Andrey Ivanovich Savin,
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.
Religious Organizations in the USSR as Viewed by the 5th Department of the KGB (1971)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-2-12
This article introduces the analytical “Note” of the 5th Department of the KGB (January 1971) on the Russian Orthodox Church and the so-called Christian sects. The “Note” is of particular interest because it introduces the reader to a specific context of the policy of the higher party and state leadership of the USSR toward religious organizations during the Brezhnev era. The main specificity of this policy was its duality: the ratio between the liberal and repressive components depended directly on the loyalty of any denomination and the degree of conformity of its leadership. In this note, the Russian Orthodox Church is described as the most loyal denomination. The main threat to its loyalty, according to the authors of the note, came from religious activists and a number of bishops who sought to strengthen the church and remove it out of control of state agencies. Part of the blame for undermining loyalty to the Orthodox Church was traditionally attributed to foreign hierarchs under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. A large part of the document looks at Protestant denominations. Among these, the main focus is on the activities of the illegal Baptist Council of Churches, especially on mass protest actions of believers, organization of religious “samizdat,” as well as “letters to the government” and international relations. The “Note” concludes with a brief analysis of the activities of Mennonites, Adventists, Pentecostals, and Jehovists.
Publishing: 28/04/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 10.03.2022
How to cite: Savin A.I. Religious Organizations in the USSR as Viewed by the 5th Department of the KGB (1971) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 2 (22), pp. 188–205. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-2-12.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2022
Keywords: Russian Orthodox Church, Christian sects, USSR, KGB, Brezhnev era, loyalty, non-conformism