Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States PDF Author: John Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521467841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Provides a systematic and accessible overview of church-state relations in the Soviet Union. This text explores the shaping of Soviet religious policy from the death of Stalin until the collapse of communism, and considers the place of religion in the post

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States PDF Author: John Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521467841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Provides a systematic and accessible overview of church-state relations in the Soviet Union. This text explores the shaping of Soviet religious policy from the death of Stalin until the collapse of communism, and considers the place of religion in the post

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, 1953-1993

Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, 1953-1993 PDF Author: John Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521462310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Making use of newly available archive material, this book provides the first systematic and accessible overview of church state relations in the Soviet Union. John Anderson explores the shaping of Soviet religious policy from the death of Stalin until the collapse of communism, and considers the place of religion in the post-Soviet future. The book discusses the motivations of Khrushchev's renewed assault on religion, the Brezhnev leadership's response to the election of a Polish Pope and the perceived revitalisation of Islam, the factors underlying Gorbachev's liberalisation of religious policy, and the problems in this area facing the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. This study will be of interest to students and scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, religious history, and the politics of church state relations.

Dissent on the Margins

Dissent on the Margins PDF Author: Emily B. Baran
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495499
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Emily B. Baran offers a gripping history of how a small, American-based religious community, the Jehovah's Witnesses, found its way into the Soviet Union after World War II, survived decades of brutal persecution, and emerged as one of the region's fastest growing religions after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In telling the story of this often misunderstood faith, Baran explores the shifting boundaries of religious dissent, non-conformity, and human rights in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses are a fascinating case study of dissent beyond urban, intellectual nonconformists. Witnesses, who were generally rural, poorly educated, and utterly marginalized from society, resisted state pressure to conform. They instead constructed alternative communities based on adherence to religious principles established by the Witnesses' international center in Brooklyn, New York. The Soviet state considered Witnesses to be the most reactionary of all underground religious movements, and used extraordinary measures to try to eliminate this threat. Yet Witnesses survived, while the Soviet system did not. After 1991, they faced continuing challenges to their right to practice their faith in post-Soviet states, as these states struggled to reconcile the proper limits on freedom of conscience with European norms and domestic concerns. Dissent on the Margins provides a new and important perspective on one of America's most understudied religious movements.

The Politics of Religion in Russia and the New States of Eurasia

The Politics of Religion in Russia and the New States of Eurasia PDF Author: Michael Bourdeaux
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9781563243561
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
First Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

Islam after Communism

Islam after Communism PDF Author: Adeeb Khalid
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520957865
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
How do Muslims relate to Islam in societies that experienced seventy years of Soviet rule? How did the utopian Bolshevik project of remaking the world by extirpating religion from it affect Central Asia? Adeeb Khalid combines insights from the study of both Islam and Soviet history to answer these questions. Arguing that the sustained Soviet assault on Islam destroyed patterns of Islamic learning and thoroughly de-Islamized public life, Khalid demonstrates that Islam became synonymous with tradition and was subordinated to powerful ethnonational identities that crystallized during the Soviet period. He shows how this legacy endures today and how, for the vast majority of the population, a return to Islam means the recovery of traditions destroyed under Communism. Islam after Communism reasons that the fear of a rampant radical Islam that dominates both Western thought and many of Central Asia’s governments should be tempered with an understanding of the politics of antiterrorism, which allows governments to justify their own authoritarian policies by casting all opposition as extremist. Placing the Central Asian experience in the broad comparative perspective of the history of modern Islam, Khalid argues against essentialist views of Islam and Muslims and provides a nuanced and well-informed discussion of the forces at work in this crucial region.

Religion and Politics in Contemporary Russia

Religion and Politics in Contemporary Russia PDF Author: Tobias Köllner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429755597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Based on extensive original research at the local level, this book explores the relationship between Russian Orthodoxy and politics in contemporary Russia. It reveals close personal links between politicians at the local, regional and national levels and their counterparts at the equivalent level in the Russian Orthodox Church – priests and monks, bishops and archbishops – who are extensively consulted about political decisions. It outlines a convergence of conservative ideology between politicians and clerics and also highlights that, despite working closely together, there are nevertheless many tensions. The book examines in detail particular areas of cooperation and tension: reform to religious education and a growing emphasis on traditional moral values, the restitution of former church property and the introduction of new festive days. Overall, the book concludes that there is much uncertainty, ambiguity and great local variation.

Religious Liberty in Transitional Societies

Religious Liberty in Transitional Societies PDF Author: John Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139438611
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
It is commonly assumed that the issue of religion declines in political significance as societies modernise. However, the upheaval associated with the shift from authoritarian to more open regimes can be accompanied by a revitalisation of religion. Individuals within these societies are struggling to find meaning in the seeming chaos of political change; religious elites are seeking to define their own role within the new order; and political elites are looking for new ways of ensuring legitimacy and building national unity. In this book John Anderson constructs a theoretical framework where he compares and contrasts the politics of religious liberty in two Southern European countries, two Central-Eastern European countries and the evolution of the former USSR, particularly Russia. Exploring these issues of religious 'recognition' and religious diversity, Anderson attempts to expose the wider problem of creating a democratic mentality in such transitional societies, through extensive original research and interviews.

Cross and Commissar

Cross and Commissar PDF Author: Sabrina P. Ramet
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780253315755
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
"Anyone trying to understand... the recent history of Eastern Europe (including the Soviet Union) will find this book... extremely useful.... a common sense view of theory and historical study.... a successful product that both enlightens and informs." --American Historical Review "... valuable reading." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion "... welcome and insightful... " --Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists "It is an important study that produces a fairly rich bounty of information about political-religious relationships, the tie between the church and state, and the influence of religious beliefs on society." --Slavic Reviww "... deserves intensive attention by scholars... " --Journal of Church and State "The book's strengths lie in its range, documentation, strongly analytical, and subtly nuanced treatment, consistent awareness of the complexity and dynamism of the various church-state relationships, and its generally judicious blend of theoretical and empirical aspects." --History "Cross and Commissar is a sober, richly documented analysis that is useful and fascinating. It is well written, researched, and organized and fills an unfortunate lacuna in the literature in the area of church-state relations." --The Annals of the American Academy "This monograph is a tour de force... " --Modern Greek Studies Yearbook Communist regimes take an active stance vis-à-vis religion, framing religious policies with an eye toward broader political objectives. Cross and Commissar provides the first systematic, comparative attempt at applying social-scientific theories to illuminate the nature of church-state interaction and the contemporary religious scene in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Religion in the Soviet Union

Religion in the Soviet Union PDF Author: F. Corley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230390048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
The Soviet government's attitude to religion in theory and practice is shown in this wide-ranging collection of annotated texts from the newly-opened archives. Included are documents from the KGB, the Central Committee, the Council for Religious Affairs and numerous other official bodies. For the first time in English we see the bureaucrats' own view of how religious believers should be controlled, following the story from the persecutions of the early Soviet years to the openness instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Religion in the Soviet Union

Religion in the Soviet Union PDF Author: Walter Kolarz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Comprehensive survey of the situation of various religious groups in the U.S.S.R., including Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, Jewish, with contemporary developments under the Khrushchev regime.