WHAT WERE
STALIN’S
POLICIES
TOWARDS
RELIGION?
MELANIE
NGAI
Lenin AND THE
BOLSHEVIKS Views
on Religion
Under the Tzars
Russian Orthodox Church had been the national Church
of the empire
Bolsheviks had always seen religion and the Churches as
aspects of class division
The Bolsheviks were aggressively atheistic
Karl Marx described Religion as “the opium of the people”
November Revolution
Bolsheviks did not see religion as a threat
Freedom of religion was allowed
Churches not closed
However, the land owned by Churches were confiscated
Church and state legally separated
Registration of births, marriages and deaths became
secular rather than religious
1921 and Lenin’s death
Giving of religious instructions to those under 18 were
banned
Anti Religious Campaigns were allowed
In 1924, Lenin died from stroke and was replaced by
Stalin.
In honor of the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, the Soviet
Union changed the city's name of St. Petersburg to
Leningrad.
Leningrad became St. Petersburg again 67 years later
when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
STALIN’S
VIEWS
ON
RELIGION
Stalin’s Background
Joseph Stalin, whose real name was Ioseb Besarionis dze
Jughashvili, was born and raised in Gori in what is now the nation of
Georgia.
He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1953.
Stalin was raised very religious in the Russian Orthodox Church.
He was named after Saint Joseph and was raised to be a priest.
His father was a priest and young Joseph spent five years in a
Russian Orthodox seminary
He became a religion suppressing atheist instead.
Stalin once said: You know, they are fooling us, there is no God… all
this talk about God is sheer nonsense.
Anti Religious Campaigns
The attack on religion that began under Lenin, was
continued by Stalin.
Worship of Stalin was encouraged but religious worship
was strongly discouraged.
1927: The Orthodox Church was granted official
recognition in return for promises to stay out of politics
and to be loyal to the Soviet regime
1928: Stalin began a vigorous anti-religious campaign
Anti Religious Campaigns
Christian churches and mosques were closed down
And were converted into clubs, cinemas, schools, and
warehouses.
Church bells were removed and melted down as scrap
metal.
Women were forbidden to wear the veil
Pilgrimages to Mecca were banned.
Church leaders arrested and imprisoned.
Those who escaped arrest were forbidden to organize any
religious activity in public.
Anti Religious Campaigns
In 1930 there were 30,000 Orthodox congregations
By 1939 only 1 in 40 churches were still functioning and
only seven bishops were still active in the whole of the
Soviet Union.
Only 1300 mosques were still operating in 1941 as
against 26,000 in 1917.
The photograph pictured
shows the Cathedral of Christ
the Saviour in the heart of
Moscow.
Stalin ordered its destruction
in 1931.
League of Militant Atheist
1924, Communist Party set up a League to weaken the
religious faith of the Soviet People (League of Militant
Atheists)
By 1933 it had 5.5 million members
Set up anti-religious museums in former cathedrals
Burnt icons and other religious objects
Organised anti-religious propaganda campaigns
Kazan Cathedral converted into a museum of atheism