Mănăstirea Secu. Buletin istoric şi cultural, I, Galaţi, 2025, pp. 215-221
ECHILIBRUL INSTABIL AL UNEI COEXISTENŢE FORŢATE: STATUL SOVIETIC ŞI BISERICA ORTODOXĂ RUSĂ ÎN PRIMELE DOUĂ DECENII POSTBELICE
AUTOR: Simion GHEORGHI
Cuvinte Cheie: Statul sovietic, politici religioase, războiul politic cu religia, Biserica Ortodoxă Rusă, Consiliul pentru Problemele Bisericii Ortodoxe Ruse
Keywords: The Soviet state, religious policies, the political war against religion, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church
AN UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM OF A COMPELLED COEXISTENCE: THE SOVIET STATE AND THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE FIRST TWO DECADES AFTER WORLD WAR II
(Abstract)
The article analyzes the evolution of relations between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church during the periods of Stalin and Khrushchev, highlighting the instrumentalization of religion according to the political and geopolitical interests of the communist regime.
During World War II and the early postwar years, Stalin partially rehabilitated the Church, integrating it into a state-directed religious policy that supported the USSR’s international agenda. The Moscow Patriarchate became a vector of influence in Eastern Europe and a convenient partner in the confrontation with the Vatican. After Stalin’s death in 1953, the new Soviet leadership – particularly under Nikita Khrushchev – reinvigorated the ideological offensive against religion, returning to Leninist principles of militant atheism. The antireligious campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s reflected both a shift in the regime’s vision of religion’s role in Soviet society and broader strategic and technological transformations.