page_title: Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc
section_title: Soviet Union
hierarchical_section_title: Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc / Treatment of Christians / Soviet Union
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Cerkiew św. Teodory z Sihli w Kiszyniowie
context_page_description: After the October Revolution of November 7, 1917 there was a movement within the Soviet Union to unite all of the people of the world under Communist rule. This included the Eastern bloc countries as well as the Balkan States. Communism as interpreted by Vladimir Lenin and his successors in the Soviet government required the abolition of religion and to this effect the Soviet government launched a long-running campaign to eliminate religion from society. Since some of these Slavic states tied their ethnic heritage to their ethnic churches, both the peoples and their churches were targeted by the Soviets.
  Across Eastern Europe following World War II, the parts of the Nazi Empire conquered by the Soviet Red Army, and Yugoslavia became one party Communist states and the project of coercive conversion to atheism continued. The Soviet Union ended its war time truce against the Russian Orthodox Church, and extended its persecutions to the newly Communist Eastern bloc: "In Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and other Eastern European countries, Catholic leaders who were unwilling to be silent were denounced, publicly humiliated or imprisoned by the Communists.
context_section_description: 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 once Russian Orthodox Monastery. At this camp which took mainly Orthodox and Catholic priests, the prototype for other Soviet camps was revealed. The camp began to exterminate those who would not bend to state.
  Under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism" conducted by Communists. 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 it introduced a belief system called "scientific atheism," with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers. Many priests were killed and imprisoned, Thousands of churches were closed. In 1925 the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the persecution. The League of Militant Atheists was a "nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism".
  The state established atheism as the only scientific truth. Soviet authorities forbade the criticism of atheism and agnosticism until 1936 or of the state's anti-religious policies; 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 the 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."
  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 is calculated to be more than 100% of their income. Priests were also 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.
  Christian churches, Jewish synagogues and Islamic mosques were forcibly "converted into museums of atheism", Historical essayist Andrei Brezianu expounds upon this situation writing that scientific atheism was "aggressively applied to Moldova, immediately after the 1940 annexation, when churches were profaned, clergy assaulted, and signs and public symbols of religion were prohibited"; he provides an example of this phenomenon, further writing that "St. Theodora Church in downtown Chişinău was converted into the city's Museum of Scientific 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.
  By the end of the Khrushchev era, 50,000 clergy were executed and many of the church hierarchy were replaced by individuals who had connections with the KGB. With the drafting of the new Constitution in 1977, 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 Cath
caption: St. Teodora de la Sihla Church in Central Chișinău was one of the churches that were "converted into museums of atheism", under the doctrine of Marxist–Leninist atheism.[32]
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