USSR anti-religious campaign (1970s–1987)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A new and more aggressive phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union began in the mid-1970s after a more tolerant period following Nikita Khrushchev's downfall in 1964.
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (September 2010) |
Yuri Andropov headed the campaign in the 1970s when it began to rise.
This new persecution was following upon the 1975 amendments to the 1929 anti-religious legislation and the 25th party congress. The Central Committee resolution in 1979 would play a key role in this period as well. The intensification of anti-religious activities had continued since the early 1970s; between 1971 and 1975 over 30 doctoral and 400 magisterial dissertations were defended on the subjects of atheism and criticism of religion.[1] In 1974 there was a conference in Leningrad dedicated to 'The Topical Problems of the History of Religion and Atheism in the Light of Marxist–Leninist Scholarship'.
This persecution, like other anti-religious campaigns in the USSR's history, was used as a tool to eliminate religion in order to create the ideal atheist society that Marxism–Leninism had as a goal.[2]