CAMPAIGN AGAINST PILGRIMAGES TO «HOLY PLACES» IN THE CHUVASH ASSR IN THE LATE 1950s – EARLY 1960s
Authors: Berman Andrey G. 
Published: December 2024

An important component of the anti-church campaign that took place in the late 1950s and the first half of the 1960s was the fight against pilgrimages to the so–called «holy places».

Such campaigns were not new to our country, it is enough to look back on Peter the Great’s decree prohibiting the construction of chapels unauthorized by the authorities.

The cult of «holy places» is obvious to have been an important part of the so-called «casual» or «folk» religiosity and the presence of «holy places» supported the religious enthusiasm among the population. It is implied that in an effort to limit the influence of «religious prejudices» on citizens, the Soviet government could not help but pay attention to this phenomenon.

The purpose of the study is to study the struggle against pilgrimages to «holy places» in the territory of the Chuvash ASSR, which took place as part of another aggravation of state–church relations in the late 1950s – early 1960s, known as «Khrushchev anti-church campaign».

Materials and methods. The source base of the research was made up of materials kept in the foundation of the Authorized Council on the Russian Orthodox Church (since 1965 Council on Religious Affairs) under the Council of Ministers of the Chuvash ASSR (F. R-1857), located in the State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic. The materialistic understanding of history was used as a research method.

Research results. In the territory of the Chuvash ASSR, the plenipotentiaries of the Council on the Russian Orthodox Church record two «holy places» in their reports: in the village of Ishaki of Cheboksary region and in the village of Mirenki of Kuvakinsky (now Alatyrsky) region. An important part of the «holy places» cult was the worship of wells, the water in which was considered sacred by the population. Every year, on special days associated with the local cult, there was a mass pilgrimage to the wells with consecrated water. During the days of pilgrimage, spontaneous markets around the «holy place» were organized by consumer cooperation organizations. Pilgrimages were accompanied by appropriate practices (almost publicly undressing and dousing with water, foolishness, etc.), which could look shocking. Pilgrimages helped to maintain a high level of religiosity in rural areas.

In the late 1950s, the central authorities adopted a number of regulations aimed at minimizing and, if possible, eliminating the practice of pilgrimage. The Plenipotentiary of the Council on the Russian Orthodox Church in the Chuvash ASSR managed to put an end to the pilgrimage to the village of Ishaki and the village of Mirenki. However, «holy places» spontaneously appeared in other locations.

Conclusions. The Soviet society as a whole was ready to put up with religion, but within a clearly defined framework of the temple. In this sense, the struggle against pilgrimages fit into the educationist paradigm. The argumentation of the attack on the «holy places» is surprisingly similar to the argumentation of Peter the Great’s decree banning the construction of chapels in the «holy places». Both of these campaigns, which are two centuries apart, can be considered as phenomena of the same order, as episodes of secularization in the Russian execution.