Laicization and atheism in the Soviet Union

The chapter describes how, in the Soviet Union after the October Revolution, the policy on religion developed quickly from radical laicism to militant atheism, in theory and in practice. An analysis of antireligious publications of the 1920s and the 1930s clearly shows that this propaganda aimed to eradicate any remnant of the traditional religious vision of the Soviet peoples and affirm the official Marxist-Leninist ideology. Laicization was initially an important revolutionary moment, because religious organisations were seen as political enemies in the light of the global project of total social transformation. But soon laicization gave way to atheism, which allowed all sorts of administrative and political abuses against religious institutions, clergy and believers. Religion per se was seen as the opposite of enlightenment, progress, knowledge and welfare. The spirit of radical secularisation and ideal of building an atheist society created a polarization that put an end to the possibility of religious worship for decades. Only the return of a relative democracy at the beginning of the 1990s allowed religion to re-emerge onto the surface, leading to the growth of a religious pluralism like in the West. Nevertheless, the burden of the past is still heavy, due to the many controversial issues still existing between the different religions and denominations present in the variegated post-Soviet world.