anti-religious campaign

Based on archival materials, the author of the article analyzes the activities of the Union of Militant Atheists in the Saratov Volga region and the role of the leader of this organization in the 1930s. Examples of the activities of the organization are given, both within the framework of anti-religious agitation and propaganda of the communist ideology, and as an initiator of the closure of churches and prayer houses of all faiths. Emelyan Yaroslavsky is characterized as the main ideologist of state atheism.

The paper investigates the multi-faith religious life of the population of the Saratov region in the 1930s. Anti-church policy of the state has carried out since 1917, but in the early 1930s. sharply intensified, accompanied by mass lawlessness and repression. Defeating the church to the middle of the 1930s., The Bolshevik government was not able to destroy the religious life, which lasted semi-legally and illegally, in spite of persecution and repression.

The author of the article, based on archival materials, examines the anti-religious campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox on the territory of the Saratov Volga region in the late 1920s – early 1940s. The anti-religious campaign was carried out in the form of repressions against worshipers and believers, the seizure of temples and houses of worship, anti-religious agitation and propaganda, and other anti-religious events.

Based on the population census and archival materials, the article examines the confessional diversity of the Saratov Volga region in the late 1920s – early 1940s. Orthodoxy prevailed in this territory, however, a characteristic feature of regional life has always been polyconfessionalism, due to historical and geopolitical factors. In the article, the author characterizes the confessional space of the Saratov Volga region and gives a quantitative ratio of various confessions.