The Book as an Element of Atheistic Upbringing Through the Example of the Atheist Guide Series (original) (raw)
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2020
The article concerns a series of Atheist Guide books, published by the Omsk publishing house within the period from 1983 to 1989. The books represent a developed atheist education system, which takes into account the peculiarities of the religious life in Omsk and the Omsk Region. The material of the books may be of interest to religious theorists and historians as a source of additional information about atheistic upbringing in Siberia. The authors of the series view religion as a naturally developing social phenomenon that evolves under various factors. At the same time, these texts consider religion to be a form of manifestation of the Omsk citizens' low education level. In general, the books in the series not only call for overcoming religious misconceptions but also for regarding religion as a phenomenon that plays an important role in the lives of Soviet people. The research is funded by RFBR, project No. 19-311-60008. Research area: Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies. Art history and cultural studies. Citation: Kolmakova, M.V. (2020). The book as an element of atheistic upbringing through the example of the atheist guide series.
ATHEIST EDUCATION UNDER COMMUNISM IN THE SOVIET UNION
Journal of Nonlinear Analysis and Optimization Theory and Applications, 2024
Twentieth-century Russian Revolution, formed by the union of 15 states the Soviet Union, and its attempt to create a new society by abolishing private ownership of the means of production, was an important event in human history. A new human being was needed to live in this new world and the responsibility of creating this new human being was placed on the Soviet education system. Religion had no place in this new world. Of course, efforts were made through formal and informal education to wipe out thousands of years of religious practices and prevent them from passing on to the new generation. This paper discusses the communist perspective towards religion, the objectives of atheist education in the Soviet Union, and the formal curriculum and co-curricular programs through which atheist education was offered.
Atheism and spirituality in the USSR: Can atheists be spiritual?
Is atheist spirituality an oxymoron, and if so, did Soviet citizens brought up in a definitively atheist environment have no spiritual pursuits? The author asks this question drawing on Dostoyevsky's dark prophecy and interrogating Yuri Levada's model of a Soviet simple person as a distinct anthropological type. Taking on board Riegel's concept of political religion and testing Marxism-Leninism as a source of wisdom for Soviet nonbelievers, the author seeks to uncover a version of spirituality compatible with Soviet-style atheism. The discussion also involves the examination of Russian literary tradition and Borodina's philosophical theory of spirituality, which accords with Sharafutdinova accounting for the phenomenon of inner exile in the late Soviet period and Bekmetov's reminder that the Buddhist worldview had a significant influence on Russian cultural metalanguage. Fell, E. (2023). ‘Atheism and spirituality in the USSR: Can atheists be spiritual?’, Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 14:1, pp. 43–60. https://intellectdiscover.com/.../10.1386/ejpc\_00052\_1
Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2004
Under communism, the Russian religious landscape consisted mainly of two competitors-a severely repressed Russian Orthodox Church and a heavily promoted atheist alternative to religion called "scientific atheism." Under these circumstances, one might expect the rapid spread of religious disbelief, but the intensity of the atheist campaign originated from official mandate and not popular appeal. In turn, scientific atheism never inspired the Russian population and grew increasingly uninspired as Soviet officials created a monopoly "church" of scientific atheism in hopes of replacing persistent religious beliefs and practices. This article is dedicated to explaining why Communists could not successfully convert the masses to atheism. The findings provide evidence that systems of belief require more than simply the power of promotion and coercion to become accepted. A philosophy whose principle is so incommensurate with our most intimate feelings as to deny them all relevancy in universal affairs, as to annihilate their motives at one blow, will be even more unpopular than pessimism-that is why materialism will always fail of universal adoption.-William James Atheists waged a 70-year war on religious belief in the Soviet Union. The Communist Party destroyed churches, mosques, and temples; it executed religious leaders; it flooded the schools and media with anti-religious propaganda; and it introduced a belief system called "scientific atheism," complete with atheist rituals, proselytizers, and a promise of worldly salvation. But in the end, a majority of older Soviet citizens retained their religious beliefs and a crop of citizens too young to have experienced pre-Soviet times acquired religious beliefs. This article seeks to explain why atheists, with the full support of a totalitarian state, were unsuccessful in secularizing Russian society. As many observers of the Soviet Union noted, convinced Communists demonstrated a conviction to their doctrine that was remarkably similar to religious faith (see Berdyaev [1931] 1966; Berlin 1996; Kaariainen 1989; McDaniel 1996; Zaehner 1986). Scientific atheism, the official term for the Communist Party's philosophical worldview, posited the ultimate purpose of human existence, a moral code of conduct, and created a collection of atheistic rituals and ceremonies that mimicked religious ones. In addition to developing this ersatz religion, Soviet officials heavily promoted scientific atheism. The doctrine was taught in schools, advocated in the media, and emphatically propagandized in books, posters, the arts, during holidays, and with celebrations. Convinced atheists could join atheist organizations and meet on a regular basis in lieu of church participation; the primary atheist organization was the League of Militant Atheists, which was active prior to World War II and later replaced by the Knowledge Society. All in all, scientific atheism was omnipresent in the daily lives of Communist citizens. Atheist propaganda and rituals, in combination with the brutal repression of Russian religious groups, produced an atheistic "church" similar to a state-supported religious monopoly. Nonetheless, a belief in God remained a steadfast conviction for the majority of individuals throughout Soviet Russia. And the number of convinced atheists virtually disappeared after the fall of communism. How could a doctrine that had so much going for it fail to gain widespread appeal? In sum, scientific atheism lacked
Atheism, Faith, and Modernization of Russian Society
Edited version published in Russian as: “Атеизм, Вера и Модернизация в Российском Обществе,” in Религия и Российское Многообразие, Sergei Filatov, ed. (St. Petersburg: Letnii Sad, 2011).
The history of religious belief in contemporary Russia shows that eliminating religion in the public sphere will not necessarily finish the job in people’s hearts and minds. Once repression stops, people almost immediately turn back again in search of religion. Therefore, we must conclude that even if religion is false, and is, as Feuerbach said, nothing more than man’s deification of his own ultimate image, it is absolutely futile to attempt to eradicate religion as a social phenomenon. Even if God is dead, people will go on believing he exists and acting based upon that conviction.
2024
In frames of this article, the study of the post-Soviet religious identity in large Siberian cities was narrowed down to socialization within the structures of oktyabryata / pioneers / Komsomol. Descriptions of the induction of the pioneers could be interpreted by the interviewees as: 1.the event constituting the spiritual universe 2.as a natural stage of life, described in some cases as an experience that foreshadows the bankruptcy of ideology 3. as an unconscious act of oppression or 4. as a rejected event, initiating alternative searches. There was no clear retrospective negative revalorization in any of the four variants mentioned.