Desacralization of the relics of the Orthodox saints in atheistic propaganda as a direction of activity of the soviet atheists in the 20-30s of the 20th century

Annotation

20th century. The problem of using methods and approaches in anti-religious propaganda aimed at desacralizing the remains of Orthodox saints in the minds of the broad masses and eliminating the cult of the relics of Orthodox saints as such is explored. The most important role in this direction of anti-religious propaganda was played by the Soviet public organization “Union of Militant Atheists of the USSR.” The above-mentioned public organization carried out wide and varied work aimed at desacralizing the relics in the consciousness of the Russian people. This article analyzes individual actions of Soviet atheists aimed at eliminating the cult of relics in the USSR. Various directions of this anti-religious work are considered. Characteristics are given and the significance of the desacralization of relics is determined, within the framework of the anti-religious activities of Soviet atheists, as a necessary measure for building an atheistic Soviet society. To prepare this article, we used archival documents stored in the funds of the State Archive of Socio-Political History of the Voronezh Region, rare and little-known periodicals, and literature relating to the time period under study. When writing the article, the author used the historical-systemic method of cognition and the principle of historicism.

Keywords

• anti-religious activities
• anti-religious propaganda
• atheists
• newspaper “Bezbozhnik”
• desacralization of relics
• clergy
• monasticism
• monasteries
• relics
• orthodox church
• “Union of Militant Atheists of the USSR”
• ussr
• soviet power
• religion
• priests
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References

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