Bolshevik Atheism Against the Soul of Russia: The Destruction of Orthodoxy and Its Cultural Heritage

Diana Del Mastro

diana.delmastro@usz.edu.pl
Università di Stettino (Polska)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-3973

Abstrakt

This study examines the Soviet regime’s anti-religious policies from 1917 to 1939, highlighting the strategies used to suppress faith and reshape society towards atheism. Following their rise to power, the Bolsheviks launched systematic persecution against the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious denominations, viewing religion as an obstacle to the construction of the communist state. Through restrictive decrees, propaganda, repression, and orchestrated schisms, the regime sought to eliminate religion from public life. The anti-religious campaign reached its peak during ‘Stalin’s Great Terror,’ with thousands of clergy members arrested and executed, and most places of worship destroyed. Although atheistic ideology became deeply embedded in the Soviet system, religious faith was never fully eradicated and re-emerged forcefully after the Stalinist era.


Słowa kluczowe:

Soviet atheism, religious persecution, Russian Orthodox Church, Anti-religious propaganda, Cultural totalitarianism

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Opublikowane
2025-12-21

Cited By / Share

Del Mastro, D. (2025). Bolshevik Atheism Against the Soul of Russia: The Destruction of Orthodoxy and Its Cultural Heritage. Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne, 38(2), 180–205. https://doi.org/10.30439/WST.2025.2.9

Autorzy

Diana Del Mastro 
diana.delmastro@usz.edu.pl
Università di Stettino Polska
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-3973

Dr Diana Del Mastro - ricercatrice presso la Facoltà di Teologia dell’Università di Stettino (Polonia). La sua attività accademica si concentra sulla Filosofia, sull’Estetica e sulle dimensioni simboliche della Percezione. È autrice di numerose pubblicazioni, tra cui 35 articoli scientifici, 7 volumi curati e 3 monografie, con particolare attenzione al pensiero di Pavel A. Florenskij e al suo contributo alla teoria filosofica ed estetica. Tra le sue monografie più recenti si annoverano: Pavel A. Florenskij e l’arte della vertigine (Loffredo editore, Napoli 2023) e Passages. Épistémologie, esthétique, langage dans l’itinéraire scientifique et spirituel de Pavel A. Florenskij (L’Harmattan, Parigi 2021) ; e-mail: diana.delmastro@usz.edu.pl.



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