Administrative Measures to Restrict Church Activity During the 1958–1964 Khrushchev’s Persecution of the Church

Abstract

Under Nikita S. Khrushchev the Russian Orthodox Church was looked at as one of the «vestiges of Stalinism» that should be overcome, so in 1958 a new anti-church campaign broke out. It included a set of deliberate steps – administrative measures, culminating in the reform of parish governance which allowed the state to establish control over church finances, as well as over a church interior life starting from its lower level – the parish. Such measures wereto lead to the further decay of the Church as an institution from within. At the same time, the article traces how the actual power of the local commissioners was strengthening. From now on, they had become the final authority in the matters of personnel appointments and clergy relocations in the diocese. Almost every stage of the attack on the Church is illustrated by archival data, letters from clergymen or personal memoirs of people who witnessed the events studied in the article.