Main Foundations of Party and State Policies Toward Protestant Organizations in the Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s

Abstract

The studies of state-church relations in the multiconfessional Ukrainian society in general and protestant movements in particular actualize the new scientific interpretation of the state religious policies on different stages of the development of the historical past and the modernity. The research is based on the works of religious academicians and archive materials of two central and four regional archives of Ukraine. The author analyses the policies of the Soviet government towards the unions of the Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, Evangelists, and the Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) in the Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s which is the period especially rich in events as the process of institutionalization of the Protestant organizations was taking place at the time. The above-mentioned confessions can be regarded as a single whole – Protestants (Evangelists) as the legislation aimed at them, the measures taken by the state institutions and the intelligence agencies have the common political and ideological basis.

The work shows the evolution of the Soviet legislation on cults and the closely related policies of the Bolshevist party which regulated all the activities of the Protestant organizations. The study encompasses the work of those state / party structures which implemented the governmental policies towards religious organizations.

The mechanism of gradual liquidation of the Protestant unions was put in action in the early 1920s taking into consideration the societal conjuncture. The fundamental factors of the Bolshevist-Soviet policies were formed: discrepancies between words and actions, domination of demagogy and cynicism in opinions on religion, etc. There was the practice of contrast between the word of the large-scale declarations and the secret circulars which determined the practical actions of the official bodies and led to the increase in abuse of the Protestants in the field.

A significant number of legislative acts and by-laws regulating state and Protestant relations, numerous instructions for them, and their constant “improvement” affected the life of communities and stalled their development in general. The legislation on religious cults was antireligious in its essence.