Persecution Of Christians In The Soviet Union
Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, Christianity was suppressed and persecuted to different extents depending on the particular era. Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union. Marxism-Leninism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and the elimination of religion.
The state was committed to the destruction of religion, and destroyed churches, mosques and temples, ridiculed, harassed and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with atheistic propaganda, and generally promoted 'scientific atheism' as the truth that society should accept. The total number of Christians killed, as a result of Soviet state atheist policies, has been estimated at over 20 million.
Religious beliefs and practices persisted among the majority of the population, in the domestic and private spheres but also in the scattered public spaces allowed by a state that recognised its failure to eradicate religion and the political dangers of an unrelenting culture war.
Read more about Persecution Of Christians In The Soviet Union: Official Soviet Stance, Soviet Tactics, Anti-religious Campaign 1917–1921, Anti-religious Campaign 1921–1928, Anti-religious Campaign 1928–1941, World War II Rapprochement, Postwar Era, Resumption of Anti-religious Campaign, 1964–1970s, Renewal of Persecution in 1970s, Penetration of Churches By Soviet Secret Services, Glasnost, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words soviet union, persecution, christians, soviet and/or union:
“In the Soviet Union everything happens slowly. Always remember that.”
—A.N. (Arkady N.)
“That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some [people] and to their eternal Infamy the clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still honest people where there are no Christians. It could therefore easily be possible that people are Christians because true Christianity corresponds to what they would have been even if Christianity did not exist.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“So they lived. They didn’t sleep together, but they had children.”
—Russian saying popular in the Soviet period, trans. by Vladimir Ivanovich Shlyakov (1993)
“Maybe we were the blind mechanics of disaster, but you don’t pin the guilt on the scientists that easily. You might as well pin it on M motherhood.... Every man who ever worked on this thing told you what would happen. The scientists signed petition after petition, but nobody listened. There was a choice. It was build the bombs and use them, or risk that the United States and the Soviet Union and the rest of us would find some way to go on living.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)