The Russian Revolution of 1917 proclaimed the separation of Church and State in the newly created Soviet Russia and later, Soviet Union. How did it work in practice? This course will examine both policies that addressed Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and other religious practices and practices of how these policies were received and interpreted on the ground. We will read anti-religious propaganda materials created in the 1920s, memoirs and diaries of priests, rabbis and imams making sense of the 1930s, often when imprisoned in Gulag for their work, press materials and ego-documents of World War II, novels, poems and short stories addressing religious beliefs in the post-war Soviet Union. Finally, we will discuss the religious revival of the 1990s, when both indigenous religions and those brought in by Western missionaries have entered post-Soviet public sphere. All course materials will be provided in English translation.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 proclaimed the separation of Church and State in the newly created Soviet Russia and later, Soviet Union. How did it work in practice? This course will examine both policies that addressed Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and other religious practices and practices of how these policies were received and interpreted on the ground. We will read anti-religious propaganda materials created in the 1920s, memoirs and diaries of priests, rabbis and imams making sense of the 1930s, often when imprisoned in Gulag for their work, press materials and ego-documents of World War II, novels, poems and short stories addressing religious beliefs in the post-war Soviet Union. Finally, we will discuss the religious revival of the 1990s, when both indigenous religions and those brought in by Western missionaries have entered post-Soviet public sphere. All course materials will be provided in English translation.
