Figure 1.-- Stalin and the Communists supressed, but did not destroy the Ukranian Church. Some people contunued to believe. Any outward expressiion of religion was dangerous during the Stalinist era, but this gradually eased with the process of De-Stalinization (1956). This Ukranian boy is doing his First Communion in 1960. He is named on the back of the portrait. Notice there is no display of the Cross are any other religious imagery, even though is a family snapshot taken in private. This is unudual for First Communiion portrits outside of the Soviet Uniion. This was only a few years after De-Stalization began. We think a portrait like this might have beem dangerous during the Stalist Era. The NKVD would have been monitioring snapshots being developed and printed. Teaching religion was a crime, seen as coruopting youth. We are not sure about the Stalinist Era, but apparently after Stalin, it came to be tolerated within the family. The boys looks to be about 10- years old, older than the age for First Communion in the West. We suspect that the ceremony was delayed until the the child was old enough to understnad the dangers. The strap shoes were common forv younger boys unable to tie laces. In this case they were probably used to stress formality. We notice a second image again showing the absence of any religious iconography.

At the time of the Russian Revolution (1917) the Ukraine was a deeply religious part of the Russian Empire. Ukraine was split between a Catholic West and Orthodox East. The Ukrainian peasantry in particular was intensely religious. Karl Marx himself identified religion as the 'opium of the masses'. The Red Army during the Russian Civil War (1918-21) began an unorganized campaign of brutality and terror. Churches were desecrated and looted and clerics including nuns attacked. After the Civil War, Soviet authorities launched an intense atheism campaign. The Tenth Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Congress adopted resolutions launching an official atheist campaign (1921). The elimination of religion and replacing it with an ideology of 'scientific materialism' was a fundamental Soviet goal. Atheism was taught in the schools. Churches were destroyed or repurposed. Some were turned into stables. St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv was converted into a an atheist museum. There were a wide range of persecutions of both individual believers. clerics, and the Church as an institution. Religious persons were targeted by the NKVD as the Gulag was created and expanded. The Ukrainian peasantry was on of the largest and most fervent religious groups in the Soviet Union. Stalin finally was in full control of the Soviet Union (1928). And the Ukrainian peasantry drew his attention. Not only did they tend to reject Communist ideology, but they had and equally fervent attachment to the land which after the Revolution they had at long last acquired. Lenin's battle cry for the October Revolution was 'Peace, Land, and Bread' Nothing could have appealed more to the Ukrainian peasantry. This was, however, not what Stalin had in mind. Stalin issued new decrees intensifying atheist programs and banning any public religious activities (1929). Stalin was determined to collectivize agriculture as part of his First Five Year Plan (1928-32) aimed at industrialization. He believed that collectivization would increase agricultural productivity, helping to fund industrialization. When he encountered resistance, especially in the Ukraine. He decided he has to break the Ukrainian pedantry. Hi method was the deadly Ukrainian Famine. There is no precise accounting, but 5 million Ukrainians may have perished, succeeding in breaking the Ukrainian peasantry. Russians had to be brought in to replace the Ukrainians who Stalin had killed. After the Famine and continuing atheist campaigns, only a small fraction of the population dared to continue attending church or display any open religious affiliation. After Stalin died (1953), overt religious persecution declined, but atheism continued to be taught in the schools. Christianity was never entirely limited but religious practice was significant

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Created: 5:59 PM 8/20/2024br> Last updated: 5:59 PM 8/20/2024