Religion in Former Communist Countries

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

From the Pew Research Center: Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe

Roughly a quarter of a century after the fall of the Iron Curtain and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, a major new Pew Research Center survey finds that religion has reasserted itself as an important part of individual and national identity in many of the Central and Eastern European countries where communist regimes once repressed religious worship and promoted atheism.

Today, solid majorities of adults across much of the region say they believe in God, and most identify with a religion. Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are the most prevalent religious affiliations, much as they were more than 100 years ago in the twilight years of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.

In many Central and Eastern European countries, religion and national identity are closely entwined.

The study is pretty clear that the comeback of religion is closely related to its national identity connotations. What I’m curious about is whether the people in these countries were ever really mostly atheist and have started believing in God again due to these nationalism factors? Or is it possible that while atheism may have been the official state dogma, the people continued to have religious beliefs throughout the communist era, and are just becoming more public about it now?

[anomalous1]

Couldn’t have been a state dogma, since Atheism is the complete opposite, it is absence of Religion. Like most other situations in history when an overwhelming occupying force is involved, the ideals of those annexed were repressed to keep in line with the tone of the occupier. It’s more about uniformly controlling the populace than anything. People who tend to leave Religion willingly never really go back (this is anecdotal/personal empiricism here, so forgive me) to it, so it is likely they are just being reacquainted with it absence of fear of retribution by the state actor(s) that once inhibited it.

[mbh]

@anomalous1

Couldn’t have been a state dogma, since Atheism is the complete opposite, it is absence of Religion.

The Soviet Union (and its client states) were not just irreligious, they were actively anti-religious.

Religion in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was established by the Bolsheviks in 1922, in place of the Russian Empire. At the time of the 1917 Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church was deeply integrated into the autocratic state, enjoying official status. This was a significant factor that contributed to the Bolshevik attitude to religion and the steps they took to control it.[1] Thus the USSR became the first state to have as one objective of its official ideology the elimination of existing religion, and the prevention of future implanting of religious belief, with the goal of establishing state atheism (gosateizm).[2][3][4][5] Under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, there was a “government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism” conducted by Communists.[6][7][8] The communist regime targeted religions based on State interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[2] In 1925 the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the persecution.[9] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the official structures and mass media and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious.

The vast majority of people in the Russian empire were, at the time of the revolution, religious believers, whereas the communists aimed to break the power of all religious institutions and eventually replace religious belief with atheism. “Science” was counterposed to “religious superstition” in the media and in academic writing. The main religions of pre-revolutionary Russia persisted throughout the entire Soviet period, but they were only tolerated within certain limits. Generally, this meant that believers were free to worship in private and in their respective religious buildings (churches, mosques, etc.), but public displays of religion outside of such designated areas were prohibited. In addition, religious institutions were not allowed to express their views in any type of mass media, and many religious buildings were demolished or used for other purposes.[citation needed]

As the founder of the Soviet state, V. I. Lenin, put it:

Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class.[10]

Marxist–Leninist atheism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and elimination of religion. Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed. Many more were persecuted.[11]

[Flyer]

@Fotheringay-Phipps

From the Pew Research Center: Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern EuropeThe study is pretty clear that the comeback of religion is closely related to its national identity connotations. What I’m curious about is whether the people in these countries were ever really mostly atheist and have started believing in God again due to these nationalism factors? Or is it possible that while atheism may have been the official state dogma, the people continued to have religious beliefs throughout the communist era, and are just becoming more public about it now?

There was quite a bit a variation from country to country. Poland was heavily Catholic all the way through the period. The Communists managed to suppress certain outward signs of religion, but that was about all they could do. Russia was a different story. The authorities tolerated old women who were religious, but everybody else who wanted to have a Bible or anything like that ran a significant risk.

[madmonk28]

It’s complicated. In the Soviet Union, for example, Stalin eased up on suppressing religion when Hitler invaded. With their backs up against the wall, they allowed for the Russian Orthodox Church to begin to play a more actual role in public life. After the war, religion continued to have some level of tolerance, albeit still very restricted.

[kenobi_65]

@Flyer

There was quite a bit a variation from country to country. Poland was heavily Catholic all the way through the period. The Communists managed to suppress certain outward signs of religion, but that was about all they could do.

And, of course, a Pole became Pope in 1978, after serving as Archbishop of Krakow, and while Poland was still a Communist country.

[madmonk28]

Missed the edit, but here is a short article on Khrushchev’s anti-religion campaigns:

How Effective Was Khrushchev’s Religious Policy?

[Jophiel]

@Flyer

There was quite a bit a variation from country to country. Poland was heavily Catholic all the way through the period. The Communists managed to suppress certain outward signs of religion, but that was about all they could do.

Poland also has a centuries long history of pride in its Catholicism, seeing it as a connection to Western Europe, rather than the Eastern Orthodox lands beyond (including Russia).

[Hari_Seldon]

I met a Georgian around 1980 and he was a fervent Christian, although he had only fragmentary knowledge of it. It was a thing in his family to be fervent, although of course, not publicly practicing, Christians. He knew so little about things that when my wife asked him about Jews in Georgia, he finally said, “I don’t know; I think most Jews aren’t Christian.” Now I am sure he knows much more about it and actively practices religion, Eastern Orthodox, I assume.

[alphaboi867]

Not all former Eastern Bloc states have seen a religious revival; the former East Germany is still the least religious part of Germany and Czechia is one of the least religious countries on the planet.

@kenobi_65

And, of course, a Pole became Pope in 1978, after serving as Archbishop of Krakow, and while Poland was still a Communist country.

Not only that; John Paul II was actually allowed to make a state visit to Poland after his election.