYC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>