RT Article
T1 Reliģisko Organizāciju Kontrole Latvijas Psr (1944–1985): Control of Religious Organizations in Latvian SSR (1944–1985).
JF Cel̜š
IS 73
SP 59
OP 77
A1 Hristenko, Diāna
A1 Tēraudkalns, Valdis
LA Latvian
PB LU Akadēmiskais apgāds
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1839732075
AB The article aims to outline and explain the state structures that affected Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in LSSR from 1944 to 1985 as interlocutors in state and church relations. The authors chose to analyse these denominations, since they all were confronted with similar policies in the Soviet state. On the basis of archive materials and other sources, the authors have explored the structure of control over religious organizations and the nature of these activities, their impact on religious life in the LSSR, starting from governing bodies of denominations down to local churches. State-church relationships in USSR were determined, first of all, by ideology. The formal framework was dictated by the constitution of the USSR and the decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Policies on state and church relationships were changing depending on the USSR’s internal and foreign policies, but their main goal - eradicating religion as a phenomenon - remained unchanged. The authors analysed the ways how the plenipotentiaries of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults Office (CARC) implemented the decisions of their Moscow-based leadership, as well as how they interacted with local municipalities (sometimes overturning their decisions). Formally, plenipotentiaries were subordinated to CARC, but on a day-to-day basis there was a complex symbiosis between the plenipotentiaries, local municipalities, and republican-level party and state structures. For the most part, Soviet officials had little orientation in legal matters affecting state-church relations (no surprise because until the 1960s many instructions of the CARC were classified), and the plenipotentiary’s office also served an educational function. Leaders of denominations were included in the scheme of control and restrictions - through them, the state carried out plans of closing congregations and other repressive actions. Thus, the state power implemented another goal - undermining the authority of church leaders in the eyes of believers.
K1 Catholics
K1 CHURCH & state
K1 MOSCOW (Russia)
K1 OFFICES
K1 Religious Institutions
K1 Soviet Union
K1 STATE power
DO 10.22364/cl.73.04