UDC

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Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of legal regulation of deregistration of religious organizations in the Soviet Union and the practice of closing Orthodox parishes in the European North of the country in the 1950s – 1980s. During the period of state atheism, the policy of the authorities was to eradicate religious beliefs. Therefore, an important task for the local authorities and the atheistic public was the gradual reduction of the number of parishes. For this purpose, along with the legal mechanisms of closing the churches, they found any possible reasons to eliminate communities of believers. The article describes various ways of influencing the clergy and believers in order to weaken the financial situation and staffing of Orthodox parishes. Thus, along with open atheistic propaganda accompanied by the total control of the religious life of the population, the authorities applied special methods affecting the financial activity of religious organizations (regulation of prices for objects of worship, high taxes, fees for patriotic funds). The north of the country used to have a small number of parishes with large distances between them, so each closing made it impossible for the believers living in the area to regularly attend services. The study shows (based on the materials from state and church archives of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda Regions) that the churches given to religious communities were often located in remote areas or, as in the Arkhangelsk Region, were made of wood. All this made it extremely difficult to maintain the existing church buildings and preserve the parishes. In addition, there were objective demographic reasons for the declining reproduction of traditional religious beliefs in northern villages, which also contributed to the decay of parishes.

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References

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