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Soviet Religious Policy in the Baltics under Khrushchev, 1957–1964: Domestic Repression and International Engagement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2010

Robert F. Goeckel
Robert F. Goeckel*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Geneseo
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Robert F. Goeckel, Department of Political Science and International Relations, State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Khrushchev era brought a policy of religious repression in response to a resurgence of religious adherence after WWII. But a close evaluation of archival sources reveals distinctive features to its implementation in the Baltics, compared with other parts of the USSR and with the Orthodox Church. The study richly describes the erosion of church institutional interests, such as maintenance of registered churches and clergy, legal and financial autonomy, publications and theological education. But having adapted to their national context, republic-level state officials often pursued the campaign disproportionately against non-national churches, such as Catholics and so-called sects, thereby provoking bureaucratic tensions with party hardliners, both in Moscow and at the republic level. Motivated by its heightened anti-Vatican stance, Moscow's foreign policy opening—to the World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, and the German churches—brought the Lutheran churches limited leverage against reluctant local and republic officials.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 3 , Special Issue 2: Post-communist Eastern Europe and the Caucasus , August 2010 , pp. 352 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2010

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