The existing stereotypes regarding communists sometimes prevent the restoration of truth and justice on many issues. For example, it is generally accepted that Soviet power and religion are two mutually exclusive phenomena. However, there is evidence to prove the opposite.

The first years after the revolution

Since 1917, a course was taken to deprive the Russian Orthodox Church of its leading role. In particular, all churches were deprived of their lands according to the Decree on Land. However, this did not end there... In 1918, a new Decree came into force, designed to separate the church from the state and school. It would seem that this is undoubtedly a step forward towards building a secular state, however...

At the same time, religious organizations were deprived of the status of legal entities, as well as all buildings and structures that belonged to them. It is clear that there could no longer be any talk of any freedom in the legal and economic aspects. Further, mass arrests of clergy and persecution of believers begin, despite the fact that Lenin himself wrote that one should not offend the feelings of believers in the fight against religious prejudices.

I wonder how he imagined it?... It’s difficult to figure it out, but already in 1919, under the leadership of the same Lenin, they began to open the holy relics. Each autopsy was carried out in the presence of priests, representatives of the People's Commissariat of Justice and local authorities, and medical experts. There was even photo and video filming, but there were cases of abuse.

For example, a member of the commission spat on the skull of Savva Zvenigorodsky several times. And already in 1921-22. open robbery of churches began, which was explained by urgent social need. There was famine throughout the country, so all church utensils were confiscated in order to feed the starving people through their sale.

Church in the USSR after 1929

With the beginning of collectivization and industrialization, the issue of eradicating religion became especially acute. At this point, churches were still operating in some rural areas. However, collectivization in the countryside was to deal another devastating blow to the activities of the remaining churches and priests.

During this period, the number of arrested clergy increased threefold when compared with the years of the establishment of Soviet power. Some of them were shot, others were forever “closed” in camps. The new communist village (collective farm) was supposed to be without priests and churches.

Great Terror of 1937

As you know, in the 30s, terror affected everyone, but one cannot fail to note the particular bitterness towards the church. There are suggestions that it was caused by the fact that the 1937 census showed that more than half of the citizens in the USSR believed in God (the item on religion was deliberately included in the questionnaires). The result was new arrests - this time 31,359 “church members and sectarians” were deprived of their freedom, of which 166 bishops!

By 1939, only 4 bishops survived out of the two hundred who occupied the see in the 1920s. If previously lands and temples were taken away from religious organizations, this time the latter were simply destroyed physically. So, on the eve of 1940, there was only one church in Belarus, which was located in a remote village.

In total, there were several hundred churches in the USSR. However, this immediately begs the question: if absolute power was concentrated in the hands of the Soviet government, why did it not destroy religion completely? After all, it was quite possible to destroy all the churches and the entire episcopate. The answer is obvious: the Soviet government needed religion.

Did the war save Christianity in the USSR?

It is difficult to give a definite answer. Since the enemy invasion, certain shifts have been observed in the “power-religion” relationship, even moreover, a dialogue is being established between Stalin and the surviving bishops, but it is impossible to call it “equal”. Most likely, Stahl temporarily loosened his grip and even began to “flirt” with the clergy, since he needed to raise the authority of his own power against the backdrop of defeats, as well as achieve maximum unity of the Soviet nation.

“Dear brothers and sisters!”

This can be seen in the change in Stalin's behavior. He begins his radio address on July 3, 1941: “Dear brothers and sisters!” But this is exactly how believers in the Orthodox community, in particular priests, address parishioners. And this is very jarring against the backdrop of the usual: “Comrades!” The Patriarchate and religious organizations, at the behest of “above,” must evacuate from Moscow. Why such “concern”?

Stalin needed the church for his own selfish purposes. The Nazis skillfully used the anti-religious practices of the USSR. They almost imagined their invasion as a Crusade that promised to free Rus' from the atheists. An incredible spiritual upsurge was observed in the occupied territories - old churches were restored and new ones were opened. Against this background, continued repression within the country could lead to disastrous consequences.

In addition, potential allies in the West were not impressed by the oppression of religion in the USSR. And Stalin wanted to enlist their support, so the game he started with the clergy is quite understandable. Religious figures of various faiths sent telegrams to Stalin about donations aimed at strengthening defense capabilities, which were subsequently widely circulated in newspapers. In 1942, “The Truth about Religion in Russia” was published in a circulation of 50 thousand copies.

At the same time, believers are allowed to publicly celebrate Easter and conduct services on the day of the Resurrection of the Lord. And in 1943, something completely out of the ordinary happens. Stalin invites the surviving bishops, some of whom he releases the day before from the camps, in order to choose a new Patriarch, who became Metropolitan Sergius (a “loyal” citizen who in 1927 issued an odious Declaration in which he actually agreed to “serve” the church to the Soviet regime) .

At the same meeting, he donates from the “lord’s shoulder” permission to open religious educational institutions, the creation of a Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, and transfers the former building of the residence of German ambassadors to the newly elected Patriarch. The Secretary General also hinted that some representatives of the repressed clergy could be rehabilitated, the number of parishes increased and confiscated utensils returned to churches.

However, things did not go further than hints. Also, some sources say that in the winter of 1941, Stalin gathered the clergy to hold a prayer service for the granting of victory. At the same time, the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was flown around Moscow by plane. Zhukov himself allegedly confirmed in conversations several times that the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was flown over Stalingrad. However, there are no documentary sources indicating this.

Some documentary filmmakers claim that prayer services were also held in besieged Leningrad, which can be completely assumed, given that there was nowhere else to wait for help. Thus, we can say with confidence that the Soviet government did not set itself the goal of completely destroying religion. She tried to make her a puppet in her hands, which could sometimes be used for gain.

BONUS

Either remove the cross or take away your party card; either a Saint or a Leader.

Of great interest not only among believers, but also among atheists are the ideas in which people strive to understand the essence of being.

In the history of the Universal Church there have never been such large-scale and all-encompassing, long and continuous persecutions as in Russia in the 20th century. In the first three centuries of the existence of Christianity, persecution was local in nature and lasted no more than a few years. Even the most terrible persecution of Diocletian and his successors, which began in 303, lasted only 8 years.

Persecution in Russia spread throughout the vast country, which occupied 1/6 of the planet; covered all organizations: educational, economic, administrative, scientific; all layers of society and all ages: from children subjected to a godless upbringing and persecution for their faith in kindergartens and schools to the very old, let us remember the execution in 1918 of children - royal martyrs and the execution in 1937 of the 81st year old martyr. Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), who could no longer walk due to illness. More than one hundred million Orthodox believers in Russia have been subjected, without exception, to various persecutions, oppression, and discrimination - from bullying and dismissal from work to execution. And this lasted for more than 70 years from 1917 until the “perestroika” of the late 1980s.

From the first days of its existence, the Soviet government set the task of the complete, with the most merciless cruelty, destruction of the Orthodox Church. This attitude of the Bolshevik leaders is clearly expressed in Lenin’s famous letter (“To Members of the Politburo. Strictly Secret”) dated March 19, 1922: “...the confiscation of valuables, especially the richest laurels, monasteries and churches, must be carried out with merciless determination, certainly stopping at nothing and in the shortest possible time. The more representatives of the reactionary bourgeoisie and the reactionary clergy we manage to shoot on this occasion, the better.”.

After two decades of activity under this plan, the destruction of the visible structure of the Church was close to completion. By 1939, about 100 churches out of 60,000 operating in 1917 remained open throughout the country. Only 4 ruling bishops were free, and the NKVD fabricated “testimonies” against them for arrest, which could have happened at any time.

The change in state church policy and the restoration of church life began only during the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. and was an obvious consequence of a nationwide tragedy. However, this refusal to eradicate religion as soon as possible did not mean an end to the persecution of the Church. Although on a smaller scale than before, arrests of bishops, priests and active laity continued in the post-war period. The mass release of repressed clergy and laity from camps and exile occurred only in 1955-1957.

A in 1959, a new terrible Khrushchev persecution began, during which more than half of the ten thousand churches operating in 1953 were closed.

Computer Database of Persecution

The systematic collection of materials and the development of a database about the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church began in 1990 in the information section of the Brotherhood in the Name of the All-Merciful Savior, which was subsequently transformed into the department of computer science at the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute.

Information about persecution is constantly collected, processed, systematized and entered into a database, where by January 2004 more than 22,000 biographical information and about 3,600 photographs had been accumulated.

Work on the database raised the question of selecting individuals who can be considered victims for the faith and the Church. The database included information about representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church convicted in so-called church cases (cases related to the opening of relics, the seizure of church valuables, cases about all kinds of mythical “counter-revolutionary organizations of churchmen”). Information about Orthodox clergy who were convicted in criminal cases was also taken into account, the fabrication of which was one of the ways to compromise people devoted to the Church. A significant number of people were executed without any trial or investigation at all (especially during the civil war). Their only “guilt” was their faith in God. Information was also included about persons who voluntarily went into exile following their spiritual fathers, relatives and friends. These are often the wives of priests or the spiritual children of arrested and exiled confessors.

Estimation of the total number of new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century

It is difficult to estimate the total number of victims for Christ during the years of Soviet power. In pre-revolutionary Russia there were about 100,000 monastics and more than 110,000 white clergy. Taking into account their families, 630,000 people belonged to the clergy class at the turn of the century. The overwhelming majority of priests and monks were persecuted, both those who served in churches and monasteries in Russia on the eve of the revolution, and those ordained later, right up to the 1940-50s.

In 1937, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.M. Malenkov wrote to Stalin about the existing religious associations as “a widely branched legal organization of 600,000 people hostile to the Soviet government of 600,000 people throughout the USSR.” And this is after 20 years of bloody terror against the Church! And although here Malenkov is talking about “church members and sectarians,” it is obvious that in the formerly predominantly Orthodox country, most of these 600,000 planned for the speedy destruction of people are not sectarians, but Orthodox Christians, mainly the surviving clergy and clergymen and members of the G20.

Thus it is clear that The number of victims numbered hundreds of thousands: according to various estimates, there were from 500,000 to 1 million Orthodox people who suffered for Christ. We have information that more than 400 bishops were subjected to repression. Of these, over 300 archpastors were executed or died in custody. But even these huge figures of losses among the Orthodox episcopate are far from exhaustive, and one can expect a noticeable increase in this list. It will be incomparably more difficult to obtain a relatively complete picture of persecution among priests, deacons and monks. And collecting information about the majority of the laity who suffered for the Church appears to be an almost impossible task.

There are currently about 22,000 names in the database. Thus, we can say that information has been collected about approximately 1/22 of the victims.

Construction of a graph of repressions (statistics of persecution)

On the repression graph (see Fig. 1), the years from 1917 to 1951 are plotted along one axis, and the number of repressions by year, fixed in the database, on the other, multiplied by a coefficient equal to the ratio of the total number of repressions to the number of repressions entered into the database . We get a graph assessing the total number of repressions by year. (The graph represents the number of repressions: arrests and executions, and not the number of those repressed. So, for example, in the camps in 1939 there were hundreds of thousands of people convicted for their faith, in particular, all those arrested and not executed in 1937 and 38. As a rule, everyone who The 20s and 30s were arrested on church matters and remained deprived of their rights until the 80s).

Periods of persecution and related state and church events

After the October Revolution of 1917 and the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks did not abandon the Church with their cruel attention for a single year. Below are the periods of persecution and the main state and church events occurring at this time.

1. The first wave of persecution (1917-1920). Seizure of power, mass robberies of churches, executions of clergy.

07.11.17 - October Revolution, seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.
01/20/18 - Decree of the Soviet government on the separation of the Church from the state - all capital, land, buildings (including churches) were confiscated.
08/15/17 - 09/20/18 - Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church.
05.11.17 - election of St. Metropolitan Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.
02/01/18 - Message from St. Patriarch Tikhon, anathematizing all who shed innocent blood.
02/07/18 - execution of the holy martyr Vladimir, Metropolitan. Kievsky.
07/16/18 - execution of Emperor Nicholas II and the royal family.
02/14/19 - Resolution of the People's Commissariat of Justice on the opening of the relics, which caused mass satanic mockery of the holy remains in 1919 and subsequent years.

The first wave of persecution claimed more than 15,000 lives in executions in 1918-1919 alone. (bottom line see Fig.). The total number of repressions is about 20,000 (top line). Almost all clashes, all arrests ended in executions.

2. The second wave of persecution (1921-1923). Confiscation of church valuables under the pretext of helping the starving people of the Volga region.

08/21/21 - education of St. Patriarch Tikhon of the All-Russian Committee for Famine Relief, which was closed by order of the authorities a week later (08/27/21).
02.23.22 - decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the confiscation of C. valuables, 03.19.22 - secret letter from Lenin (“the more clergy we shoot, the better,” and instructions to Trotsky (Bronstein) to secretly lead the persecution).
05/09/22 - arrest of St. Patriarch Tikhon
June 1922 - “Trial” of Holy Martyr Veniamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and his execution on 08/13/22.

2nd wave of persecution - about 20,000 repressions, about 1,000 people were shot. The Bolsheviks portray justice, in contrast to the lynchings of 1918, and organize show trials.

3. Persecution of 1923-28. Planting, with the support of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU, a renovationist schism to destroy the Church from within.

April 1923 - preparations for the trial and execution of St. Patriarch Tikhon (see the correspondence of the Politburo with the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin “about the non-execution of the patriarch” and the Note to the Politburo of Dzerzhinsky dated 04/21/23 (... “it is necessary to postpone the Tikhon trial due to the height of agitation abroad (Butkevich case)”, Kremlin Archives (p.269-273)).

04/29/23-05/09/23 - 1st “cathedral” of renovationists.
06/16/23 - statement by St. Patriarch Tikhon ( “...from now on I am not an enemy of Soviet power”).
06.25.23 - liberation of St. Patriarch Tikhon.
04/07/25 - death of St. Patriarch Tikhon.
01.10.25 - 2nd “cathedral” of renovationists.
04/12/25 - svschmch. Peter, Metropolitan of Krutitsky began to fulfill the duties of Patriarchal Locum Tenens
12/10/25 - arrest of the svshchmch. Petra
07/29/27 - Message (Declaration) of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius - an attempt to find a compromise with the godless authorities ( “We want... to recognize the Soviet Union as our civil homeland, whose joys and successes are our joys and successes.”).

In 1923-1928, the number of repressions was equal to approximately a third of the repressions of 1922. The Bolsheviks do not dare to carry out the trial and execution of St. scheduled for April 11, 2023. Patriarch Tikhon. Many bishops are arrested and exiled, and there is a fight for every church. Renovationists are introducing a married episcopate. By 1925, with the support of the OGPU, there were almost as many Renovationist dioceses and churches as there were Orthodox churches, but all their churches were empty - people did not go to the churches where Renovationists served. The pressure of the OGPU on the successors of St. Patriarch Tikhon and all the clergy of the “Tikhonites”. In 1928, despite the Declaration, persecution intensified.

4. The third wave of persecution (1929-1931). "Dekulakization" and collectivization.

Beginning of 1929 - letter from Kaganovich: “The church is the only legal counter-revolutionary force.”
03/08/29 - Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on religious associations.
02.02.30 - Interview with Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius: “...there is no persecution of the Church.”
12/05/31 - The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow is blown up.

The 3rd wave of persecutions was 3 times stronger than 1922 (about 60,000 arrests and 5,000 executions) in 1930 and 1931.

5. Persecution of 1932-36. The “Godless Five-Year Plan,” so called because of its stated goal: the destruction of all churches and believers.

12/05/36 - adoption of the Stalinist Constitution
12.22.36 - Act on the transfer of the rights and duties of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne to the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius, since the Soviet authorities announced the death in prison of the patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Peter, although he was alive.

Despite persecution comparable in strength to 1922, the failure of the “Godless Five-Year Plan” - in the 1937 population census, 1/3 of the urban population and 2/3 of the rural population identified themselves as Orthodox believers, that is, more than half of the population of the USSR.

6. The fourth wave - 1937-38. Terrible years of terror. The desire to destroy all believers (including renovationists).

03/05/37 - completion of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which authorized mass terror.
10.10.37 - execution after an eight-year stay in solitary confinement of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Holy Martyr. Petra.
In 1937, the chairman of the Union of Militant Atheists, Em. Yaroslavsky (Gubelman), stated that “the country is finished with monasteries” (Alekseev V.A. Illusions and Dogmas. M., 1991, p. 299).

The 4th wave of persecution is approximately 10 times higher in arrests than the persecution of 1922 (and 80 times in terms of executions). Every second person was shot (about 200,000 repressions and 100,000 executions in 1937-38).

7. Persecution of 1939 - 1952. World War II. Persecution of clergy in the annexed Baltic states and western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as in liberated regions.

1939-1940 - Annexation of the Baltic states, western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia to the USSR.
30.11.39 - Beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War.
06/22/41 - German attack on the USSR.
09/04/43 - Stalin’s meeting with the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius and Metropolitans Alexy and Nikolai.
09/08/43 - Council of Bishops and election of Patriarch Sergius. 05.15.43 - death of Patriarch Sergius.
01.31.45-02.02.45 - Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Election of Patriarch Alexy I.
By 1939, all (there were more than 1000 of them in 1917) monasteries and more than 60,000 churches were closed - services were performed in only about 100 churches. But the victory of the atheists did not last long; in 1939, with the annexation of the Baltic states and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, there were again many Orthodox monasteries and churches in the USSR.
1939-1940 - persecutions are close to 1922 (1100 executions per year).
1941-1942 - in terms of executions, comparable to 1922 (2800 executions).
1943-1946 - the number of repressions is sharply reduced.
1947, 1949-1950 - again bursts of repression (according to Abakumov’s report “from 01/01/47 to 06/1/48 679 Orthodox priests were arrested for active subversive activities”, cm. ).

The graph ends in 1952 because in 1953 - 1989, repressions were of a different nature, there were few executions, hundreds of arrests a year. During this period, mass closures of churches were carried out, clergy were deprived of state registration and thus their means of livelihood, believers were fired from work, etc. These persecutions require special research methods.

Conclusion

Anyone (believer or non-believer) who becomes acquainted with the history of the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century cannot remain indifferent.

What a great opposition the Russian Orthodox Church put up against the totalitarian satanic regime when all the forces of hell fell upon it!

Thousands of simple rural priests, whom everyone made fun of in Russia, turned out to be great heroes. What amazingly beautiful and humble faces! With what faith and fidelity, with what self-sacrifice they walked their life’s path.

The Russian Orthodox Church revered 2,500 saints at the beginning of the 20th century, of which 450 were Russian saints. The information collected at the Institute is in many ways not yet complete materials for canonization. It is possible that in some cases its very possibility will turn out to be doubtful. However, what is certain is that quantity really The number of holy martyrs and confessors given by the Russian Church in the twentieth century is in the tens of thousands. By January 2004, 1,420 new martyrs were glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as holy martyrs and confessors. Their number grows with each meeting of the Holy Synod.

Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church became basically the Church of the New Martyrs of Russia.

At the end of the 2nd century, the Christian apologist Tertullian said words that became popular: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity." The 20th century abundantly sowed the Russian land with this seed, our task is to bring it to human hearts, and it will bear its blessed fruit a hundredfold!

From the report of N.E. Emelyanov

NOT. Emelyanov

Assessment of statistics of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church
(1917–1952)

1. Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century.

In the history of the Universal Church there have never been such large-scale and all-encompassing, long and continuous persecutions as in Russia in the twentieth century. In the first three centuries of the existence of Christianity, persecution was local in nature and lasted no more than a few years. Even the most terrible persecution of Diocletian and his successors, which began in 303, lasted only 8 years.

Persecution in Russia spread throughout the vast country, which occupied 1/6 of the planet; covered all organizations: educational, economic, administrative, scientific; all layers of society and all ages: from children subjected to godless upbringing and persecution for their faith in kindergartens and schools to very old people, let us remember the execution in 1918 of children - royal martyrs and the execution in 1937 of the 81st year old holy martyr. Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), who could no longer walk due to illness. More than one hundred million Orthodox believers in Russia have been subjected, without exception, to various persecutions, oppressions, and discrimination - from bullying and dismissal from work to execution. And this lasted for more than 70 years from 1917 until the “perestroika” of the late 1980s.

From the first days of its existence, the Soviet government set the task of complete, with the most merciless cruelty, destruction of the Orthodox Church. This attitude of the Bolshevik leaders is clearly expressed in Lenin’s famous letter (“To Members of the Politburo. Strictly Secret”) dated March 19, 1922: “... the confiscation of valuables, especially the richest laurels, monasteries and churches, must be carried out with merciless determination, certainly stopping at nothing and in the shortest possible time. The more representatives of the reactionary bourgeoisie and the reactionary clergy we manage to shoot on this occasion, the better" (Kremlin Archives. In 2 books / Book 1. Politburo and Church. 1922-1925 - M. - Novosibirsk, " Siberian Chronograph", 1997, p. 143).

After two decades of activity under this plan, the destruction of the visible structure of the Church was close to completion. By 1939, about 100 churches remained open throughout the country out of 60,000 operating in 1917. Only 4 ruling bishops were at large, and the NKVD also fabricated “testimonies” against them for arrest, which could happen at any time. The change in state church policy and the restoration of church life began only during the Patriotic War

1941–1945 and was an obvious consequence of a nationwide tragedy. However, this refusal to eradicate religion as soon as possible did not mean an end to the persecution of the Church. Although on a smaller scale than before, arrests of bishops, priests and active laity continued in the post-war period. (see Acts, Those who suffered for Christ). Mass liberation of repressed clergy and laity from camps and exile occurred only in 1955–1957. And in 1959, a new terrible Khrushchev persecution began, during which more than half of the ten thousand churches operating in 1953 were closed.

The article attempts to estimate year by year the number of hierarchs, clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church who suffered for their faith - victims of the Bolshevik regime from 1917 to 1952. On the one hand, this is only an estimate of the number of victims, on the other hand, the materials presented in the article were reviewed by the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression and approved by it on December 20, 1995 (see). This commission included the Chief Prosecutor of Russia, heads of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, etc. Consequently, the statistical data presented in the article received official confirmation at the highest state level.

2. Periods of persecution and related state and church events

After the October Revolution of 1917 and the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks did not abandon the Church with their cruel attention for a single year. Below are the periods of persecution and the main state and church events occurring at this time.

The first wave of persecution (1917–1920). Seizure of power, mass robberies of churches, executions of clergy.

01/20/18 - Decree of the Soviet government on the separation of the Church from the state - all capital, land, buildings (including churches) were confiscated.

08/15/17 – 09/20/18 – Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church.

05.11.17 – election of St. Metropolitan Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

02/01/18 – Message from St. Patriarch Tikhon, anathematizing all who shed innocent blood.

02/07/18 – execution of the Holy Martyr Vladimir, Metropolitan. Kievsky.

07/16/18 – execution of Emperor Nicholas II and the royal family.

02/14/19 – Resolution of the People's Commissariat of Justice on the opening of the relics, which caused mass satanic mockery of the holy remains in 1919 and subsequent years. The first wave of persecution claimed more than 15,000 lives in executions in 1918–19 alone. (bottom line, see figure). The total number of repressions is about 20,000 (top line). Almost all clashes, all arrests ended in executions.

Second wave of persecution (1921–1923). Confiscation of church valuables under the pretext of helping the starving people of the Volga region.

08/21/21 – education of St. Patriarch Tikhon of the All-Russian Committee for Famine Relief, which was closed by order of the authorities a week later (08/27/21).

02.23.22 - decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the confiscation of C. valuables, 03.19.22 - secret letter from Lenin (“the more clergy we shoot, the better,” and instructions to Trotsky (Bronstein) to secretly lead the persecution).

05/09/22 – arrest of St. Patriarch Tikhon

June 1922 - “Trial” of the Holy Martyr. Veniamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and his execution on 08/13/22. 2nd wave of persecution - about 20,000 repressions, about 1,000 people were shot. The Bolsheviks portray justice, in contrast to the lynchings of 1918, and organize show trials.

Persecution of 1923–28. Planting, with the support of the Cheka–GPU–OGPU, a renovationist schism to destroy the Church from within.

April 1923 - preparations for the trial and execution of St. Patriarch Tikhon (see the correspondence of the Politburo with the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin “about the non-execution of the patriarch” and the Note to the Politburo Dzerzhinsky dated 04/21/23 (“... it is necessary to postpone the Tikhon trial due to the height of agitation abroad (Butkevich case) ", Kremlin Archives (p. 269–273)).

04/29/23–05/09/23 – 1st “cathedral” of renovationists.

06/16/23 – statement of St. Patriarch Tikhon (“...from now on I am not an enemy of Soviet power”).

06.25.23 – liberation of St. Patriarch Tikhon.

04/07/25 – death of St. Patriarch Tikhon.

01.10.25 – 2nd “cathedral” of renovationists.

12.04.25 – svschmch. Peter, Metropolitan of Krutitsky began to fulfill the duties of Patriarchal Locum Tenens

12/10/25 – arrest of the svshchmch. Petra

07/29/27 - Message (Declaration) of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius - an attempt to find a compromise with the godless authorities (“We want... to recognize the Soviet Union as our civil homeland, whose joys and successes are our joys and successes”).

In 1923–1928, the number of repressions was equal to approximately a third of the repressions of 1922. The Bolsheviks do not dare to carry out the trial and execution of St. scheduled for April 11, 2023. Patriarch Tikhon. Many bishops are arrested and exiled, and there is a fight for every church. Renovationists are introducing a married episcopate. By 1925, with the support of the OGPU, there were almost as many Renovationist dioceses and churches as there were Orthodox churches, but all their churches were empty - people did not go to the churches where Renovationists served. The pressure of the OGPU on the successors of St. Patriarch Tikhon and all the clergy of the “Tikhonites”. In 1928, despite the Declaration, persecution intensified.

The third wave of persecution (1929–1931)."Dekulakization" and collectivization.

Beginning of 1929 – letter from Kaganovich: “the church is the only legal counter-revolutionary force.”

03/08/29 – Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on religious associations.

02.02.30 – Interview with Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius: “...there is no persecution of the Church.”

12/05/31 – The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow is blown up. The 3rd wave of persecution was 3 times stronger than 1922 (about 60,000 arrests and 5,000 executions) in 1930 and 1931.

Persecution of 1932–36. The “Godless Five-Year Plan,” so named because of its stated goal: the destruction of all churches and believers.

12/05/36 – adoption of the Stalinist Constitution

12.22.36 – Act on the transfer of the rights and duties of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne to the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan. Sergius, since the Soviet authorities announced the death in prison of the patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Peter, although he was alive.

Despite persecution comparable in strength to 1922, the failure of the “Godless Five-Year Plan” - in the 1937 population census, 1/3 of the urban population and 2/3 of the rural population identified themselves as Orthodox believers, that is, more than half of the population of the USSR.

Fourth wave - 1937–38. Terrible years of terror. The desire to destroy all believers (including renovationists).

03/05/37 - completion of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which authorized mass terror.

10.10.37 - execution after an eight-year stay in solitary confinement of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Holy Martyr. Petra.

In 1937, the chairman of the Union of Militant Atheists, Em. Yaroslavsky (Gubelman) stated that “the country is finished with monasteries” (Alekseev V.A. Illusions and Dogmas. M., 1991, p. 299).

The 4th wave of persecution is approximately 10 times higher in arrests than the persecution of 1922 (and 80 times in terms of executions). Every second person was shot (about 200,000 repressions and 100,000 executions in 1937–38).

Persecution 1939–1952. World War II. Persecution of clergy in the annexed Baltic states and western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as in liberated regions.

1939–1940 – Annexation of the Baltic states, western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia to the USSR.

30.11.39 – Beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War.

06.22.41 – German attack on the USSR.

09/04/43 - Stalin’s meeting with the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius and Metropolitans Alexy and Nikolai.

09/08/43 – Council of Bishops and election of Patriarch Sergius.

05.15.43 – death of Patriarch Sergius.

01/31/45–02/02/45 – Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Election of Patriarch Alexy I.

By 1939, all (there were more than 1000 of them in 1917) monasteries and more than 60,000 churches were closed - services were performed in only about 100 churches. But the victory of the atheists did not last long; in 1939, with the annexation of the Baltic states and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, there were again many Orthodox monasteries and churches in the USSR.

1939–1940 – persecutions are close to 1922 (1100 executions per year).

1941–1942 – in terms of executions, comparable to 1922 (2800 executions).

1943–1946 – the number of repressions is sharply reduced.

1947, 1949–1950 - again bursts of repression (according to Abakumov’s report, “from January 1, 1947 to June 1, 1948, 679 Orthodox priests were arrested for active subversive activities,” see).

The schedule ends in 1952 because in 1953–1989 the repressions were of a different nature, there were few executions, and hundreds of arrests a year. During this period, mass closures of churches were carried out, clergy were deprived of state registration and thus their means of livelihood, believers were fired from work, etc. These persecutions require special research methods.

3. Some patterns

A). In 1927 and 1930, the deputy patriarchal locum tenens, Metropolitan Sergius of Stragorodsky, tried to compromise with the Bolshevik authorities, but these steps did not bring positive results: the persecution did not weaken, but intensified.

B). How can we explain, from the point of view of the authorities, the failures in the persecutions of 1934, 1936, late 1938 and early 1939? During these years, the OGPU-NKVD chiefs were replaced! Persecution clearly weakens during the change of power. Apparently, the new rulers are destroying the apparatus of the previous ones. And only this weakens the persecution. As soon as the new ruler gains strength, the persecution becomes even more widespread.

IN). Each “peak of persecution” corresponds to a specific commissioner of internal affairs.

1) Dzerzhinsky (commissar in 1917–26) - peak 1918 and peak 1922 (seizure of valuables), whose secret leader was Trotsky (Bronstein).

2) Menzhinsky (1926–34) – peak 1930.

3) Yagoda (Yehuda) (1934–36) – peak 1935.

4) Yezhov (1936–38) – peak 1937.

5) Beria (1938–53) – peak 1941.

Of course, the Internal Affairs Commissioners themselves are pawns in the struggle for power. For example, the peak of 1935 is associated with the murder of 12/1/34 Kirov.

G). To any person with a technical education, the graph (Fig. 1) with increasing amplitudes of repression resembles the behavior of self-exciting systems, which, as a rule, end their existence in self-destruction. The war in 1941 stopped this destructive process.

D). All the suffering that the Russian people experience is shared by the Church:

– destruction of the nobility and officers 1917–19;

– destruction of the peasantry (dekulakization) 1929–32;

– extermination of the intelligentsia 1937–38.

The genocide of the Russian people is, first of all, the genocide of Orthodoxy.

4. Conclusion

Everyone (believer or non-believer) who gets acquainted with the database about the new martyrs cannot remain indifferent. What a great opposition the Russian Orthodox Church put up against the totalitarian satanic regime when all the forces of hell fell upon it! Thousands of simple rural priests, whom everyone made fun of in Russia, turned out to be great heroes. What amazingly beautiful and humble faces! With what faith and fidelity, with what self-sacrifice they walked their life’s path.

The Russian Orthodox Church revered 2,500 saints at the beginning of the 20th century, of which 450 were Russian saints. The information collected at the Institute is in many ways not yet complete materials for canonization. It is possible that in some cases its very possibility will turn out to be doubtful. However, there is no doubt that the number of truly holy martyrs and confessors that the Russian Church gave in the twentieth century amounts to tens of thousands of people. By January 2004, 1,420 new martyrs were glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as holy martyrs and confessors. Their number grows with each meeting of the Holy Synod.

Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church became basically the Church of the New Martyrs of Russia.

At the end of the 2nd century, the Christian apologist Tertullian said the words that became popular: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity.” The 20th century abundantly sowed the Russian land with this seed, our task is to bring it to human hearts, and it will bear its blessed fruit a hundredfold!

Literature

1. Those who suffered for Christ. Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, 1917–1956: Biographical reference book. Book 1. A–K // M., Publishing House of the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s Theological Institute. 1997. 704 pp.

2. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, later documents and correspondence on the canonical succession of the highest church authority, 1917–1943 / Comp. M.E. Gubonin// M., Publishing House of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute. 1994. 1064 pp.

It began to spread, and then it had enemies in the form of Jews who did not believe in Jesus Christ. The first Christians were Jews who followed Jesus Christ. The Jewish leaders were hostile to the Lord. At the very beginning, the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Then, when the preaching of the apostles began to spread, persecution of the apostles and other Christians began.

The Jews could not come to terms with the power of the Romans and therefore did not like the Romans. The Roman procurators treated the Jews very cruelly, oppressed them with taxes and insulted their religious feelings.

In 67, the Jewish uprising against the Romans began. They were able to liberate Jerusalem from the Romans, but only temporarily. Most of the Christians took advantage of the freedom to leave and went to the city of Pella. In 70, the Romans brought new troops, which very brutally suppressed the rebels.

After 65 years, the Jews rebelled against the Romans again. This time Jerusalem was completely destroyed and it was ordered to walk through the streets with a plow as a sign that this was no longer a city, but a field. The Jews who survived fled to other countries. Later, on the ruins of Jerusalem, the small city of Elia Capitolina grew up.

The fall of the Jews and Jerusalem means that the great persecution of Christians by the Jews ceased.

Second Persecution by the pagans of the Roman Empire

St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch

Saint Ignatius was a disciple of Saint John the Theologian. He was called a God-bearer because Jesus Christ Himself held him in His hands when He said the famous words: “If you do not turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (). In addition, Saint Ignatius was like a vessel who always bore the name of God within himself. Around the year 70, he was ordained bishop of the Antiochian Church, which he ruled for more than 30 years.

In the year 107, Christians and their bishop refused to take part in the revelry and drunkenness that was organized on the occasion of the arrival of Emperor Trajan. For this, the emperor sent the bishop to Rome for execution with the words “Ignatius should be chained to the soldiers and sent to Rome to be devoured by wild beasts for the amusement of the people.” Saint Ignatius was sent to Rome. Antiochian Christians accompanied their bishop to the place of torment. Along the way, many churches sent their representatives to greet and encourage him and show him their attention and respect in every possible way. Along the way, Saint Ignatius wrote seven epistles to local churches. In these messages, the bishop urged to preserve the right faith and obey the divinely established hierarchy.

Saint Ignatius joyfully went to the amphitheater, repeating the name of Christ all the time. With a prayer to the Lord, he entered the arena. Then they released wild animals and they furiously tore the saint to pieces, leaving only a few bones of him. The Antiochian Christians, who accompanied their bishop to the place of torment, collected these bones with reverence, wrapped them as precious treasure and took them to their city.

The memory of the holy martyr is celebrated on the day of his repose, December 20/January 2.

St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, together with Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, was a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian. The Apostle ordained him Bishop of Smyrna. He held this position for more than forty years and experienced many persecutions. He wrote many epistles to Christians of neighboring Churches to strengthen them in the pure and right faith.

The holy martyr Polycarp lived to old age and was martyred during the persecution of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (second period of persecution, 161-187). He was burned at the stake on February 23, 167.

The memory of the holy martyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna is celebrated on the day of his presentation, February 23/March 8.

Saint Justin, a Greek by origin, became interested in philosophy in his youth, listened to all the then known philosophical schools and did not find satisfaction in any of them. Having become acquainted with Christian teaching, he became convinced of its divine origin.

Having become a Christian, he defended Christians from the accusations and attacks of pagans. There are two well-known apologies written in defense of Christians, and several works that prove the superiority of Christianity over Judaism and paganism.

One of his opponents, who could not overcome him in disputes, denounced him to the Roman government, and he fearlessly and joyfully met his martyrdom on June 1, 166.

The memory of the holy martyr Justin, the Philosopher is celebrated on the day of his presentation, June 1/14.

Holy martyrs

Along with the martyrs in the Church of Christ there are many women, holy martyrs who suffered for the faith of Christ. Of the large number of Christian martyrs in the ancient church, the most remarkable are: Saints Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia, Great Martyr Catherine, Queen Augusta and Great Martyr Barbara.

St. Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia

The holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia lived in Rome in the 2nd century. Sophia was a Christian widow and raised her children in the spirit of the holy faith. Her three daughters were named after the three cardinal Christian virtues (1 Corinthians 13:13). The oldest was only 12 years old.

They were reported to Emperor Hadrian, who continued the persecution of Christians. They were called and beheaded in front of their mother. This was around 137. The mother was not executed and she was even able to bury her children. After three days, due to the shock she experienced, Saint Sophia died.

The memory of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia is celebrated on September 17/30.

Great Martyr Catherine and Queen Augusta

The Holy Great Martyr Catherine was born in Alexandria, came from a noble family and was distinguished by wisdom and beauty.

Saint Catherine wanted to marry only her equal. And then one old man told her about a young man who was better than her in everything. Having learned about Christ and Christian teaching, Saint Catherine accepted baptism.

At that time, Maximin, a representative of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), known for his cruel persecution of Christians, arrived in Alexandria. When Maximin called everyone to a pagan holiday, Saint Catherine fearlessly reproached him for worshiping pagan gods. Maximin imprisoned her for disrespect for the gods. After that, he gathered scientists to dissuade her. The scientists were unable to do this and admitted defeat.

Queen Augusta, Maximin's wife, heard a lot about Catherine's beauty and wisdom, wanted to see her, and after the meeting she herself also converted to Christianity. After this, she began to protect Saint Catherine. For everything, it was King Maximin who killed his wife Augusta.

Saint Catherine was first tortured with a wheel with sharp teeth, and then her head was cut off on November 24, 310.

The memory of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine is celebrated on the day of her repose, November 24/December 7.

St. Great Martyr Barbara

The Holy Great Martyr Barbara was born in Iliopolis, Phoenician. She was distinguished by her extraordinary intelligence and beauty. At her father's request, she lived in a tower specially built for her, away from her family and friends, with one teacher and several slaves.

One day, looking at the beautiful view from the tower and after much thought, she came to the idea of ​​a single Creator of the world. Later, when her father was away, she met Christians and converted to Christianity.

When her father found out about this, he gave her over to cruel torture. The torment had no effect on Varvara and she did not renounce her faith. Then the holy great martyr Barbara was sentenced to death and her head was cut off.

The memory of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara is celebrated on the day of her repose, December 4/December 17.

The persecution continued from 1917 until “perestroika” in the late 1980s. The change in state church policy and the restoration of church life began only during the period. Arrests of priests and active laity continued into the post-war period. And in 1959, a new terrible Khrushchev persecution began, during which more than half of the ten thousand churches operating in 1953 were closed.

Periods. The first wave of persecution (1917-1920). Power grab, massive

robberies of churches, executions of clergy. The second wave of persecution (1921-1923). Confiscation of church valuables, under the pretext of helping the starving people of the Volga region.

Persecution of 1923-28. Councils of renovationists, attempts to find a compromise with the Soviet regime. Patriarch Tikhon was not shot. The third wave of persecution (1929-1931). "Dekulakization", collectivization. Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on religious associations. 31 - The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was blown up. Persecution of 1932-36. The “Godless Five-Year Plan,” so called because of its stated goal: the destruction of all churches and believers. The fourth wave is 1937-38. Terrible years of terror. The desire to destroy all believers (including renovationists).

Persecution of 1939 - 1952. WWII Persecution in the annexed Baltic states and western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, and in the liberated regions. In 1953 - 1989, repressions were of a different nature, there were few executions, hundreds of arrests a year. 54. The activities of Patriarch Tikhon and the beginning of the renovationist schism. In 1917 Patriarchate again, the first - Tikhon. He was an American bishop. Under him in America, Christians of other denominations became acquainted and became closer to Orthodoxy. Before the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Tikhon defended the need to meet non-Orthodox brothers halfway. On June 23, 1917, Archbishop Tikhon was elected to the Moscow see and elevated to the rank of metropolitan. The lot to be a patriarch fell to him. It was difficult for him to negotiate with the USSR. pronounced an anathema to those who committed reprisals. When famine set in in the summer of 1921 after the horrors of the civil war, Patriarch Tikhon organized the Committee to Relief the Famineous; it was closed a week later. He opposed the renovationists. The entire Patriarchate of His Holiness Tikhon was a continuous feat of martyrdom. He was imprisoned for a long time, was not shot, but suffered. Canonized 1917-1931 As part of the USSR policy towards private property, on October 26, 1917, the Decree on Land was issued, according to which the lands belonging to the Church were proclaimed public property. On November 2, 1917, according to the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, any religious privileges and restrictions are abolished. According to the decree “On divorce” (December 16, 1917) and the decree “On civil marriage, on children and on maintaining books of deeds” ( December 18, 1917) marriage was declared a private matter, and the observance or non-observance of religious rites no longer influenced the legal relations between spouses, as well as between parents and children. The Communist Party that ruled the USSR since 1919 openly proclaimed as its task to promote “ withering away of religious prejudices" One of the first decrees of the Bolshevik government was the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic, prepared by the People's Commissar of Justice, Left Socialist-Revolutionary I.Z. Steinberg, and the head of the department of legislative assumptions of the People's Commissariat of Justice, Mikhail Reisner, adopted on January 20 (under the old style) and published on January 23, 1918 , - On the separation of church and state and school from church, by which the church (we were talking mainly about the Orthodox Russian Church, since only it had previously had the status of a state institution in the Russian Empire) was separated from the state and from the public school, deprived of the rights of a legal entity and property, and religion was declared a private matter of citizens. The Decree legitimized the orders and acts adopted since December 1917 that abolished the functions of the Orthodox Church as a state institution enjoying state patronage. Adopted on April 8, 1929, in development of the “Decree,” the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on religious associations until the end of 1990 determined the legal status of the latter in the USSR. To implement the Decree, by decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, an Interdepartmental Commission under the People's Commissariat of Justice was created in April 1918; in May of the same year, after the dissolution of the commission, the VIII (“liquidation”) department of the People’s Commissariat of Justice was formed, headed by P. A. Krasikov, designed to liquidate administrative and managerial church structures (abolished in 1924).

In 1918-1920, the central place in a number of revealing measures was occupied by the unfolding campaign of opening the relics of saints of the Russian Church (decrees of the People's Commissariat of Justice of August 14, 1919 on the organizational opening of relics and of August 25, 1920 on the liquidation of relics on an all-Russian scale): 65 cancers were opened with the relics of Russian saints, including especially revered ones, such as Seraphim of Sarov and Sergius of Radonezh. The campaign was aimed at trying to expose this cult. The autopsies were accompanied by photography and filming, the materials of which were then used for propaganda purposes. According to the decision of the Central Executive Committee of July 20, 1921, Agitprop and its national branches were to begin comprehensive anti-religious propaganda. An Anti-Church Commission arose under the propaganda subsection of the Central Committee's Agitation and Promotional Department to coordinate the anti-religious struggle. The commission included officials from Agitprop, the Moscow Committee of the RCP (b), the VIII Liquidation Department of the People's Commissariat of Justice, the Central Committee of the RKSM Union of Communist Youth, as well as the People's Commissariat of Education and the Main Political Directorate. In the spring of 1922, the Bolsheviks, who had repelled external threats by that time, moved to the stage of active struggle with religious institutions and, above all, with the Orthodox Church, which they considered as the largest center of internal “counter-revolution”. On February 23, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree on the confiscation of church valuables in the use of groups of believers. In a letter to members of the Politburo dated March 19, 1922, V.I. Lenin, referring to the famine that had broken out in a number of regions by that time, wrote: An important tool for the destruction of the Orthodox Church was the artificial instigation of schisms, the largest of which was the “renovationist” one, followed by (since 1927 - see Sergianism) establishing complete control over the structures of the patriarchy by the 6th (anti-religious) secret department of the OGPU, headed by Yevgeny Tuchkov (1892-1957). The anti-religious policy of the first years was not successful: in 1921-1922 a partial religious revival began, especially in the cities. April 27, 1923 year, an instruction was published by the People's Commissariats of Justice and Internal Affairs, dated April 15 of the same year, “On the procedure for registering religious societies and issuing permission to convene their congresses,” which made it possible to establish religious associations in the form of “societies” that had slightly more rights than “twenties” that existed since 1918 - in particular, they could have their own charter. The presence of a charter distinguished the “society” from the “twenty”, which did not have such a charter and was subject to registration with the conclusion of an agreement with the local council. Registration of a religious society required 50. people and it could manage more than one prayer building. On August 16, 1923, based on the decisions of the XII Congress of the RCP (b), the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee I.V. Stalin issued a circular letter to all provincial committees demanding a ban on the closure of churches and arrests of a religious nature. Between 1923 and 1929, politics the state has undergone some softening, especially in relation to Muslim and Jewish organizations (“religious NEP” in the terminology of some researchers, going back to the words of Leon Trotsky). The policy towards Protestant groups (“sectarians”) had previously been relatively benevolent: the affairs of the “sectarians” were in charge of the Organizing Committee at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee under the leadership of P. G. Smidovich; Unlike the Orthodox Church, Protestant organizations were allowed to publish various periodicals, were given the right to have their own educational institutions, organize youth unions, and sectarian peasants from the end of 1919 began to create the first collective farms, which received loans and benefits from the state.

In 1925, on the basis of the Society of Friends of the newspaper “Atheist”, the mass public organization “Union of Militant Atheists” (until June 1929 - “Union of Atheists”) was founded (existed until 1947), headed by Emelyan Yaroslavsky (Gubelman); the publishing house “Bezbozhnik” functioned. In 1928, the Glavnauki decided to consider the main criterion by which a “structure” belonged to the monuments - the moment of its construction. Structures built: before 1613 were declared inviolable; in 1613-1725. - “in case of special need” could be subject to changes; in 1725-1825. - only the facades were preserved; after 1825 - they were not classified as monuments and were not protected by the state. This criterion was adopted by the Main Science and since 1928 it has become a normative act in force on the territory of the RSFSR and the USSR. Guided by this criterion, mass demolition of churches was initiated locally - their total number decreased from 79 thousand in 1917 to 7.5 thousand in 1991. At the beginning of 1929, a top secret circular “On measures to strengthen anti-religious work” was sent out, which the fight against religion was equated with class-political, which opened a new stage of the attack on religion. Adopted on April 8, 1929 on the basis of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of January 20, 1918 “On the separation of church from the state and school from the church” Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On religious associations”, with later amendments from June 23, 1975, until October 25, 1990, when the RSFSR Law “On Freedom of Religion” was put into effect by the Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, it served as a legal document regulating the status of religious societies (associations) in the USSR . The resolution prohibited religious associations from engaging in charity, organizing pilgrimages of believers to holy places, and the like; the activities of clergy were limited to the residence of the members of the society (group) that hired them. Outside the church walls, the activities of the clergy were limited to visiting the sick and dying; everything else required special permission from the local Council. The NKVD instruction of October 1, 1929 “On the rights and responsibilities of religious associations” classified clergy as disenfranchised. In May 1929, at the XIV All-Russian Congress The Soviets adopted a new version of Article 4 of the Constitution of the RSFSR: instead of “freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda”, “freedom of religious confessions and anti-religious propaganda” was recognized, which legally placed believers in an unequal position with other citizens. Adopted on February 15, 1930, the Government Resolution “On the fight against counter-revolutionary elements in the governing bodies of religious associations” ordered local authorities to strengthen control over the leaders of religious communities and exclude from the active force “those hostile to the Soviet system”; The Central Commission on Cults, noting the “consolidation of counter-revolutionary activists within the framework of religious organizations,” recognized that the Resolution of April 8, 1929 “is subject to revision in the direction of simplifying the process of closing prayer buildings. After the appearance of Stalin’s article “Dizziness from success”, a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued “On the fight against the distortion of the party line in the collective farm movement,” which, in particular, obliged party organizations to “stop the practice of closing churches administratively.” In 1930-1931, a number of secret circular letters and government resolutions were issued and the People's Commissariat of Finance on streamlining the taxation of religious associations and the clergy, on the employment of persons who have been defrocked. Taxation of clergy was increased. In case of non-payment of taxes, their property was confiscated, and they themselves were evicted to other regions of the USSR. 1932-1941. Godless Five Year Plan The XVII Party Conference adopted directives for the preparation of the second five-year plan. At the conference, the main political task of the second five-year plan was formulated - to finally eliminate capitalist elements and classes in general, turning the entire working population of the country into conscious and active builders of a classless socialist society. In this regard, there was an increase in anti-religious activity. By November 1931, the Union of Militant Atheists had over 5 million members, and the circulation of anti-religious literature increased sharply. The atheists from the Anti-Religious Commission planned to completely destroy religion in the USSR by 1937. In 1932, by resolutions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the functions of general supervision over the activities of religious organizations, their registration, issuing permits for holding congresses and others were transferred from the NKVD to the Central Commission on Religious Affairs under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, created on June 1, 1930, and commissions on religious issues under local executive committees. However, further clergy were registered with the NKVD. The Central Commission under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was supposed to provide general guidance and supervision over the correct application of laws on cults throughout the RSFSR, the development of draft legislative acts, general accounting of religious associations, and consideration of complaints from religious citizens. Since 1934, the Commission operated under the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR; considered numerous complaints about the closure of religious institutions, noted the increase in “a large number of gross violations of Soviet legislation on cults” on the ground. In April 1938, the commission was abolished; by that time, religious issues had become the exclusive competence of the NKVD. By 1937, the number of religious buildings had decreased by 58% from their pre-revolutionary number. Adopted on December 5, 1936 by the 8th Extraordinary All-Union Congress of Soviets, the new Constitution of the USSR proclaimed the equality of all citizens, including “ministers.” cult"; but citizens were still recognized as having “freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda” [

. The activities of Metropolitan Sergius of Stragorodsky and church exposition. The period of mass shootings. In 1890 he graduated from the Theological Academy with a candidate's degree in theology and was appointed to Japan as a member of the Orthodox spiritual mission. In 1894 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and appointed rector of the Russian Embassy Church in Athens. Master of Theology. In 1906 he participated in the session of the Holy Synod, chaired the Educational Committee, while simultaneously correcting the text of liturgical books. From the same year he was an Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Spiritual Church academy. Since 1911 - member of the Holy Synod. In 1912 he was appointed Chairman of the Pre-Conciliar Conference at the Synod. In 13 he was appointed Chairman of the Missionary Council at the Holy Synod. Council of 1917/1918. Since 1917, Archbishop of Vladimir and Shuisky. In January 1921, Metropolitan Sergius was arrested and spent a long time in Butyrka prison. was sentenced to exile to Nizhny Novgorod. There he lived in the Holy Cross Monastery and performed divine services. Since 1924, he has been Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod. Since 1925, Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens. On November 30, 1926, Metropolitan Sergius was arrested again. The arrest was probably not so much a punishment for correspondence with the leadership of the synod in Karlowitz, but rather as a means for its isolation and the associated possibility of using disinformation. The result of the arrest and further pressure on him and on the Patriarchal Church, which at that time was in a desperate situation, was the notorious declaration of the Metropolitan of July 16/29, 1927, the main task, the starting point, which was to outline the development of the main directions of policy Moscow Patriarchate. On March 27, 1926, he again entered into the administration of the Russian Church as Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens. The first years of Metropolitan Sergius's administration of the Russian Orthodox Church were years of great disagreement between the hierarchs, violent fluctuations and schisms. Not everyone recognized Metropolitan Sergius as the legitimate head of the Church from the very moment when he took control, and many separated from him in subsequent years. On August 26, 1943, a council of Russian hierarchs elected him Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Help for the front and rear .