The activities of the Union of Militant Atheists in the MASSR in 1937–1939

Abstract

An atheistic worldview was a characteristic feature of Bolshevik ideology, therefore, immediately after the October revolution, the party leadership took measures aimed at weakening the influence of religious organizations. An important part of this policy was anti-religious propaganda, which was carried out for a long time by various organizations and had no centralized leadership, but already in the second half of the 1920s. This activity became the prerogative of the "Union of Militant Atheists", which, being a public organization, had party and state support. Such a status contributed to the rapid growth of the Union and the wide scope of its activities, but on the other hand, the number of ideological "atheists" in it is rapidly decreasing, and the work itself is becoming formal. After the rise at the turn of the 20–30s, the SVB fell into decline, most of the cells ceased to exist or were only formally registered, but in 1937–1939 the party leadership attempted to revive the active activity of the Union, which was accompanied by the reconstruction of its structure at the regional and local levels. Within the framework of this study, the process of restoring the organization in the Mari Territory, the main forms of propaganda used locally, and an assessment of the effectiveness of its activities are considered. An analysis of the available data suggests that the restoration of the Union in the region was artificial and did not meet with widespread support from the population. The work of the SVB was dominated by formalism, both cells and representatives of local public and party organizations were poorly interested in propaganda activities. As a result, despite the constant growth in the number of the Union, its work was not very effective, and most of the local groups did not actually conduct any activities, which contributed to its further decline.