Socialist Churches: Radical Secularization and the Preservation of the Past in Petrograd and Leningrad, 1918-1988

by Catriona Kelly

Overview

In Russia, legislation on the separation of church and state in early 1918 marginalized religious faith and raised pressing questions about what was to be done with church buildings. While associated with suspect beliefs, they were also regarded as structures with potential practical uses, and some were considered works of art. This engaging study draws on religious anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and history to explore the fate of these "socialist churches," showing how attitudes and practices related to them were shaped both by laws on the preservation of monuments and anti-religious measures.

Advocates of preservation, while sincere in their desire to save the buildings, were indifferent, if not hostile, to their religious purpose. Believers, on the other hand, regarded preservation laws as irritants, except when they provided leverage for use of the buildings by church communities. The situation was eased by the growing rapprochement of the Orthodox Church and Soviet state organizations after 1943, but not fully resolved until the Soviet Union fell apart. Based on abundant archival documentation, Catriona Kelly's powerful narrative portrays the human tragedies and compromises, but also the remarkable achievements, of those who fought to preserve these important buildings over the course of seven decades of state atheism. Socialist Churches will appeal to specialists, students, and general readers interested in church history, the history of architecture, and Russian art, history, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875807430
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Series:	NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Edition description:	1
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.38(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Catriona Kelly is professor of Russian at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College. She has written widely on Russian cultural history, including St Petersburg.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations and Glossary xii

Note on Translation xvii

List of Illustrations xviii

Introduction 1

1 "October Has Caught Up with the Church": The Separation of Church and State, 1918-1923 22

2 Monuments to the Golden Age: The Canons of Preservation, 1924-1928 66

3 Churches in the Socialist City: Crash industrialization, Rational Atheism, and City Planning, 1929-19-40 95

4 The Great Patriotic Church?: Wartime Destruction, Postwar Reconstruction, 1941-1953 140

5 The Scientific Assault on God: Church-Monuments in the Khrushchev Era, 1953-1964 189

6 Cynosures of the City: Church Buildings as National Heritage, 1965-1988 226

Conclusion 262

A Note On Sources 279

Notes 283

Select Bibliography 379

Index 401

What People are Saying About This

Gregory Freeze

This manuscript offers a richly detailed study of churches in St. Petersburg-Leningrad over some eight decades, with the focus on policy and its implementation with respect to Russian Orthodox Churches. The work draws on an impressive source base-oral history as well as an array of archival and printed sources, much of it local. The account offered here adds a valuable new perspective on the battle between partocrats and preservationists, with fascinating material on the resistance by clergy and lay believers such policies as the confiscation of church valuables and closing of parish churches.

Karl Qualls

This is a major contribution to the field; there is no similar work. It opens a new lens for us to understand the Soviet Union and also complements work on church history, historic preservation, and city planning. Kelly engages extensively with the literature in all of those fields and manages to pack an incredible amount of detail into a highly readable and engaging text.

Editorial Reviews

10/24/2016
Kelly (St. Petersburg: Shadows of the Past), a professor of Russian at Oxford, impressively collates and unpacks a wealth of archival materials in this lugubrious history of religious buildings in Soviet St. Petersburg. Government officials, caught between official freedom of worship and fear of the anti-state potential of religious life, vacillated between preserving ecclesiastical buildings and demolishing or repurposing them, in either case appropriating their valuables for state coffers. Certain decades encouraged preserving buildings as monuments to Russian history and art while others experienced more radical anti-religious climates. Kelly clearly outlines the balancing act that officials undertook between state atheism and religious freedom, including employing inaction that achieved secularist goals through lack of financial support for repair. The work effectively challenges the assumption that Soviet Russia was entirely hostile to religious belief and practice. Although brief snippets of humor and anecdote humanize the history, these are lost in the plodding and relentless chronology of decrees and debates among officials. Kelly also does not delve much into the actual methods of preservation, leaving the discussions more abstract (though periodic photographs do illustrate her points). Scholars focusing on Soviet history, church-state relations, or the political context of preservation will find the most utility, but the work will not appeal to a wider audience. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

One of the major strengths of Kelly's book is in this chronological scope, which allows her to narrate an entire history of the Soviet project to eradicate religion and the contradictory process that stemmed from this effort. Kelly's story is remarkably researched, packed full of insights, and highly readable.

Journal of Modern History

Catriona Kelly, a recognized expert on St. Petersburg, has written an insightful and well-contextualized study of the diverse fortunes of the churches of this city during the Soviet period. Having scoured the archives and mastered the secondary sources, she has also provided a very rich bibliography as well as notes that reward reading.

Journal of Church and State

Having confiscated all the wealth of the church against which radicals raged for decades, the socialist regime begun by Lenin had to figure out what to do with buildings that had thereby become 'socialist churches.' This is the quandary that is splendidly explored in this groundbreaking study: what to do with all these liturgical structures

From the Publisher

The book illuminates a neglected aspect of the history of a city and its life, and of the religious communities that sought to survive under an uncongenial regime.

Slavonic and East European Review

Bringing together a wide range of sources and the author's intimate knowledge of St. Petersburg history, this study is a pleasure to read and can form an excellent bridge for specialists in twentieth-century cultural, urban, and religious history who wish to understand how Soviet Russia fits into transnational trends.

American Historical Review