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Khrushchev's campaign, while being the most brutal episode of persecution after Stalin's death in Soviet history, largely went unnoticed in the Western world, partly as a result of poor coverage in the Western media, which often instead attempted to portray Khrushchev as a more liberal figure, and partly also as a result of a lack of ...
The Soviet regime had an ostensible commitment to the complete annihilation of religious institutions and ideas. [11] Communist ideology could not coexist with the continued influence of religion even as an independent institutional entity, so "Lenin demanded that communist propaganda must employ militancy and irreconcilability towards all forms of idealism and religion", and that was called ...
However, in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev initiated a new anti-religious campaign, which led to the closure of almost 12,000 churches. By 1985, only 7,000 churches remained active. [22] By the end of the Khrushchev era, 50,000 clergy were executed, and many of the church hierarchy were replaced by individuals who had connections with the KGB. [27]
The USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928) was a campaign of anti-religious persecution against churches and Christian believers by the Soviet government following the initial anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War.
Stalin called "to bring to completion the liquidation of the reactionary clergy in our country". [43] Stalin called for an "atheist five year plan" from 1932 to 1937, led by the LMG, in order to eliminate all religious expression in the USSR. [44] It was declared that the concept of God would disappear from the Soviet Union. [44]
Khrushchev emerged as the most powerful Soviet politician. [3] A period of "silent de-Stalinization" subsequently took place, as the revision of Stalin's policies was done in secret, and often with no explanation. There were dangers in denouncing Stalin as he was placed on a pedestal both at home and among communists abroad. [4]
However, Stalin was not publicly denounced, and his portrait remained widespread through the USSR, from airports to Khrushchev's Kremlin office. Mikhail Gorbachev , then a Komsomol official, recalled that though young and well-educated Soviets in his district were excited by the speech, many others decried it, either defending Stalin or seeing ...
The Khrushchev Thaw (Russian: хрущёвская о́ттепель, romanized: khrushchovskaya ottepel, IPA: [xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲːɪpʲɪlʲ] or simply ottepel) [1] is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were relaxed due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization [2] and peaceful coexistence with other nations.