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The key focus of this video is the work of the Institute of Scientific Atheism during the Brezhnev era (the 1960s-1970s). It was created in 1964 by the resolution of the Central Committee “On Measures for Strengthening the Atheist Education of the Population.” The video discusses how its employees sought to create "positive atheism" and how they came to the conclusion that the problem was not only in religion. It also focuses on how Soviet ideologists began to introduce secular rituals to fight religion in the USSR. The review is based on a book by historian Victoria Smolkin: A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism by Princeton University Press. This book is not about religion and not even about atheism as a philosophical idea, but about atheism as an ideological project in the service of Soviet politicians. The book argues that in order to understand why religion posed a problem for Soviet Communism, we need to shift our attention from religion to atheism.
In the previous part, we discussed how Lenin changed his attitude towards combating religion from ideological to militant, and how Stalin did the opposite. In 1943 he shifted the approach from antireligious repression and militant atheism to rapprochement with religion. We’ve also discussed in the previous video how under Khrushchev, anti-religious rhetoric returned, but religion was no longer viewed as a political enemy, but more as an alien ideology. Under Khrushchev, there were few aggressive anti-religious campaigns but the militant atheism has been replaced by Scientific Atheism and Enlightenment through education, plus aggressive media propaganda. Again, thousands of churches and most seminaries were closed, however, reports from the field demonstrated that this strategy didn’t really help. Religion went underground. Religious attendance and religious rites were still very popular and, in some regions, even increased. As a result, during the Brezhnev era, a lot of effort and resources were spent on creating a Soviet way of life and secular rituals that would help people forget about religious practices.
Link to part one: Religion in the USSR - A history of Soviet atheism - • History of Soviet Athe...
Part 3: Religion under Gorbachev and Putin: • History of Soviet athe...
Link to the book by Victoria Smolkin: A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism - press.princeto...
#soviet_atheism #soviet_secularism #ussr #soviet_union #secularism
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Positive Atheism in the USSR (1960s-70s). Religion in the USSR. Soviet secularism | part 2 - book review of Smolkin (The Institute of Scientific Atheism under Brezhnev)
Bibliography:
Smolkin, Victoria. 2018. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism. Princeton University Press.
Blankholm, Joseph. 2020. Remembering Marx’s Secularism. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 88:1 (March 2020): 35-57.
Luehrmann, Sonja. 2011. Secularism: Soviet Style. Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic. Indiana UP.
Froese, Paul. 2008. The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experimentation in Secularization. UC Press.
Roland Elliott Brown. 2019. Godless Utopia: Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda.
Peris, Daniel. 1998. Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless. Cornell University Press.
Zuckerman, Phil. 2019. Society Without God.
Day, Abby. 2011. Believing in Belonging: Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World. Oxford University Press.
Warner, Rob. 2010. Secularization and Its Discontents. Continuum.
Ronald Inglehart. 2021. Religion’s Sudden Decline What's Causing it, and What Comes Next? Oxford University Press.
3 окт 2024
