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How did the Soviet government affect the Russian Orthodox Church after 1917?
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Eastern Orthodoxy
Jesus Christ, detail of the Deesis mosaic, from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 12th century.
Following the 1917 Revolution, the Soviet government—guided by Marxist ideology—viewed religion as "the opium of the people" and sought to eliminate it through state-sponsored repression and atheistic propaganda.12
Key impacts on the Russian Orthodox Church included:
- Legal Dispossession: A 1918 decree separated church from state, stripped the church of legal rights, and nationalized all property, leaving the clergy destitute.12
- Direct Assault: In 1922, the government used the pretext of famine relief to confiscate consecrated church vessels. This led to the arrest and execution of many clergy members who resisted.12
- State-Sponsored Schism: The government fostered the "Living Church" (or "Renovated Church"), a splinter group of renegade clergy intended to undermine the authority of Patriarch Tikhon and break the church's internal unity.12
- Persecution: Under Joseph Stalin, the church faced severe persecution, leaving it nearly suppressed by 1939, with only a handful of bishops and churches remaining.2
While the church experienced a temporary reprieve during World War II to bolster national morale, it faced renewed antireligious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev before eventually gaining greater freedom in the late 1980s.2