| Russian Orthodox Church under the period of "thaw" |
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| 20.09.2017 00:00 | ||
This period is known as “thaw”, due to some positive changes in the totalitarian policy of the state: fewer repressions, selective rehabilitation of those repressed in the Stalin period, partial liberalization of political life, slight weakening of the totalitarian regime. But surprisingly the policy to the Church under the period of “thaw” became much worse than under Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was dreaming about the communism by 1980, and in new communist era there were no place for the Church. Anti-religious campaign of Khrushchev was more sophisticated than the campaign of 1920-30s because it had to be like people abandoned the Church on their own initiative. The priests were totally suspended from the financial management of the parish, all assistants of priests were in fact announced as parasites among the society. There was introduced the ban on the presence of children at church services, the state denied parental rights of many Christian parents. Also during this period, the University of Scientific Atheism was founded and anti-religious propaganda was started. The number of churches reduced from 22000 in 1959 to 7873 in 1965. Nikita Khrushchev even gave the promise to show the last priest on the TV, but in reality he himself was removed from his office in 1964. When Brezhnev took power the anti-religious campaign was mitigated but in fact continued for many years... Artemiy Kokosh, student of the 3rd class |
