Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

=== Soviet Union ===
[[File:Christ saviour explosion.jpg|thumb|Demolition of the [[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour]] on 5 December 1931: The USSR's official [[state atheism]] resulted in the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)|1921–1928 anti-religious campaign]], during which many "church institution[s] at [the] local, diocesan or national level were systematically destroyed."<ref>{{cite book|title=Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2002|isbn=1857431375|page=46}}</ref>]]{{Further|Human rights in the Soviet Union#Freedom of religion|Operation North|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union|Religion in the Soviet Union|Soviet anti-religious legislation|Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc}}

After the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917, the [[Bolsheviks]] undertook a massive program to remove the influence of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] from the government, outlawed [[antisemitism]] in society, and promoted [[state atheism|atheism]]. Tens of thousands of churches were destroyed or they were converted to buildings which were used for other purposes, and many members of the clergy were murdered, publicly executed and imprisoned for what the government termed "anti-government activities". An extensive educational and propaganda campaign was launched to convince people, especially children and youths, to abandon their religious beliefs. This persecution resulted in the intentional murder of 500,000 Orthodox followers by the government of the Soviet Union during the 20th century.<ref name="russian orthodox killed">World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200, pp. 230–246 Tables 4–5 & 4–10 By David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, Peter F. Crossing NOTE: They define 'martyr' on p235 as only including Christians killed for faith and excluding other Christians killed</ref> In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.<ref name="Ostling">{{cite magazine|last=Ostling|first=Richard|date=24 June 2001|title=Cross meets Kremlin|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813173443/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 August 2007|magazine=Time}}</ref>

The state established [[atheism]] as the only scientific truth.<ref name="peris">[[Daniel Peris]] ''Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless'' Cornell University Press 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-8014-3485-3}}</ref><ref>Antireligioznik (The Antireligious, 1926–41), Derevenskii Bezbozhnik (The Godless Peasant, 1928–1932), and Yunye Bezbozhniki (The Young Godless, 1931–1933).</ref><ref name="Vladimir pg 291">History of the Orthodox Church in the History of Russian Dimitry Pospielovsky 1998 St Vladimir's Press {{ISBN|0-88141-179-5}} pg 291</ref><ref name="auto">A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Antireligious Policies, Dimitry Pospielovsky Palgrave Macmillan (December 1987) {{ISBN|0-312-38132-8}}</ref> Soviet authorities forbade the criticism of atheism and agnosticism until 1936 or of the state's anti-religious policies; such criticism could lead to forced retirement.<ref>John Anderson, Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp 9</ref><ref>Dimitry V. Pospielovsky. A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer, vol 1: A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies, St Martin's Press, New York (1987). pg 84.</ref><ref>Prot. Dimitri Konstantinov, Gonimaia Tserkov' (New York:Vseslavianskoe izdatel'stvo, 1967) pp. 286–7, and (London:Macmillan, 1969) chs 4 and 5</ref> Militant atheism became central to the ideology of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and a high priority policy of all Soviet leaders.<ref name="Froese, Paul 2005">Froese, Paul. "'I am an atheist and a Muslim': Islam, communism, and ideological competition." Journal of Church and State 47.3 (2005)</ref> Christopher Marsh, a professor at the [[Baylor University]] writes that "Tracing the social nature of religion from Schleiermacher and Feurbach to Marx, Engles, and Lenin...the idea of religion as a social product evolved to the point of policies aimed at the forced conversion of believers to atheism."<ref name="Marsh2011">{{cite book|last=Marsh|first=Christopher|title=Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-0284-3|page=13}}</ref>

Under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to [[Marxist-Leninist atheism|atheism]]" was conducted by the Communists.<ref>Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, p. 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.</ref><ref>Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History, by Dilip Hiro. Penguin, 2009.</ref><ref name="Adappur2000">{{cite book|last=Adappur|first=Abraham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44DYAAAAMAAJ|title=Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West|publisher=Intercultural Publications|year=2000|isbn=9788185574479|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.}}</ref> The Communist Party destroyed churches, mosques and [[synagogue|temples]], ridiculed, harassed, incarcerated and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with anti-religious teachings, and it introduced a belief system called "[[Marxist–Leninist atheism|scientific atheism]]", with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers.<ref name="Paul Froese 2004 pp. 35–50">Paul Froese. Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar. 2004), pp. 35–50</ref><ref name="Haskins, Ekaterina V 2009">Haskins, Ekaterina V. "Russia's postcommunist past: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the reimagining of national identity." History and Memory: Studies in Representation of the Past 21.1 (2009)</ref> Many priests were killed and imprisoned; thousands of churches were closed. In 1925 the government founded the [[League of Militant Atheists]] to intensify the persecution.<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p. 494"</ref> The League of Militant Atheists was also a "nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peris |first1=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC2LSv5QNYkC |title=Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless| date=1998 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801434853| location=Ithaca| page=2 |quote=Created in 1925, the League of the Militant Godless was the nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism.}}
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The Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions against particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most [[organized religion]]s were never outlawed. It is estimated that 500,000 Russian Orthodox Christians were martyred in the [[gulag]]s by the Soviet government, excluding the members of other [[Christian denominations]] who were also tortured or killed.<ref name="russian orthodox killed" />

The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], which had the largest number of faithful worshippers. A very large segment of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to [[Gulag|labor camps]]. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500. Between 1917 and 1940, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. The widespread persecution and internecine disputes within the church hierarchy lead to the seat of [[Patriarch of Moscow]] being vacant from 1925 to 1943.

After [[Operation Barbarossa]], Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, [[Joseph Stalin]] revived the Russian Orthodox Church in order to intensify the Soviet population's patriotic support of the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|war effort]]. By 1957, about 22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active. But in 1959, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] initiated his own campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and forced about 12,000 churches to close. By 1985, fewer than 7,000 churches remained active.<ref name="Ostling" />

In the Soviet Union, in addition to the methodical closure and destruction of churches, the charitable and social work which was formerly done by ecclesiastical authorities was taken over by the state. As with all private property, Church owned property was confiscated and converted to public use by the state. The few places of worship which were left to the Church were legally viewed as state property which the government permitted the church to use. After the advent of state funded universal education, the Church was not permitted to carry on educational, instructional activity for children. For adults, only training for church-related occupations was allowed. With the exception of sermons which could be delivered during the celebration of the divine liturgy, it could not instruct the faithful nor could it evangelize the youth. Catechism classes, religious schools, study groups, Sunday schools and religious publications were all declared illegal and banned. This caused many religious tracts to be circulated as illegal literature or ''[[samizdat]]''.<ref name="google" /> Even after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] in 1953, the persecution continued, and it did not end until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church has recognized a number of [[New-martyr|New Martyrs]] as saints, some of whom were executed during the [[Mass operations of the NKVD]] under directives like [[NKVD Order No. 00447]].

Both before and after the October Revolution of 7 November 1917 (25 October Old Calendar), there was a movement within the Soviet Union which sought to unite all of the people of the world under Communist rule (see [[Communist International]]). This movement spread to the Eastern European bloc countries as well as the Balkan States. Since the populations of some of these Slavic countries tied their ethnic heritages to their ethnic churches, the people and their churches were both targeted for ethnic and political genocide by the Soviets and their form of [[State atheism]].<ref>President of Lithuania: Prisoner of the Gulag a Biography of [[Aleksandras Stulginskis]] by Afonsas Eidintas Genocide and Research Center of Lithuania {{ISBN|9986-757-41-X}} / 9789986757412, pg 23 "As early as August 1920 [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] wrote to [[Ephraim Sklyansky|E. M. Sklyansky]], President of the Revolutionary War Soviet: "We are surrounded by the greens (we pack it to them), we will move only about 10–20 versty and we will choke by hand the [[bourgeoisie]], the clergy and the landowners. There will be an award of 100,000 rubles for each one hanged." He was speaking about the future actions in the countries neighboring Russia.</ref><ref>Christ Is Calling You: A Course in Catacomb Pastorship by Father [[George Calciu]] Published by Saint Hermans Press April 1997 {{ISBN|978-1-887904-52-0}}</ref> The Soviets' official religious stance was one of "religious freedom or tolerance", though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth (see also the Soviet or committee of the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Scientific and Political Knowledge or [[Znanie (educational organization, founded 1947)|Znanie]] which was until 1947 called [[Society of the Godless|The League of the Militant Godless]] and various [[Intelligentsia]] groups).<ref name="Vladimir pg 291" /><ref name="auto" /><ref>Daniel Peris Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless Cornell University Press 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-8014-3485-3}}</ref> Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes, it resulted in imprisonment.<ref name="Froese2008">{{cite book|last=Froese|first=Paul|title=The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization|date=6 August 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94273-8|page=122|quote=Before 1937, the Soviet regime had closed thousands of churches and removed tens of thousands of religious leaders from positions of influence. By the midthirties, Soviet elites set out to conduct a mass liquidation of all religious organizations and leaders... officers in the League of Militant Atheists found themselves in a bind to explain the widespread persistence of religious belief in 1937.... The latest estimates indicate that thousands of individuals were executed for religious crimes and hundreds of thousands of religious believers were imprisoned in labor camps or psychiatric hospitals.}}</ref><ref name="FranklinWiddis2006">{{cite book|last1=Franklin|first1=Simon|title=National Identity in Russian Culture|last2=Widdis|first2=Emma|date=2 February 2006|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-02429-7|page=104|quote=Churches, when not destroyed, might find themselves converted into museums of atheism.}}</ref><ref name="Bevan2016">{{cite book|last=Bevan|first=Robert|title=The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War|date=15 February 2016|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-78023-608-7|page=152|quote=Churches, synagogues, mosques and monasteries were shut down in the immediate wake of the Revolution. Many were converted to secular uses or converted into Museums of Atheism (antichurches), whitewashed and their fittings were removed.}}</ref><ref name="Ramet1990">{{cite book|last1=Ramet|first1=Sabrina P.|title=Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies|date=1990|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0822310471|pages=232–33|quote=From kindergarten onward children are indoctrinated with an aggressive form of atheism and trained to hate and distrust foreigners and to denounce parents who follow religious practices at home.|author-link=Sabrina P. Ramet}}</ref> Some of the more high-profile individuals who were executed include [[Benjamin of Petrograd|Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd]], priest and scientist [[Pavel Florensky]].