Savin Andrey I.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bible in the Soviet Union: the History of Import from Abroad, Publication and Distribution
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-2-3
This article focuses on the history of the religious literature, mostly the Bible, in the USSR during 1922–1991. The paper describes such political practice of the state as manipulation of religious organizations through strict control of import, publishing and distribution of religious literature in the Soviet Union. The article reconstructs different phases of the relationship between the Soviet State and the Bible: starting with the minimal import from abroad and minimal printing within country during the years of NEP, through almost absolute ban and mass confiscation during 1930s and finishing with gradual legalization in post-war era. The paper analyzes the activity of primary party-state institutions responsible for the control over the religious literature in the USSR. These included state security institutions, Commissions responsible for the fulfillment of Decree on the Separation of Church and State, General Directorate for the protection of State secrets in the Press, Council for the Affairs of Russian Orthodox Church, Council for the Affairs of religious cults and Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The article pays special attention to the struggle between KGB and samizdat of such religious organization as the Council of Churches of the Evangelical Christian-Baptists, which operated in the USSR illegally during the 1960s–1980s. The paper is supplemented by the documental appendix containing the documents, found by the author in the Russian State Archive of the Contemporary History. These documents are introduced in the scientific circulation for the first time. They describe the import of the religious literature to the USSR from the USA during the end of 1940s – beginning of 1950s.
Publishing: 29/04/2020
How to cite: Savin A.I. Bible in the Soviet Union: the History of Import from Abroad, Publication and Distribution // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 2 (10), рр. 33–50. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-2-03.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2020
Keywords: the Bible; the New Testament; the Gospel; the USSR; import; publishing; ban; “samizdat”; OGPU; NKVD; Antireligious commission under the Central Committee of Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) – Soviet Union Communist Party (Bolshevik); Council for the Affairs of Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union; Council for the Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union; KGB; Moscow Patriarchy; evangelical Christians; Baptists