“Pick” a Side
During the Russian Civil War, Russia was pretty much split in half with the Bolsheviks, also known as the Red’s, controlling the Western part of Russia and the scattered groups of opposing forces known as the White’s on the Eastern half. Both the Orthodox Church and Catholic Church were present throughout Russia although it was harder to be a Catholic during this time. Since both of these churches had a presence on both sides, they didn’t want to pick a side because they knew that could bring division within.
Although they said they were neutral, the Bolsheviks started using propaganda that claimed the churches were in support of the White’s. The Bolsheviks used this against the churches and another battle had begun.
Propaganda against Catholics
Purge of the Clergy
All hell broke loose as the Bolsheviks lashed out against these two churches. Many clergy located in Western Russia were killed and martyred along with many people who followed the faiths. Along with people being killed, some churches were destroyed. Priests were forced to start saying private masses, whether it was above ground or underground.
The priests were killed in numerous ways and many of those ways were very gruesome. Some were scalped and beheaded, some were beaten with rifle butts, some were cut up with swords. The horrible list goes on with ways that only seem like they would happen in your worst nightmares.
Persecution of Christians by the Bolsheviks
It’s all Your Fault
After the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of the civil war and blood was done being shed, a famine struck most of Russia. The Bolsheviks had poor economic growth and production from agriculture but guess who was blamed. Yup, you guessed it. Religion. Lenin blamed the Church for abandoning their people and allowing the to starve. On top of that, Lenin ordered that all the valuables that the churches own such as gems, jewels, gold, etc. be handed over to the government as payment for being the “cause” of the famine.
The Catholic Church’s response to being blamed for the famine was cooperation and relief. The Bolsheviks had shown that they had no problem killing priests and followers so the church handed over all the valuables that the Bolsheviks demanded to keep things at rest. The Vatican also sent in a vast amount of relief to help battle the famine. In the end, the Bolsheviks still blamed the religion as the root cause of famine while they continued to exploit what was left of the agricultural production.
Citations:
- (n.d.). Retrieved from http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1987-8/byrnes.htm
- Anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War. (2020, January 4). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-religious_campaign_during_the_Russian_Civil_War
- Confiscating Church Gold. (2016, January 4). Retrieved from http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1921-2/confiscating-church-gold/
- Maren, J. V., Maren, J. V., & Maren, J. V. (2018, June 5). In history’s bloodiest persecution of Christians, the Russian Communists murder millions. Retrieved from https://thebridgehead.ca/2018/05/01/in-historys-bloodiest-persecution-of-christians-the-russian-communists-murder-millions/
Josh's 20th Century Russia Blog 
Josh, this is an interesting perspective on the Bolshevik campaign against religion. You do a good job of encapsulating how the Church was used as a scapegoat for many issues in the early post-revolutionary Russia. Blaming the Church for the plight of the Soviet Union was easy justification for taking the land and wealth of the Church and replacing the Church with the Bolshevik Party as a source of hope and direction. Do you think that Lenin aimed to replace the Church with a sort of secular religion based around the Bolshevik Party? Great post!
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Eric thank you for commenting. To answer your question, I do believe that was Lenin’s overall goal. I also believe that he didn’t want the beliefs of the churches to impede on the party’s views. That is why he promoted atheism so that everyone could see that the Bolshevik party was the beacon of hope for the country going forward.
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This is such an important topic, Josh, and I agree with Eric that you’ve raised a lot of important issues here — especially around the devastating effects of the Bolsheviks’ campaign against religion on the faith community in the Soviet Union.
A couple of clarifications though — them main one is that Orthodoxy, rather than Catholicism was the state religion in Imperial Russia – so the Orthodox church, which was an incredibly wealthy and politically powerful institution was the main target. The schism between Orthodoxy and Catholicism was making life difficult for Catholics even before the revolution (ditto with envangelical and protestant groups). If you re-read that very cool letter, you cite, I think you’ll see some of that historical baggage coming through. (This is an easy fix on your post – just edit and save.)
I would also steer away from using sources that are not scholarly and have an explicit political bias, like The Bridgehead. There’s so much good stuff out there — which you’ve included in your bibliography. Take your cues from those sources and you’ll be in great shape.
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Professor Nelson, thank you for your comment and feedback. Thinking about this topic a little more from a more generalized viewpoint and taking into account what takes place in Russia in the future I began to realize that so many deaths go unnoticed or pushed aside. We hear all about the deaths that Stalin caused and Hitler however, we overlook and/or don’t pay attention to all the other lives that other people took like Lenin.
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Forgot to say that I really like how you set this up to “tell a story” — it’s an engaging narrative!
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Wow that was a crazy post to read about the ideologies of the people with the Catholic Church and especially that propaganda poster I think really hammered the point of what the message they were trying to convene but man that is wild. But it shows how they would just blame them for all the shortcomings because it was their fault but if you use a bigger name such as the Church then you can get away with more.
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Hi Josh, my blog was also about religious persecution in the Soviet Union. With Catholicism, it can be seen that the Soviet Union did not like Catholics being in the Soviet Union. This may be due to the fact that Russia considered Catholicism a Western idea and that Russia did not want a religious authority in the Soviet Union (AKA, the Pope). It is shocking what the Soviet Union did to religions such as when Lenin ordered church members to be shot when they refused to give up the Church’s valuables.
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Matthew thank you for your comment. I agree that it was shocking to read what Lenin would do to the innocent people if they didn’t cooperate. It’s like how is the Bolshevik party suppose to be a beacon of hope when they are killing their own people left and right.
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It’s pretty crazy how Russia used the church as a scapegoat for most, if not all of their problems. The Bolshevik campaign is shown through your post on how cruel they were in order to get their message across and boost their own credibility. The fact that people were not looking toward their own government for assistance against the Bolshevik’s may not be surprising, however the animosity between these groups and creating blame toward the church goes to show how much Lenin utilized religion for their own propaganda. The way in which you articulate this story grabbed my attention and I enjoyed learning more about the Bolshevik’s and the tactics they used to spread their ideology. Great read!
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Max, thank you for your comment. It’s a shame to see how the Bolsheviks, who thought they were the party to fix everything, ended up destroy lives and churches just to get what they want. At this point if I was a Russian I would have just lost hope that we would be able to have a government that would care for its people.
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Josh, i really enjoyed reading your post. I had no idea of the horrible things that were done to members of the clergy during this time period. I knew there was a purge of the clergy, but never realized how brutal it actually was. It sounds like it was barbaric! It honestly kind of reminded me of the anti-church movement by the Nazis during the 1930’s, which was nowhere near as extreme. Good stuff man!
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Tanner, thanks for your comment. As I read about it more I also made that connection not only about the Nazis, but about all the other persecutions that have taken place over the years.
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Josh, I thought this post was very good in the setup with your headers and the information that followed. It’s amazing how much the government was able to get away with especially the of killing priests and no one being able to do a single thing about it. It’s understandable why the church had such little power comparatively during this time.
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Matt, thanks for your comment. It is crazy how much the Bolshevik party was able to get away with and how little power the church had. I think the cool thing about all of this though was the church’s response. Even while they were being persecuted they continued to send aid to Russia as a whole.
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Josh, I really liked the way that you wrote this post. I had no idea about the lengths that the Bolsheviks went to or the horrific executions of the clergy. Also, it’s so sad that they executed so many members of the Church and used them as a scapegoat, even though the church was still willing to send help during the famine. It’s also terrible that the church had to give up their valuables because they “caused the famine”, but really that seems like it was used as a way to acquire the church’s riches.
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Lauren, thank you for your comment. This was definitely a way for the Bolsheviks to gain wealth in this time of famine. Not only did they exploit the church, they exploited their own people in the agricultural industry as well which is just sad. A party that said they would represent their people just uses them for their own good.
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Hi Josh! Such a great blog post! It is never surprising to read how the churches had such big influences in economy and people in their country. It is so sad that the Bolsheviks felt so threatened that they committed such horrific against both churches. It is very interesting to see the mentality of the Bolsheviks and why they blamed the churched for the collapse of their economy.
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