Use of the Council of Religious Cults by the Totalitarian Regime to Fight against Protestant Communities in Ukraine

Authors

Oksana Vysoven, Hryhoriy Skovoroda University in Pereyaslav, UkraineFollow
Olga Shkolna, Borys Grinchenko Metropolitan Kyiv UniversityFollow
Alina Zadorozhnya, National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve “Pereyaslav”Follow
Yuriy Figurnyi, Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National UniversityFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Oksana Vysoven: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0061-2301

Olga Shkolna: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7245-6010

Alina Zadorozhnya: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-9054

Yuriі Fihurnyi: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6463-0920

Abstract

The article analyzes the use of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults in the fight against Protestant communities in Ukraine by the totalitarian government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1940s, the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, created by the order of J. Stalin, directed all of its activities to the unification of Protestant communities and their comprehensive subordination to the totalitarian government. In the 1950s and 1960s the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults continued to successfully perform the registration, control, punitive, and repressive functions towards Protestant communities in Ukraine and practiced systematic control of prayer meetings of believers, religious practices, rites, etc. The employees of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults brusquely disrupted marriage and funeral ceremonies and gave instructions regarding the repertoire of wedding songs, funeral services, and leisure of believers of Protestant communities. In the 1970s the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults carried out active preventive and repressive actions against Protestant communities, paying special attention to unregistered communities and their leaders. In the 1980s the role of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults was gradually neutralized as the Soviet totalitarian system began to degrade and lose its repressive potential; therefore, the decisions of the Communist Party and Soviet bodies were implemented formally and nominally.

Recommended Citation

Vysoven, Oksana; Shkolna, Olga; Zadorozhnya, Alina; and Figurnyi, Yuriy (2024) "Use of the Council of Religious Cults by the Totalitarian Regime to Fight against Protestant Communities in Ukraine," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 44 : Iss. 10 , Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2568
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol44/iss10/4