Atheism and Secular Spirituality in the Soviet Union

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

As one of the modern states that extensively promoted atheism in everyday life, the Soviet Union presented a contested historical experiment concerning humanity’s relationship with God and the universe. In the Bolsheviks’ Marxist-Leninist vision, Communist ideology would liberate human beings from the yoke of religion—the “opiate of the masses,” and offer new forms of social organization and alternative sources of meaning in life. However, given the imperial legacy of confessional diversity, implementing and sustaining atheism over the decades entailed different strategies and flexibility on the ground.

This panel examines how a wide range of historical actors engaged with the Soviet atheist project: Party ideologues, educators, writers, museum workers, and visitors. The papers capture the geographical, ethnic, and temporal diversity of religious-spiritual life in the Soviet Union: from early Soviet Udmurtia in the Volga River region to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the 1930s-40s, post-WWII Ukraine, and Central Asia in the 1970s. Through both top-down and bottom-up perspectives, the papers will shed new light on the limits of the statist atheist project, highlighting diverse forms of religiosity and spirituality, their relationships with the humanist tradition, and their roles in building national cultures. The panel also reflects upon the dynamic between discourse, space, and material objects by juxtaposing case studies on atheist writings and antireligious museums.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Papers

• Healing with Humanism: Fostering Secular Spirituality in Sukhomlynsky’s 'School of Joy' - Anna Valeri Aydinyan, Kenyon College

• Muslim Atheism in Central Asia: Consolidation - Eren Murat Tasar, UNC at Chapel Hill

• Defying Discursive Atheism: The Ambiguity of Space and Materiality in Soviet Antireligious Museums - Liya Xie, Princeton U

• Udmurt Paganism in the Early Soviet Union - Andrey Ridling, Ohio State U

Discussant

• Victoria Smolkin, Wesleyan U