Tuva’s Religious Communities and the Change in Official Soviet Religious Policy: Late 1940s – Early 1950s

Abstract

Introduction. The government’s turn toward relative liberalization of religious life and somewhat moderated positions on religious freedom witnessed since 1943 were replaced by a new trend in the late 1940s. The new vector implied an increased state control over activities of religious communities, and would introduce a variety of deterrent mechanisms aimed at reducing religiosity, limiting possibilities for official registration, increasing taxation of clergy, intensifying atheistic propaganda, etc. Goals. The article attempts an insight into the situation resulting from the Soviet religious policy of the late 1940s / early 1950s ― and faced by Tuva’s religious communities. Materials and methods. The study focuses on documents housed at the State Archive of Russia. The employed research methods include the retrospective, comparative historical, and chronological ones. Results. Since the late 1940s, religious communities of Tuva came under strict control and limitations. The paper reveals the actual Soviet post-war religious policy in Tuvan Autonomous Oblast was specifically characterized by that only Russian Orthodox Christians would enjoy somewhat relatively official status and activities, while other faiths and their groups remained as illegal regardless of the central government’s proclaimed agenda and changing sentiments. Local authorities and the Commissioner of the Soviet Council for Religious Cults in the region would turn to various excuses to avoid any legal registration of such communities. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the intensified restrictive measures (heavy taxation) finally undermined the once intensive activities of Buddhists. Furthermore, Evangelical Baptist Christians failed to reopen their prayer house in Kyzyl, while Old Believers of Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy never resolved the issue of a prayer building in Medvedevka (Kaa-Khemsky District).

Keywords

• ussr
• official religious policy
• tuvan autonomous oblast
• religious communities
• buddhism
• eastern orthodox christianity
• protestantism
• old believers