PC:Soviets co-op religion

Rather repress it for most of it's history. Could the Soviets from the beginning co-op Religion and turn the various religious institutions within the country into a mouthpiece for Communism. Given passages and acts from the bible and Koran could be skewed in a communist or socialist light would this be possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_communism#Basis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_socialism

How would this effect the view of communism among the religious around the world

What would be the impact on Soviet Union and broader communist world
 
If Stalin decides to coopt religious identities as a “means for advancing class consciousness” instead of crushing them, i could also see him pardoning Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, a prominent early advocate of islamic socialism, as a conduit for placating Muslim minorities in the USSR and gradually instigating rebellion within the British and French overseas empires.
 
They tried to an extent in what was termed the "Living Church" which was portrayed as a grassroots movement...it sputtered out in the late 40s. There is a reason why there emerged a separate Russian Church for the majority of the USSR, known as the Church Abroad which was a counter to such state intrusion. And seeing as how the Church largely stood behind the monarchy I don't see how they could reliably skew perceptions within the largest religious body without the heavy handedness of OTL.
 
What would be the impact on Soviet Union and broader communist world

I think Uncle Joe would need to offer the churches and mosques WAY more independence than he was willing to, in order to get his state-religions accepted by Christians and Muslims in the outside world.

Even Liberation Theology, in Nicaragua 1980s, where the government was NOT murdering priests and nuns all over the place, got a pretty rough ride from the RCC, and that was AFTER the liberalization of Vatican II.
 
To some extent the Soviets both domestically and internationally did make use of religious elements sympathetic to them. But they could not have repudiated the long-term goal of overcoming "religious prejudices" without sacrificing their basic ideology--though of course, how to do this, the pace, etc. were questions to which the Soviets gave different answers at different times.
 
To some extent the Soviets both domestically and internationally did make use of religious elements sympathetic to them. But they could not have repudiated the long-term goal of overcoming "religious prejudices" without sacrificing their basic ideology--though of course, how to do this, the pace, etc. were questions to which the Soviets gave different answers at different times.
Maybe as part of an alternate perestroika?

In Romania for instance, the Iliescu regime (who was in a sort of perestroika-like phase at the time) continued and built upon the Communist Party's domination of the Romanian Orthodox Church, even though Iliescu personally is an atheist, and had been pushing for stronger anti-religious policies when he was still in Ceausescu's good graces, to the extent that "The Genius of the Carpathians" himself thought it was too much
 
The famines didn't target Ukrainians but were a byproduct of Soviet policy. It happened all across the Soviet Union including parts of Central Asia .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932–33

Plus, wasn't it the more Catholic regions of the Ukraine that were impacted by the famines? I know that to protestantized westerners, Catholicism and Orthodoxy seem pretty much the same, but I think the hardcore Russian Orthodox nationalists definitely see a difference.
 
The Russian Orthodox Church was a division of the czarist government. To co-op the church that would need to be pro-communist priest that would be able to fill the higher positions in the church that will held by the Loyalists to the tsar. Stalin comes to mind he would have made a great Bishop for a communist church, but like most radicals he was expelled from the seminary before he could complete his training.
If the Russian Orthodox Church was more tolerant of ideological deviation amongst the trainees for the priesthood it could have happened. I find that whole scenario very unlikely considering the official Church position was the Czar was appointed by God to rule Russia and to stand against the Czar was to stand against God.
 
Plus, wasn't it the more Catholic regions of the Ukraine that were impacted by the famines?
Majority of Ukraine's catholic population is still in Poland at this point.
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I would imagine Soviet allies like the PLO or the IRA would be more explicitly religious, and the USSR might openly support Liberation Theology in Latin America. That is, unless they went for an Orthodox-centric religiosity, which was explicitly anti-Catholic or anti-Muslim.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
Rather repress it for most of it's history. Could the Soviets from the beginning co-op Religion and turn the various religious institutions within the country into a mouthpiece for Communism. Given passages and acts from the bible and Koran could be skewed in a communist or socialist light would this be possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_communism#Basis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_socialism

How would this effect the view of communism among the religious around the world

What would be the impact on Soviet Union and broader communist world
Like a new mazdak ism?
 
If the Russian Orthodox Church was more tolerant of ideological deviation amongst the trainees for the priesthood it could have happen.

Religions that have the word orthodox in their title tend to not be tolerant of ideological deviation.
 

Dolan

Banned
If the Russian Orthodox Church was more tolerant of ideological deviation amongst the trainees for the priesthood it could have happen.

Religions that have the word orthodox in their title tend to not be tolerant of ideological deviation.
Stalin finished his Priestly education and become church member while going into socialist-communist ideology?

The Christian Communists under Father Stalin ends up removing explicitly Atheistic Lenin early on and create a Socialist Patriarchy of Russia?
 
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