Religion in the Soviet Union
Religion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dominated by the fact that it became the first state to have as one objective of its official ideology the elimination of existing religion, and the prevention of future implanting of religious belief, with the goal of establishing state atheism (gosateizm). However, the main religions of pre-revolutionary Russia persisted throughout the entire Soviet period and religion was never officially outlawed. Christians belonged to various denominations: Orthodox, Catholic, Baptist and various other Protestant denominations. The majority of the Muslims in the Soviet Union were Sunni, with the notable exception of Azerbaijan, which was majority Shia. Judaism also had many followers. Other religions, practiced by a small number of believers, included Buddhism and Shamanism.
Political cartoon of Christmas 1921: clergy, imperialists and capitalists follow the Star of Bethlehem, while workers and the Red Army follow the Red Star.
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1931 to make way for the Palace of Soviets. The palace was never finished, and the cathedral was rebuilt in 2000.
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral, once the most dominant landmark in Baku, was demolished in the 1930s under Stalin.
St Volodymyr's Cathedral, Kiev, 1958.
Marxist–Leninist atheism, also known as Marxist–Leninist scientific atheism, is the antireligious element of Marxism–Leninism. Based upon a dialectical-materialist understanding of humanity's place in nature, Marxist–Leninist atheism proposes that religion is the opium of the people; thus, Marxism–Leninism advocates atheism, rather than religious belief.
Ludwig Feuerbach, who separated philosophy from religion to allow philosophers the freedom to interpret the material reality of nature
Karl Marx, who synthesized anti-religious philosophy with materialism to show that religion is a social construct used for social control by the ruling class of a society
Friedrich Engels, who identified religion as a person's need for a fantastic spiritual reflection of the self, by which to have some control over life and reality
The painting Bolshevik by Boris Kustodiev depicts a Bolshevik revolutionary, bearing the red flag, glaring at an Eastern Orthodox church