Sociological studying of religion and “atheisation” of population, 1960-1970-es

Abstract

The article examines the theory and practice of sociological study of the phenomenon of religiousness in the USSR in 1960-1970-es. The philosophical and ideological assumptions, tasks put forward by the party bureaucracy before the sociology of religion, the role of the scientific atheism, atheist propaganda and their influence on the sociology of religion are considered. The article shows the typical classifications of religious consciousness, tools of mass surveys (questionnaires); the results of informal interviews and participant observation among believers that are kept in the Russian Archive of Socio-Political History. In particular, the authors come to the conclusion that theoretical concepts and empirical research were, to a large extent, determined by ideological order.