dagul

The church.

azato2000

Probably you meant St. Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg?

mikainen

Sure but this thread is about Soviet Union.

I remember my uncle used to smuggle Bibles to Soviet Union, in the early 80's I think it was.

antonina

Arras provided a balanced overview on the thread.

However, a necessary correction must be made: the years 1919 - 1953 (Bolshevik Red Terror and Stalinist period) were quite another story.

During the Bolshevik Red Terror (1918-22) clergy (mainly Orthodox) were subjected to unspeakable atrocities ("priests, monks and nuns were crucified, thrown into cauldrons of boiling tar, scalped, strangled, given Communion with melted lead and drowned in holes in the ice" wiki - also see other sources on the period)

Then under Stalinism (1922-53), Orthodox clergy and Christians of other denominations were also heavily persecuted. In memoirs and survivor stories of the period you find any number of such cases. The Russian Orthodox hierarhy, with its long tradition of subservience to the state did not defy the Communist authorities, but many monks and priests had the guts to stand up (the courage of the latter was particularly to be admired, as - unlike Catholic priests - they had wives and children to think of). In survival stories from Kolyma I read about particularly inhuman persecution of Russian Orthodox nuns from one of the radical sects, who openly, utterly and consistently refused to cooperate with the communist authorities.

As for the 1960-80's, I know Christians in the Soviet Union were generally afraid to openly worship and that's a fact. To what extent they could be actively persecuted for it I'm not sure. Like Arras said, openly professing your faith certainly had a detrimental effect on one's career prospects. I don't think it would have landed one in jail. However this widespread fear is something I've often heard of from older relatives who travelled to the USSR and from a half-Russian mate with family in Russia.

Tulun

in the 20-ies and 30-ies there were some mass campaigns against religions in the SU (i remember saw some photos about mass rallies against christianity islam and buddhism that period) , the confiscation of their properties, purging of clerics and closing/destruction of some places of worship occured during this time but during and after ww2 the policies were softened toward them some and as others also wrote there was no total ban on religion, just discouraged. The State/Party just wanted to controll them, many clerics were also informants of secret services.

Albania was the only communist country where religion was totally banned, Enver Hoxha indeed closed all churches and masjids in his country.

azato2000

I think we should define what period we are talking about.
Stalin's period was a way different from further periods.

For me to talk about religion in the USSR and give examples only from Stalin's period is like talk about equal rights in the USA and give examples of rasism of 60-s.

azato2000

Did they told you stories about bears stroling about the streets?

vid

Separation of Church and state is funny question, especially in case of Catholics. Under communists, the local Catholic church was stripped of its money-making businesses and financed (thus also controlled to a degree) by state. Catholics of course hated this, and asked for separation. Now, the state supports Catholic church financially, but exerts very little control over it. Many atheists dislike it and call for separation. Of course, Catholic church likes this way, so now it stands against separation.

This IMO demonstrates how separation is just a tactic of the moment, not fundamental question on which Catholic church has solid stance.

antonina

You obviously haven't gotten over the wolves (actually came across another mention of them recently - but those are 1940s stories mind you !)

The OP concerns "the Soviet Union" which, if I'm not mistaken, includes Stalinism. Therefore omitting the period is as biased as focusing exclusively on it.

I'm not saying the Soviets bolied Christians in oil in the 1960-89's so relax, will you? Have a nice day

azato2000

Well, Kazakhstan - wolves, Russia - bears. Why not? Cliche is a cliche

true, that's why I said that it is better to define the time period we are talking about. Too many differences between decades.

They boiled them in water. Oil was used for frying buddhists.