Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant GodlessA member of the first generation of scholars allowed access to formerly closed Soviet archives, Daniel Peris offers a new perspective on the Bolshevik regime's antireligious policy from 1917 until 1941. He focuses on the activities of the League of the Militant Godless, the organization founded by the regime in 1925 to spearhead its efforts to promote atheism and he presents the League's propaganda, activities, and personnel at both the central and the provincial levels. On the basis of his research in archives in rural Pskov and industrial Iaroslavl', as well as in the central party and state archives in Moscow, Peris emphasizes the transformation of the ideological agenda formulated in Moscow as it moved to its intended audience. Storming the Heavens places the League within the broader context of a Bolshevik political culture that often acted at cross purposes to undermine the regime's stated goals. The League's lack of success, argues Peris, reflects the bureaucratic orientation of Bolshevik political culture, particularly in how it pursued the radical social vision of 1917. His book provides a framework for undertanding secularization in revolutionary contexts as well as contributing to the on-going reassessments of the Bolshevik era. |
Contents
Organized Atheism in the 1920s | 47 |
Soviet Atheism? | 69 |
The Battle against Religion Is the Battle for Socialism | 99 |
The League of the Godless in Iaroslavl and Pskov 19261933 | 118 |
The League of the Godless the Communist Party | 150 |
Cadres Decide Everything | 174 |
The Second Coming? The League of the Godless | 197 |
Common terms and phrases
activists activity administrative agenda agitprop Alekseev antireli Antireligious Commission antireligious propaganda Antireligioznik Archive atheism believers Bezbozhnik Bezbozhnik u stanka Bolshevik political culture Bukharin bureaucratic cadres campaign Central Committee Central Council chairman clergy collectivization Communist Party conference Congress countryside Cultural Revolution District Council early efforts GARF gious Godless Gosizdat IaPA Iaroslavl Iaroslavskii IaSA Ibid icons ideological institutions issue istorii January kolkhoznik Komsomol Kostelovskaia Krasnyi Perekop late League cells League councils League organizations Lenin Leningrad Leningrad Oblast membership Moscow Moshe Lewin Oblast Party ODGB official OGPU Okrug Okrug Council organizational Orgbiuro Orthodox Church Otchet Party Committee Party's peasant Perekop period Politbiuro popular population Pravda propa propagandists provincial Pskov League Pskov Okrug Pskovskii kolkhoznik Pskovskii nabat regime regime's religion religious reported revoliutsiia revolutionary rhetoric rituals RTsKhIDNI rural secularization social transformation Soviet Russia Soviet Union SSSR Stalin tion tireligious trade unions tserkov uezd VKP(b voluntary societies workers