Bolshevik Atheism Against the Soul of Russia: The Destruction of Orthodoxy and Its Cultural Heritage

Diana Del Mastro

diana.delmastro@usz.edu.pl
University of Szczecin (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-3973

Abstract

This study examines the Soviet regime’s anti-religious policies from 1917 to 1939, highlighting the strategies used to suppress faith and reshape society towards atheism. Following their rise to power, the Bolsheviks launched systematic persecution against the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious denominations, viewing religion as an obstacle to the construction of the communist state. Through restrictive decrees, propaganda, repression, and orchestrated schisms, the regime sought to eliminate religion from public life. The anti-religious campaign reached its peak during ‘Stalin’s Great Terror,’ with thousands of clergy members arrested and executed, and most places of worship destroyed. Although atheistic ideology became deeply embedded in the Soviet system, religious faith was never fully eradicated and re-emerged forcefully after the Stalinist era.


Keywords:

Soviet atheism, religious persecution, Russian Orthodox Church, Anti-religious propaganda, Cultural totalitarianism

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Published
2025-12-21

Cited by

Del Mastro, D. (2025). Bolshevik Atheism Against the Soul of Russia: The Destruction of Orthodoxy and Its Cultural Heritage. Warsaw Theological Studies, 38(2), 180–205. https://doi.org/10.30439/WST.2025.2.9

Authors

Diana Del Mastro 
diana.delmastro@usz.edu.pl
University of Szczecin Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-3973

Diana Del Mastro - PhD/assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology - University of Szczecin (Poland).  Her academic work focuses on Philosophy, Aesthetics, and the symbolic dimensions of Perception. She has authored numerous publications, including 35 scholarly articles, 7 edited volumes, and 3 monographs, with particular emphasis on the thought of Pavel A. Florenskij and his contributions to philosophical and aesthetic theory. Her recent monographs include:  Pavel A. Florenskij e l’arte della vertigine (Loffredo editore, Napoli 2023), Passages. Épistémologie, esthétique, langage dans l’itinéraire scientifique et spirituel de Pavel A. Florenskij (L’Harmattan, Paris 2021).



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