Archival sources on the implementation of the Decree “On separation of church from state, and school from church” in Kazakhstan in the 1920s (based on materials of Akmola district)
Abstract
Drawing on archival materials, this article examines the role of local authorities in the implementation of the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of January 23, 1918 “On the separation of church from state, and school from church”. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the role and signifi cance of archival sources for the study of regional aspects of the implementation by the Bolsheviks of a historical document that determined state-church relations. As a case study, material of the history of Akmola district is employed. The relevance of the topic is due to the scientifi c importance of expanding the range of sources on the subject; it is also necessary to study the practical experience of implementing the decree on the outskirts of the country. The study draws on previously unpublished archival sources from the State Archive of Astana which are made public for the fi rst time. These are records of Akmola workers’ and peasants’ militia (F. 247), records of the administration of Executive committee of Akmola district (F. 259) and of the City council of representatives of workers of Akmola (F. 32); legislative and legal acts and correspondence of authorities of various levels as to the issues of implementing the decree; questionnaires for registering the clergy in the district. Archival materials characterise religious communities in terms of the numbers of their members and their social composition, their fi nancial situation; methods of putting into practice the provisions of the decree; policy of local authorities concerning the religious population. The study of the sources identifi es an important aspect of the problem, i.e. the attitude of religious communities to the Soviet power on the whole and to the decree in particular. The critical analysis of the archival documents allows one to show the regional aspects of the implementation of the decree that are conditioned by political and socio-economical reasons. The implementation of the decree in districts of Kazakhstan with their polyethnicity and numerous confessions commenced later than in the central regions of the country and was carried out in accordance with instructions of authorities of the republic. There was an instruction for local authorities to coordinate their actions towards Muslims with representatives of the Kazakh section at the Council of the district. This caution was due to the general strategy of the Bolsheviks in the outskirts of the country which was directed to overcoming the colonial past and involving the outskirts in the national state development. By the latter half of the 1920s, the state policy as to all religious confessions came to be unifi ed. Rights of religious people were violated, particularly during liquidation of operating centres of confessions.
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