Soviet Union on 5 December 1931 Very soon after the October Revolution, the campaign to end religion – and more specifically, Christianity, Judaism and Islam – began. In 1920, the White Sea camp was opened on the grounds of a former Russian Orthodox Monastery. Described by some as a proto-
gulag, it took mainly Orthodox and Catholic priests which didn't comply with government statutes. From 1917 until 1991, Christians were imprisoned by Soviet authorities for numerous reasons such as protesting antireligious policies, leading congregations, conducting missionary work, organizing Sunday schools, mobilizing the youth to Christian societies, political opposition to Soviet power, national or class identity, and ordinary crimes. Under the doctrine of
state atheism in the Soviet Union, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to
atheism" conducted by Communists. As a part of its
anti-religious campaign, the Communist Party destroyed
churches,
mosques and
temples, ridiculed, harassed, incarcerated and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with anti-religious teachings, and introduced a belief system called "
scientific atheism", with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers. Many priests were killed and imprisoned, and thousands of churches were closed. In 1925, the government founded the
League of Militant Atheists, a "nominally independent organization" meant to intensify religious persecution. The state established atheism as the only scientific truth. Soviet authorities forbade the criticism of atheism and agnosticism or of the state's anti-religious policies, until 1936; such criticism could lead to forced retirement.
Militant atheism became central to the ideology of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a high priority policy of all Soviet leaders. Christopher Marsh, a professor at
Baylor University, writes that "Tracing the social nature of religion from
Schleiermacher and
Feuerbach to Marx, Engels, and Lenin...the idea of religion as a social product evolved to the point of policies aimed at the forced conversion of believers to atheism." standing trial for "counter-revolutionary agitation" A few years later, in 1929, priests were not considered workers; thus, they were given higher taxes. Priests also could not serve in the military because they were ineligible. The priests, because of their ineligibility, were given non-service taxes, which was calculated to be more than 100% of their income. Priests also were ineligible to join collective farms. Because of this, they were given no health care, pensions, or social security. By 1939, only 500 out of 50,000 churches remained open. in
Central Chișinău was one of the churches that were "converted into museums of atheism", under the doctrine of
Marxist–Leninist atheism. Marxist-Leninist regimes treated religious believers as subversives or abnormal, sometimes relegating them to psychiatric hospitals and reeducation. Nevertheless, historian Emily Baran writes that "some accounts suggest the conversion to militant atheism did not always end individuals' existential questions". After the
German invasion of the USSR in 1941,
Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to raise morale for the war effort. Consequently, by 1957, there were almost 22,000 Orthodox churches in the USSR. However, in 1959,
Nikita Khrushchev initiated a new anti-religious campaign, which led to the closure of almost 12,000 churches. By 1985, only 7,000 churches remained active. With the drafting of the
new 1977 Constitution, however, "freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda" was guaranteed. In 1995, the Russian state commissioner confirmed that 200,000 Russian Orthodox priests, monks, and nuns were killed. In 1997, the remains of a Catholic bishop and 30 priests were found at
Sandormokh, north of St. Petersburg. This was in exchange for total submission to the state and a limitation of activities. However, Christians who refused to toe the party line, mainly Roman Catholics and Protestants, were often harassed and had few legal rights.
Czechoslovakia Shortly after the
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, the new president
Klement Gottwald began his attacks on the
Catholic Church. During the meeting of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on June 9th, Gottwald stated that the new republic must "turn away from Rome, towards a national Church” and that it was "necessary to neutralize the church and get it into our hands so that it serves the regime". In its efforts to destroy organized religion, the Czechoslovak government emulated many practices of the anti-religious campaign in the Soviet Union, such as creating bodies to control religious activities and punishing priests who failed to comply with the many laws on religion; The punishments meted out for such violations were not as great as occurred in the USSR, however. Slovak émigrés abroad contributed resources to the church under communist rule in Slovakia and smuggled religious literature into Slovakia through Poland.
Pope Paul VI created an independent archbishop for Slovakia in 1977; however, the government blocked an appointment of a new archbishop until 1988.
East Germany Early on in the history of the
German Democratic Republic, churches were given many rights and provisions in comparison to other Eastern Bloc countries under Articles 41–48 of the
1949 Constitution, such as the capacity to take a position on public issues and establish religious schools. However, as the Cold War heated up in the mid-1950s, atheism became a topic of major interest for the state, in both domestic and foreign contexts. Religion became contested ground, with the governing
SED promoting
state atheism, although some people remained loyal to Christian communities. The
Landeskirche had a long history of submission to the temporal authorities. This submission under Nazi rule led to many of its members being compromised or silent on various moral issues. Once the communists took power in the East, the Protestants broke with historical precedent and became opponents of the government. In 1945, they formed part of a common umbrella with Protestants in West Germany, the
Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and rejected silence on moral issues. The East German Protestant churches were the largest organizations in the country that were independent of the communist party or the state. In 1969, under the pressure of the East German government, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany seceded from the EKD, forming a new organization called the (BEK). The churches were called to be promoters of socialism; however, the churches themselves, while accepting this role, also considered themselves to be the determiners of what this meant, criticizing the state when its policies were immoral and applauded the state when its policies were positive. The state tried to take control of the
Polish Orthodox Church, with a membership of about half a million, in order to use it as a weapon against the
Roman Catholic Church in Poland, arresting its leader
Metropolitan Dionysius and forcibly retiring him after his release. As in most other Communist countries, religion was not outlawed as such (an exception being
Albania) and was permitted by the constitution, but the state attempted to achieve an atheistic society. Persecutions of individuals for religion in the first few years were rare, because the state initially was concerned strictly with suppressing armed political resistance. From 1947 to 1953, the
Catholic Church in Poland became the primary target for persecution in
Communist Poland. Cardinal Primate of Poland,
Stefan Wyszynski, believed that Poland had a special role to play in human history and he supported Polish nationalism as a precursor to the liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet role. Such ideas were popular among many Polish Catholics, as well. Wyszynski was brought into sharp conflict with the Communist authorities on account of this (he also experienced some conflict with the
Vatican); during his reign, he was jailed for three years for his refusal to cooperate with the government. He was both a critic of the regime and a mediator between the regime and the rest of civil society. Wyszynski provided a significant obstacle to the Communists taking control of the church in Poland; he died in 1981 and was replaced by
Cardinal Josef Glemp. Within a year, the independent trade union
Solidarity was formed. While initially based on economic concerns, it soon became deeply affiliated with the church. The Pope promoted Poland's cause as well as the cause of Christians behind the
Iron Curtain on an international level, to the great discomfort of the communist governments in the
Warsaw Pact. After World War II, with Northern
Transylvania becoming again part of Romania, non-Orthodox ethnic minorities became more numerous. Rivalries developed in the different religious groups and the government used this to its own advantage by letting the church strengthen its position in society in exchange for giving greater government control over it. Once complete control of the church was achieved, the government felt free to persecute its membership, which the hierarchy of the church turned a blind eye towards. As
Nicolae Ceausescu increasingly gained control, the only religious bodies that provided significant dissent to the regime were evangelical Protestants, who formed only a small portion of the population. The Orthodox archdiocese of
Cluj contains biographies of 1,700 church personnel jailed.
Albania At the close of World War II, certain religious leaders were imprisoned or executed on grounds that they were either spies for the
Italian protectorate government or affiliated with
Balli Kombëtar, an anti-communist
collaborationist militia. These leaders typically spent decades in prison and
penal labor.
Baba Murteza of
Kruje was tortured and thrown from a prison window to his death in 1946; Baba Kamil Glava of
Tepelen was executed by a court in
Gjirokastër in 1946; Baba Ali Tomori was executed by a court in 1947; and Baba Shefket Koshtani of Tepelan was shot by a court in 1947. Early on, persecution mainly affected the Roman Catholic Church, which made up 10% of the population. This was mainly due to how organized and well-linked it was to organizations outside Albania, unlike the
autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church. Other religious minorities, such as the
Bektashi Order of
Sufis, were targeted for similar reasons. such as the Roman Catholic cathedral in
Shkodër, which became a
sports arena. Many churches only survived by being marked for historical preservation.
Enver Hoxha declared the state atheist in 1967, stating that "Albania is the world's first atheistic state, whose only religion is
Albanianism." The same year, Article 37 was added to the
Albanian Constitution, which stated: This resulted in a massive anti-religious campaign greater in scale and scope than previous efforts. he was immediately arrested for worship in public, but when the building that he was being held in was surrounded by people, he was released again. That same month, he performed another public Mass for 50,000 people. In December 1990, the law against public religious practice was rescinded; elections were held the following year, and religious buildings re-opened. ==See also==