Features of the tightening of the state policy of the Soviet government and religious denominations during the "thaw" on the example of the Kuibyshev region

Gizatullina Liliya Ramil'evna Graduate student, Head of Laboratory of Center for Virtual Engineering and Additive Technologies, Ulyanovsk State University 432017, Russia, Ulyanovsk region, Ulyanovsk, ul. Lva Tolstogo, 42 gumanitary2001@yandex.ru

During the onset of the "thaw", the Soviet people initially received hope for more free relations in the cultural environment. Representatives of various confessions did not exclude such a possibility, but this period was marked by a period of "Khrushchev persecution" by historians ^{[1, p. 432]}.

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant interest of researchers in this topic. Yu.V. Geraskin in his doctoral dissertation analyzes the changes that took place in the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Soviet government during the late 1930s - 1991 on the material of the central regions of the RSFSR ^[2]. Historians also turned to the history of the Old Believer Church in the USSR. Thus, the article by A.V. Chibisov examines the peculiarities of the existence of the Ancient Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union in the second half of the XX century ^[10].

Speaking about the works that touch upon the relationship between the church and the authorities in the Kuibyshev region, it is worth noting the fundamental monograph by V.N. Yakunin ^[14]. It examines the history of the Samara Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church from the middle of the XIX century to the beginning of the XXI century . The author analyzes not only the quantitative changes of the local diocese, but also highlights its participation in the life of the region. Considerable attention is paid by the author to anti-religious propaganda in the region in the 1930s and to strengthening the position of the church during the Great Patriotic War. The publication of O.R. Khasyanov ^[13] is devoted to the issues of festive religious culture in the Soviet village of the Middle Volga region of the post-war period, and in general, the influence of regional authorities on the activities of churchmen is considered in the article by E.M. Zhidkova ^[7].

A brief review of the publications allowed us to show the growing interest in the topic of state policy in relation to religion in the USSR. At the same time, less attention is paid to the coverage of certain periods of anti-religious orientation of the regional authorities. In this regard, we consider it possible to fill this gap with this study, paying more emphasis to the peculiarities of the relationship between the government and the church during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev in the context of the Kuibyshev region.

Published and unpublished sources were used to carry out the research. The documents of the Samara Regional State Archive of Socio-Political History (SOGASPI), in particular the fund of the regional Committee of the CPSU, have significant information potential ^[8]. It contains both memos of persons in charge of the relations between the church and Soviet and party structures in the region, as well as reports on the conduct of anti-religious propaganda by the local authorities in various directions. We also used documents stored in the fund of the secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI) ^[4]. Materials for the minutes of the meetings of the Secretariat of the Central Committee were reviewed here, among which reports and notes of the propaganda and agitation department on anti-religious work were postponed. The published collections of documents ^[3] and individual publications of documents ^[9] concerning the relationship between the church, society and the state in the period under review are also highly representative.

Even during the period of "late Stalinism", the government, consisting of positive supporters of reconciliation with the church, put forward a course "for balanced relations with the Russian Orthodox Church." It is no coincidence that a number of researchers, in their works devoted to the analysis of everyday practices of Soviet citizens and public opinion, note the increasing role of religion in post-war Soviet society ^{[1; 13; 14]}. But this course was stopped in the 1950s by N.S. Khrushchev, who came to power. He and his supporters spoke of this path as unjustified and wrong, saying that this course was a sign of "Stalinism" ^{[2, p. 10]}. This was especially strongly influenced by the XX Congress of the CPSU, where the "cult of personality" of I.V. Stalin was debunked, which confirmed the victory of the new leadership over the "Stalinist opposition".

Already in 1954, important documents regulating the regulations of the anti-religious program conducted at that time were published. On July 7, 1954, a resolution was issued "On major shortcomings in scientific atheistic propaganda and measures to improve it": The party has outlined the strengthening of anti-religious propaganda and a plan of work to improve it. Already on November 10, 1954, a resolution was issued "On errors in conducting scientific atheistic propaganda among the population." In this document, the Central Committee of the CPSU, of course, admitted its mistake in unnecessarily attacking the feelings of believers, but, despite this, it also demanded that party organizations tighten anti-religious policy on the ground ^{[4, L. 5-13]}.

These tasks were also set before the party and Soviet organizations of the Kuibyshev region. But the interaction of the authorities in this region with the existing confessions was quite vividly represented because of its peculiarities.

One of these features is the multinational composition of the population of the Kuibyshev region, which ensured the vital activity of different peoples and cultures. Also an important component can be considered the emergence of new settlements at deposits, fields, etc., which attracted fresh labor resources to the region. For example, if we talk about the number of workers, then already in the early 1950s in the Kuibyshev region it almost doubled ^{[4, p. 321]}, and by 1965 in general 48.9% of residents of other regions of the USSR arrived in the Middle Volga region ^{[5, p. 114]}.

At the same time, in 1959 there were 19 Orthodox churches, 20 mosques, 2 Baptist prayer houses, one community of Old Believers and one synagogue community ^[6].

Modern historians also notice a special development of Jewish communities in Kuibyshev (Samara). In the memos of the Council for Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers for the Kuibyshev region, there were about five hundred active members of the community in the 1945-1950s, provided that there were about 12-13 thousand Jews themselves ^{[11, p. 287]}. High scientific interest in this denomination can be justified by the conditions of its development:

– the Jewish denomination was far away from the historical centers of the formation of religion;

– the specialization of Kuibyshev and the region in the field of military production made the territory closed to other regions, there were difficulties with communication with other similar communities, which emphasized the uniqueness of development without external support of the Jewish community ^{[8, l. 61-63]}.

The memos of P.I. Aleksin (the authorized Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Kuibyshev region) describe a lot of detailed facts that he saw in his work with this denomination. Particularly acute was the indignation caused by the omission of work due to religious holidays and collective rituals, the number of donations, despite the scientific and atheistic work of the party. Actively in his memos, statistics on baking matzo (a traditional religious dish (flatbread) necessary for the celebration of Passover), its artisanal production are given. Also, according to his records, it can be traced that by 1955-1956 the number of persons of the Jewish faith increased, which P.I. Aleksin attributed to an invited artist close to this religious organization, and a decrease in the work of party organizations in this direction ^{[8, pp. 94-96]}.

One of the transitional moments was the secret resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of March 16, 1961 "On strengthening control over the implementation of legislation on cults." This document deprived the rectors of parishes of the authority to solve any economic affairs, and when the church was closed, all property was confiscated by the state, including liturgical items, officially hiding behind the support of freedom of conscience ^{[10, p. 259]}.

An interesting fact is that during the "thaw" in the Kuibyshev region, Old Believer organizations also existed, although only 1 community was officially registered: the Ancient Orthodox Archdiocese. On July 14, 1961, the Kuibyshev Regional Executive Committee decided not to hold prayer meetings and services without registration, which reduced the activity of Old Believers who had not shown high activity before ^{[10, p. 258]}.

As for the Russian Orthodox Church, its relations with the party were formed in different ways due to various factors, but on the whole quite successfully. In May 1958, the ROC celebrated the restoration of the Patriarchate, but later in the same year the "Khrushchev persecution" began. Although the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the patriarchate itself was postponed from December 1957 due to the negative attitude of the civil authorities towards religious denominations. This is proved by the note of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the shortcomings of scientific atheistic propaganda." This document details the activation of confessions in various directions:

– strengthening of missionary activity, and training of clergy;

– income growth, and an increase in requests for registration of religious groups;

– the use of parishioners in order to increase the flow of funds to their organizations, and the Soviet authorities directly accuse the leaders in this document that signatures collected in order to increase registered organizations are falsified;

– the creation of illegal, unregistered organizations outside of religious life, where work is actually underway with the population and securing it for a certain denomination;

– the growth of the role and number of sectarians ^{[3, l.18-20]}.

The document shows a negative characterization of the Soviet government both on the territory of the entire state as a whole, and in the Kuibyshev region in particular, to all of the above, calls for combating various religious organizations. This document also states ways to counteract this: the creation of a popular scientific journal "Science and Religion", strengthening control over religious organizations, the introduction of various lectures and propaganda events by various cultural and educational institutions in the field of the development of anti-religious science. Moreover, lectures were held not only on specially planned topics at the appointed time, but also before mass events, such as film screenings in cinemas, dancing, etc. ^{[4, L.7]}.

Popular were the evenings of meetings and interviews with former ministers of worship, who refuted all their views, their work in the denomination, speaking negatively about former colleagues. For example, John Gusarov wrote in the article "Why I broke with religion" that, despite his age, and he changed his beliefs at the age of 64, he independently abandoned religious views. Although some of his associates were not sure about this, they even persuaded him to return. According to his article, it is clear that he did not denigrate the church in his notes, talking more about his condition and personal beliefs. But another example is Boris Kostin, who in the regional newspaper "Volzhskaya Commune" spoke quite negatively about his former role as a clergyman. At the same time, initially the man was a circus performer, an athlete and did not come to religion immediately, but during the 1960s, when there was a need to replenish the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church due to the reduction in the number of seminaries. In addition to his views, B. Kostin directly said that everything that is written in the Bible is a lie, thereby denigrating the religious activities of his other colleagues ^{[10, pp. 282-283]}.

Archbishop of Kuibyshev and Syzran (later elevated to the rank of Metropolitan) opposed the anti-religious activities of local authorities and developed the Orthodox Church in the region Manuel Lemeshevsky (real name – Viktor Viktorovich Lemeshevsky), who left a deep mark with his activities in the diocese. It was he who faced the apogee of Khrushchev's "persecution" of the church. Under him, the rules were tightened to the point of absurdity, for example, he fought against the Soviet government, which forbade parents with children and teenagers to enter the church, leaving them in special places.

Manuel Lemeshevsky coped with this task by appealing to the patriarch, but these are not the only toughenings that took place at this time. The fiercest struggle unfolded for propaganda. The church responded to the strengthening of measures for anti–religious demonstrations by holding a large number of sermons - on Sundays and on religious holidays. After a short time, the clergy had to reduce the number of meetings for a number of reasons. Firstly, because of the constant censorship checks on these sermons and, secondly, because of the reduction in the number of topics that the ministers of worship could use in their speeches. Representatives of the Soviet government of the Kuibyshev region characterized Manuel Lemeshevsky in different ways. For example, the Commissioner for Church Affairs V.H. Korchagin wrote about him as a deeply religious person, noted his adamant position in spreading religion, attracting new parishioners. N.A. Trofimov, who replaced him, spoke of him as a man of a rather radical mindset, actually calling him a "fanatic" [11c. 289].

Thanks to anti–religious propaganda, the number of petitions for the opening of churches decreased: in 1958 S.P. Alekseev received 28 petitions for the opening of 12 churches, and in 1958 already 8 applications - 5 churches [11c. 292]. The decline in parishioners of different faiths is also explained by the development of the space industry. Many believers did not know how to relate to photo and video materials. There were renegades in the ROC who did not know how to continue to be the rector of the parish and see that their religious beliefs were not included in the new picture of the world. For example, the same John Gusarov, the former rector of the Intercession Cathedral, wrote that he could not teach others, recognizing "the wrongness of the religious worldview." The Kuibyshev diocesan Administration excommunicated the renunciants in response from Moscow, but there were fewer such people than planned in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU ^{[14, p. 289]}.

In addition to the all-Union resolutions of 1961, the appointment of a new commissioner for church Affairs in the region, V.H. Korchagin, played a great role in strengthening anti-religious work in the Kuibyshev region. Literally immediately after his appointment, he issued a memo in which he proposed a number of measures to reduce the influence of the church and its activity ^{[11, p. 292]}.

The mass media became one of the devices for managing the "popular mood". On June 26, 1962, anti-religious articles were published in the regional newspaper Volzhskaya Kommuna. The atheistic work of the Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the CPSU also increased: teachers, teachers and researchers were involved. Particularly active believers of the Russian Orthodox Church were subjected to repression. V.I. Pochuikin, who had the fame of a wandering holy elder who traveled to holy places and wrote his religious works, was convicted in Kuibyshev in 1961. He was recognized as an anti-Soviet element ^{[14, p. 289]}.

Also, financial instruments became one of the ways of anti-religious policy: large taxes were imposed on representatives of official organizations. For example, in a note by the Mufti of Dagestan and the North Caucasus Magomed-hadji Kurbanov to the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR with a request to reduce the huge income tax levied on him and on the secretary of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the North Caucasus, the following statement proves: "a tax of 800 rubles was imposed on the chairman, and 500 rubles on the secretary, despite a monthly salary of 180 and 150 rubles, respectively." As a result, this taxation was considered "wrong" and "unbearable" ^{[15, l. 109-109 vol.]}.

In 1961, after all the anti-religious policy of the state, 17 Orthodox churches, 19 mosques, 2 prayer houses, and 3 sects (Jews, Baptists and Old Believers) remained in the region ^[7]. But if we consider the statistics given at the beginning, the losses of confessions were not as significant as planned in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (Table 1).

Table 1.

Officially registered religious organizations of the Kuibyshev region ^[7]

The policy of the "thaw" for the people of that time was presented as freedom in the conditions of the change of "Stalinism". But representatives of various religious organizations could not feel this in full. In the Kuibyshev region, as well as in the whole state, anti-religious policy was spreading. The rejection of the remnants of the past, the ideas of "late Stalinism", the debunking of these ideas took place in conditions of purposeful and organized activity – this is evidenced by legal documents, and the number of statistical facts, denunciations and reports on the activities of religious organizations. The methods of the Soviet government were widespread: propaganda was carried out at mass events, mandatory lectures were held by teachers and famous professors, even those who had previously been adherents of a particular religion. One of such striking examples is the former professor-archpriest of the Moscow Theological Academy – Academician A.A. Osipov. His speeches were always very popular, he joked a lot, sarcastically spoke about his past religious beliefs. When asked at what time he was telling the truth: when he was a clergyman or now, he replied that in the past he thought he was telling the truth, but now he knows the truth.

In addition, there were other methods of combating religious organizations: raising taxes for administrative positions and representatives of the church, as well as the appropriation of financial powers and economic decisions of local civil authorities, which, of course, limited the activities of priests of any religion in the care, development and dissemination of their worldview. But these measures allowed local authorities to control the financial affairs of religious denominations. There were also political measures introduced by the Soviet government in the territory of the Kuibyshev region, which limited the spread of religious worldview in the minds of children, adolescents and young people.

In addition, many parishioners and religious figures could not remain parishioners of religious organizations because of the achievements of science: the first flight into Space, documentaries showing footage from it, the exploration of outer space, the construction of rockets that flew to space. All these external factors made us think, rethink beliefs, open up to new ideas.

Thus, considering the anti–religious campaign in the USSR of the late 1950s - early 1960s on the example of the Kuibyshev region, it was possible to identify general and particular features of the tightening of state policy on the religious issue. On the one hand, there were official measures of struggle – a ban on joint visits to places of worship by children and their parents, regulation of topics raised during sermons, increased taxation. On the other hand, popular scientific lectures of atheistic content were organized, during which, with the help of scientific achievements, attempts were made to show the obsolescence and unjustifiability of the existence of religion in modern socialist society. Also, the local authorities paid great attention to the widest coverage of the departure from religion of former ministers of worship – their impressions were published, meetings with them were organized. An important feature of the Kuibyshev region was the strong opposition of the churchmen to these persecutions, which was a great merit of Metropolitan Manuel. Despite the active resistance of the clergy and parishioners, the result of the anti-religious campaign of the period under review was a slight, but still a reduction in the number of places of worship and a decrease in the number of parishioners.