Anti-religious Policy of the Soviet Government in 1920s and early 1940s in the Documents from the State Archive of the Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region: A Source Studies Review
| 08 April 2025
Posted in
Publication of archival documents
Ilyazova R.V., Ulyanovsk, Russian Federation
Anti-religious Policy of the Soviet Government in 1920s and early 1940s in the Documents from the State Archive of the Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region: A Source Studies Review
Abstract
At present, the problem of relations between religious confessions and state has reached a new level. This is due to changes in both public and political structure of the nation, as well as in patriotic values. The period of 1920s – early 1940s, associated with the era of socialist transformation undertaken by the Soviet authorities in the field of confessional and national relations, stands out among other scientifically significant stages of the history of relations between the government and faith-based organizations. Analysis of the scholarship on the issue shows that there is an abundance of works on religious policies in the Middle Volga region during the Soviet era and yet there remain much controversy and ambiguity. This inevitably prompts one to examine the nature of historical sources on which the scholarship draws. In view of the special significance of studying the documents of the Communist Party it is necessary to analyze documents in the fonds of the Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk) Province Committee of the AUCP (b), Ulyanovsk District Committee of the AUCP (b), Melekess City Committee of the AUCP (b), Ulyanovsk Town Committee CP AUCP (b), as well as fonds of the uezd, volost and district committees of the AUCP (b) of the State Archive of the Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region, former archive of the Ulyanovsk Obkom of the CPSU. The article uses methods of classification and textual criticism (attribution, dating) and offers a source study of regulations, documents of management and record keeping of the AUCP (b), press and memoirs. Variety and versatility of the sources on the history of anti-religious policies in the Ulyanovsk province - the Middle Volga oblast (krai) – the Kuibyshev krai (oblast) and availability of a large number of secret documents allow researchers provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of the developments.
Keywords
Source studies review, archival document, religious policy, anti-religious propaganda, Communist Party, Komsomol, Ulyanovsk.
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About the authors
Ilyazova Renata Vitalievna, 1st category archivist of the Department of use and publication of documents of the State Archive of the Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region, graduate student at the I.N. Ulyanov Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk, Russian Federation, +7-917-615-67-02, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it