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Throughout the history of the Soviet Union (1922-1991), Soviet authorities suppressed and persecuted various forms of Christianity to different extents depending on the particular era. Soviet policy, based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union. Marxism-Leninism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and the elimination of religious beliefs.[1] The state was committed to the destruction of religion,[2][3] and destroyed churches, mosques and temples, ridiculed, harassed and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with atheistic teachings, and generally promoted atheism as the truth that society should accept.[4][5]
The total number of Christian victims of Soviet state atheist policies, has been estimated to range between 12-20 million.[6][7][8] Religious beliefs and practices persisted among the majority of the population,[4] 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.[2][9] [...] The Soviet regime had an ostensible commitment to the complete annihilation of religious institutions and ideas.[10] Militant atheism was central to the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union[11] and a high priority of all Soviet leaders.[3] Convinced atheists were considered to be more virtuous individuals than those of religious belief.[3]
The state established atheism as the only scientific truth.[12][13][14][15][16][17][unreliable source?] Soviet authorities forbade the criticism of atheism or of the state's anti-religious policies; such criticism could lead to forced retirement, arrest and/or imprisonment.[18][19][20] Soviet law never officially outlawed the holding of religious views, and the various Soviet Constitutions always guaranteed the right to believe. However, since Marxist ideology as interpreted by Lenin[21] and by his successors regarded religion as an obstacle to the construction of a communist society, putting an end to all religion (and replacing it with atheism[22]) became a fundamentally important ideological goal of the Soviet state.
The persecution of religion took place officially through many legal measures designed to hamper religious activities, through a large volume of anti-religious propaganda, through education, and through various other[which?] means. In tandem with official persecution, many accompanying secret instructions remained unofficial.[citation needed] In practice the state also sought to control religious bodies and to interfere with them, with the ultimate goal of making them disappear.[22]
To this effect, the state sought to control the activities of the leaders of the different religious communities.[10] Official Communist Party documents often disguised official persecution under euphemisms such as the "struggle against bourgeois ideology", the "dissemination of materialist ideology", etc.[citation needed] The government often rejected the principle of treating all religious believers as public enemies,[21] partly due to pragmatic considerations (given the large number of people adhering to a faith) and also partly from the belief that the number of the believers included many loyal Soviet citizens whom the authorities ought to convince to become atheists rather than attack outright. Religious believers found themselves always subject to anti-religious propaganda and to legislation that restricted religious practice. They frequently suffered restrictions within Soviet society. Rarely, however, did the Soviet state officially ever subject them to arrest, imprisonment or death simply for having holding beliefs. Instead, the methods of persecution represented a reaction to the perception (real or imagined) of their resistance to the state's broader campaign against religion.[23]
The campaign was designed[by whom?] to disseminate atheism, and the acts of violence and terror tactics deployed, while almost always officially invoked on the basis of perceived resistance to the state, aimed in the larger scheme not simply to dampen opposition, but to further assist in the suppression of religion in order to disseminate atheism.[23] Soviet tactics The tactics varied over the years and became more moderate or more harsh at different times. Among common tactics included confiscating church property, ridiculing religion, harassing believers, and propagating atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed. Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers along with execution included torture, being sent to prison camps, labour camps or mental hospitals.[24][25][26][27] Many Orthodox (along with peoples of other faiths) were also subjected to psychological punishment or torture and mind control experimentation in order to force them give up their religious convictions (see Punitive psychiatry in the Soviet Union).[25][26][28]
During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled.[1] In the Soviet Union, in addition to the methodical closing and destruction of churches, the charitable and social work formerly done by ecclesiastical authorities was taken over by the state. As with all private property, Church owned property was confiscated into public use.
The few places of worship left to the Church were legally viewed as state property which the government permitted the church to use. Protestant Christians in the USSR (Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists etc.) in the period after the Second world war were compulsively sent to mental hospitals, endured trials and prisons (often for refusal to enter military service). Some were even compulsively deprived of their parent rights.[29]
Anti-religious campaign 1917–1921 Main article: USSR anti-religious campaign (1917–1921) and 1922 confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property In August 1917, following the collapse of the tsarist government, a council of the Russian Orthodox Church reestablished the patriarchate and elected the metropolitan Tikhon as patriarch.[30]
In November 1917, within weeks of the revolution, the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment was established, which a month later created the All-Russian Union of Teachers-Internationalists for the purpose of removing religious instruction from school curricula. In order to intensify the anti-religious propaganda in the school system, the Chief Administration for Political Enlightenment (Glavpolitprosvet) was established in November 1920.[31]
Christian fundamentalists in the Bible Belt feel persecuted or "oppressed" whenever they find someone that doesn't share their particular worldview (such as creationism, as pointed out in talk.origins's archive. On closer examination of such claims, it's more commonly the case that claims of persecution are better explained as annoyance at the removal of privilege or the curtailment of their ability to force their views on others.
originally posted by: Prezbo369
Christian persecution Complex
Christian fundamentalists in the Bible Belt feel persecuted or "oppressed" whenever they find someone that doesn't share their particular worldview (such as creationism, as pointed out in talk.origins's archive. On closer examination of such claims, it's more commonly the case that claims of persecution are better explained as annoyance at the removal of privilege or the curtailment of their ability to force their views on others.
originally posted by: undo
read that article above. soviet russia sounds just like the usa, today.
originally posted by: Prezbo369
originally posted by: undo
read that article above. soviet russia sounds just like the usa, today.
No it really really doesn't, hence your persecution complex....
It's pretty disgusting that you'd use the horrors of Stalin's Soviet Russia to attempt to gain sympathy or to excuse your prejudices.
originally posted by: undo
that politician from indiana knew this wasn't going to go over well. the whole thing is one big propaganda campaign against all christians in the guise of some well publicized cases. just like with the muslim example, where there were several muslims who DID make the cake the guy asked for, many christians would and did, also make cakes for gay customers but notice it's only the few who don't agree to that extreme, that get any air time! it's f'in propaganda.
stalin also killed a few million buddhists.
originally posted by: undo
originally posted by: Prezbo369
originally posted by: undo
read that article above. soviet russia sounds just like the usa, today.
No it really really doesn't, hence your persecution complex....
It's pretty disgusting that you'd use the horrors of Stalin's Soviet Russia to attempt to gain sympathy or to excuse your prejudices.
how the hell do you know i'm prejudice against gays!??! how do you know that!? oooo i'm so mad right now. must go do some tai chi to calm the heck down!
originally posted by: Prezbo369
originally posted by: undo
originally posted by: Prezbo369
originally posted by: undo
read that article above. soviet russia sounds just like the usa, today.
No it really really doesn't, hence your persecution complex....
It's pretty disgusting that you'd use the horrors of Stalin's Soviet Russia to attempt to gain sympathy or to excuse your prejudices.
how the hell do you know i'm prejudice against gays!??! how do you know that!? oooo i'm so mad right now. must go do some tai chi to calm the heck down!
Ah so despite you being a republican conservative fundamentalist christian, you're all for gay marriage, gay rights and you oppose the bill in Indiana?.....
originally posted by: undo
a reply to: kaylaluv
because an atheist-marxist state, following lenin's original plan, gets rid of anybody that doesn't recognize the state as the sole authority. that's how it works. you're not allowed to have a final arbiter who's teachings trump those of the state, such as buddha, jehovah, jesus, allah, thor, or any other authority other than the state.
originally posted by: kaylaluv
originally posted by: undo
a reply to: kaylaluv
because an atheist-marxist state, following lenin's original plan, gets rid of anybody that doesn't recognize the state as the sole authority. that's how it works. you're not allowed to have a final arbiter who's teachings trump those of the state, such as buddha, jehovah, jesus, allah, thor, or any other authority other than the state.
But you just said that our government was leaving Muslims alone and only targeting Christians?
originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: undo
I'm sorry, but you're just not making a whole lot of sense.
I'm going to have to bow out of this coo-coo conversation.
Peace out.