Separation of the school from the church. Decree on the separation of church from state and school from church

1. The church is separated from the state.

2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to make any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict the freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.

3. Every citizen may profess any religion or none. Any right deprivation associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith is canceled.

Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation and non-affiliation of citizens is eliminated.

4. The actions of the state and other public-legal public institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.

5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.

Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.

6. No one may, referring to their religious views, evade the performance of their civic duties.

Exceptions to this provision, subject to the replacement of one civil duty by another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.

7. Religious oath or oath is cancelled.

In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.

8. Civil status acts are conducted exclusively by the civil authority: the departments of registration of marriages and births.

9. The school is separated from the church.

The teaching of religious beliefs in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not allowed.

Citizens can teach and learn religion privately.

10. All ecclesiastical and religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and associations and do not enjoy any advantages and subsidies either from the state or from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.

11. Coercive collection of dues and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their members are not allowed.

12. No ecclesiastical and religious societies have the right to own property.

They do not have legal personality.

13. All property of the church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared to be the property of the people.

Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, by special decrees of local or central state authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.

Signed by: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Ulyanov (Lenin).

People's Commissars: Podvoisky, Algasov, Trutovsky, Schlichter, Proshyan, Menzhinsky, Shlyapnikov, Petrovsky.

Managing Director of the Council of People's Commissars Bonch-Bruevich.

It provided, in particular, the freedom of religious self-determination upon reaching the age of 14, which provoked a protest from the Synod and, subsequently, the Local Sobor Orthodox Russian Church: they believed that the right of self-determination should be granted no earlier than the achievement of civil majority - 18 years.

Wherein legally the legal status of the Orthodox Church itself still remained privileged until January 23, 1918.

Church at the end of 1917

Opened in Moscow on August 15 with the permission of the Provisional Government, the All-Russian Local Council, 3 days after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks on October 25 in Petrograd, decided to restore the patriarchate in the Russian Church. The Council tried to mediate in the Moscow uprising 1917 . The authorities included in the state commission for the protection of artistic monuments, which worked in the Moscow Kremlin in December 1917 - January 1918, three clerics: Archbishop Mikhail (Ermakov), Protopresbyter Lyubimov and Synodal sacristan Archimandrite Arseny. In Georgia, local autocephalists arbitrarily confiscated church property. Also by the end of 1917, a part of the clergy and laity of Ukraine put forward a demand for autocephaly, claiming (with some support from the Ukrainian authorities) church property.

Acts of violence

Despite the relatively peaceful coexistence of the Church and the new government, there were clashes on the ground. Already on October 31, 1917, they shot John Kochurov, archpriest of the Catherine's Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo, for the fact that he and other priests held a religious procession during the days of the rebellion, Kerensky - Krasnov with a prayer "for the cessation of internecine strife." On January 7, 1918, for a sharp review in a sermon about the activities of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Gulyaev, archpriest of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Petrograd, was arrested for some time. However, these incidents were rather considered as special cases. Moreover, the murders of clerics took place even in the inter-revolutionary period.

Land Decree

The sphere of education

The attack on church educational institutions began even before the establishment of Bolshevik power. The provisional government, by law of June 20, 1917, transferred all parochial schools (only Orthodox and funded from the state budget) to the Ministry of Public Education. Under the Bolsheviks, on December 10, 1917, the order of the People's Commissar of Public Charity A. M. Kollontai was published, which turned the Law of God in subordinate institutions from a mandatory into an optional subject.

At the end of 1917, the most painful for the Orthodox Church were the undertakings of A. V. Lunacharsky, People's Commissar of Education. The State Commission for Public Education, controlled by the Council of People's Commissars, began work on November 21, 1917. Initially, she discussed the transfer of parochial schools to the management of zemstvo institutions, but from December 8, it was already about the transfer of all educational institutions subordinate to the Holy Synod to the People's Commissariat of Education.

From November 1917, state funding of theological educational institutions ceased.

In December 1917, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the transfer of upbringing and education from the spiritual department to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat for Education" was issued. This document was based on a project developed by V. A. Galkin. It was ordered to the Commissariat to transfer all educational institutions of the spiritual department(parochial schools, teachers' seminaries, theological schools and seminaries, diocesan women's schools, missionary schools, academies "and all other lower, middle and higher schools and institutions bearing various names"), together with their staff, appropriations, movable and immovable property (buildings, outbuildings, land plots), as well as libraries, valuables, capital and securities and interest on them. An exception was made for churches attached to these institutions, the question of which was postponed until the adoption of a decree on the separation of church and state. The Commissariat took measures to implement this Decree - already on December 12, 1917, a telegram was sent to them in the field, demanding "to speed up the reception of parochial schools." On the ground, the transfer was already in full swing in some places. So, the inspector of public schools from Vytegra reported in response to this telegram that out of 40 parochial schools in the city and the county, 30 were already under the jurisdiction of the local zemstvo council, and the inventory and transfer of property continued in the rest.

Family law

In December 1917, civil registration of marriages and divorces was introduced in Russia: the decrees "On the dissolution of marriage" (December 16, 1917), "On civil marriage, on children and on the maintenance of books of acts of state" (December 18, 1917), which deprived the church marriage of legal force and transferred acts of civil status to the jurisdiction of state bodies.

View of the Council on the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church

Church in early 1918

Closing of temples

Even before the issuance of the decree, a number of temples of the court department were closed - the palace church in Gatchina, the Anichkov Palace Church, the Cathedral of Peter and Paul in Peterhof (temporarily), the large Cathedral of the Winter Palace, as well as churches under the former city government and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (their priests received a notice of release from service). On January 14, 1918, the Deputy Commissioner of State Property Yu. N. Flakserman signed a decree that abolished the court clergy, and confiscated the property and premises of the court churches, while they were allowed to hold services.

Seizure of church property

In addition, in January 1918, the seizure of church property began. First of all, the Soviet government was interested in the printing houses of the Church, control over which could simultaneously limit the ability of the Council to influence believers and give the Bolsheviks the power to strengthen anti-religious propaganda. Even before the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, on January 2, 1918, the government commissioner at the People's Commissariat of Education P. I. Lebedev-Polyansky sent a letter to the manager of the synodal printing house, in which he announced that from January 1, 1918, it would come under the jurisdiction of the Technical Council for the Management of State Printing Houses at the People's Commissariat of Education. Already on January 3 of the same year, a meeting of workers was held in the printing house with the participation of P. I. Lebedev-Polyansky, as a result of which it came under state control. The printing house was forbidden to accept any orders without the consent of the Economic Commission under the Technical Council for the Management of State Printing Houses under the People's Commissariat of Education, and the already printed books of theological, religious and sacred content stored in its warehouse were ordered to be issued to the Synod (this order was not actually executed).

On January 19, 1918, the People's Commissariat of Public Charity attempted to confiscate the buildings and property of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which failed due to the resistance of believers.

Around the same time, the confiscation of the Church's military property began. On January 15, 1918, a Decree was adopted on the establishment of an All-Russian collegium for the formation of the Red Army. The position of the military clergy was determined by the Order of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs dated January 16 of the same year, which ordered the dismissal of military clergy of all faiths, the property and capital of military churches were transferred to special commissions. At the same time, it was provided that the military committee could leave the clergyman. At the same time, according to the painting, the military clergy were assigned a payment only for January-February 1918 for a total of 50 thousand rubles.

All of the above led to a sharp aggravation of relations between the new government and the Church, and on January 19, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon issued the famous Appeal in which he anathematized the persecutors of the Church (although the Bolsheviks were not directly named in it).

Preparation and adoption of the decree

Development of the decree

Researcher A. V. Sokolov believes that the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Petrograd Mikhail Galkin became the initiator of the decree. In November 1917, this priest sent a letter to the Council of People's Commissars with a complaint that he was living "with a heavy stone of complete disbelief in the policy of the official church", and with a request to involve him in active work. He proposed a number of measures, which included the confiscation of church valuables, the introduction of civil marriage and the Gregorian calendar, the deprivation of clergy benefits, etc. The Soviet government supported this undertaking - already on December 3, 1917, his proposals were published in Pravda.

To develop a draft decree on December 11, the Council of People's Commissars created a special commission, which included: Pyotr Stuchka - People's Commissar for Justice, Anatoly Lunacharsky - People's Commissar for Education, Pyotr Krasikov - a member of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Justice, Mikhail Reisner - a well-known lawyer, professor of law at St. Petersburg University, and a priest Mikhail Galkin. The exact name of this commission is unknown. The result of the commission's work - a draft decree - was published on December 31, 1917 in the right-SR newspaper Delo Naroda (and representatives of the left wing of this party were part of the government). The published draft decree provided for: the establishment of freedom of conscience, the introduction of secular registration of acts of civil status, the abolition of official rites in state institutions, the replacement of religious oaths and oaths with a solemn promise, the cessation of the teaching of "religious subjects" in educational institutions, the prohibition of religious societies to own property and have legal rights persons, the transfer to the state of all the property of religious societies, the provision of buildings for religious organizations for public worship "only with the permission of representatives in charge of religious property" .

Reaction to the project

After the draft decree appeared in print, Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd (Kazan) addressed the Council of People's Commissars with a letter stating:

There was no official answer, but V. I. Lenin, having read the letter, called on the collegium under the People's Commissariat of Justice to quickly prepare a decree on the separation of the Church from the state.

Title, dates of adoption and publication

“On the same day, January 20, the Council of People's Commissars approved the draft law in the Leninist edition,” and the name has not changed.

1. The church is separated from the state.

2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to make any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict the freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.

3. Every citizen may profess any religion or none. Any right deprivation associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith is canceled.

Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation and non-affiliation of citizens is eliminated.

4. The actions of the state and other public-legal public institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.

5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.

Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.

6. No one may, referring to their religious views, evade the performance of their civic duties.

Exceptions to this provision, subject to the replacement of one civil duty by another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.

7. Religious oath or oath is cancelled.

In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.

8. Civil status acts are conducted exclusively by the civil authority: the departments of registration of marriages and births.

9. The school is separated from the church.

The teaching of religious beliefs in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not allowed.

Citizens can teach and learn religion privately.

10. All ecclesiastical and religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and associations, and do not enjoy any advantages and subsidies either from the state or from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.

11. Coercive collection of dues and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment by these societies over their members, are not allowed.

12. No ecclesiastical and religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have legal personality.

13. All property of the church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared to be the property of the people.

Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, by special decrees of local or central state authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.

List of signatories

The decree was signed by the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin), as well as the People's Commissars: Podvoisky, Algasov, Trutovsky, Schlichter, Proshyan, Menzhinsky, Shlyapnikov, Petrovsky and the manager of the Council of People's Commissars Vl. Bonch-Bruevich.

In Soviet times, it was emphasized that

Decree implementation

Education

“By 1917, a system of spiritual and moral education and religious education had developed in Russia, the main element of which was the obligatory teaching of the Orthodox Law God in all schools.” The attitude to this subject was ambiguous: “contemporaries unanimously noted the strengthening of unbelief in society,” and yet “the overwhelming majority of the Russian population advocated the preservation of the obligatory teaching of the Law of God in educational institutions” even after the February Revolution.

Soon after the publication of the Decree, an active struggle began with spiritual education. Its provisions were supplemented by private toughening instructions, orders and resolutions.

In particular, in February 1918, the People's Commissariat of Education issued a decree abolishing retroactively, from January 1 of the same year, the positions of teachers of all religions. Also in February 1918, a decree of the State Commission for Education “On a secular school” appeared, which established that “the teaching of religious beliefs in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions, which are under the jurisdiction of the People’s Commissariat for Education, and the execution of any religious rites within the walls of the school are not allowed. In August 1918, the People's Commissariat for Education demanded that within a week (until September 1 of the same year) all house churches at educational institutions be closed, the antimension should be transferred to believers, church property - to the People's Commissariat of Property, and the capitals of institutions should be left to the institutions themselves. On August 24 of the same year, the State Commission for Education ordered the closure of all religious educational institutions (regardless of the source of funding) and the transfer of their buildings to local authorities, allowing only theological courses to be opened for people over 18 years of age.

The transfer of church schools to the People's Commissariat of Education and the ban on teaching the Law of God in general educational institutions "was followed by bans on teaching the Law of God outside of school - in churches, privately in apartments - on teaching religion to children under 18 years of age, a ban on group classes" .

The reaction of Orthodox believers was negative. The Local Council received numerous "resolutions and minutes of parish meetings and councils, indignant appeals and letters from clergy and laity".

“After the Bolsheviks came to power, the educational sphere passed entirely under the jurisdiction of the state,” and in 1917-1923 the Church was ousted from school education. Attempts by parents in the early Soviet years to give religious education to their children in churches and at home were soon suppressed:

... the anti-religious campaign became all-encompassing, parents were obliged to raise their children in a communist spirit; otherwise, deprivation of parental rights followed, and the children were sent to orphanages.

In addition, Article 121 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of June 1, 1922 provided for punishment by forced labor for a term of up to 1 year for "teaching minors and minors religious beliefs in public or private educational institutions and schools." Due to the broad interpretation of Article 121, however, it was possible to send any objectionable clergyman or layman to forced labor. For example, if “a priest spontaneously talked with children on a religious topic,” he could well be charged with breaking the law.

However, examples of persecution for teaching religious disciplines have been observed before. For example, in March 1921, for violating the decree and maintaining an unregistered institution, the Cheka arrested the rector of the Kazan Theological Academy, Bishop Anatoly (Grisyuk), professor of the Academy N.P. and on October 5 of the same year, Professor Vinogradov (along with other teachers) was sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment in a camp conditionally.

"Private teaching of religion, permitted by the decree of 1918, has since 1929 been interpreted solely as the right of parents to teach religion to their own children".

Church property

The implementation of the decree in terms of the confiscation of church property began already at the end of January 1918. On January 27-28, Commissioner A. M. Dizhbit requisitioned the building of the Synod and at night took out church capital by car for more than 46 million rubles (according to the act drawn up). A significant part of the confiscated funds was in the form of bank receipts, and very little cash was seized (1,706.9 rubles). On February 3 (16), 1918, an order was issued to transfer the Moscow Synodal Printing House to state ownership. The church in response stopped giving orders to the printing house.

Employees of liquidated church institutions (at least central ones) were paid a kind of severance pay. Since this issue was not regulated in any way in the Decree, the authorities were actually guided by the order of People's Commissar A. M. Kollontai, issued on January 20, 1918 (shortly before the publication of the decree). This order prescribed "the issuance of funds for the maintenance of churches, chapels and the performance of church rites to stop from the moment this order is published, the issuance of maintenance to clergy and teachers to stop from March 1 of this year in accordance with the decision of the Commissariat of Labor on the issuance of four weeks' earnings upon closing enterprises" . The dismissed officials of the Synod and the Ministry of Confessions received their salaries until March 2 . In places, the alienation of church property proceeded gradually. Even the Moscow diocesan candle factory, as of June 1918, was not alienated in favor of the state, although worker control was introduced on it and the enterprise was under the supervision of the authorities.

A new stage in the seizure of church property began after the "Instructions for the implementation of the decree of January 23, 1918" issued on August 24, 1918 by the People's Commissariat of Justice was published. According to this document, local councils were to withdraw all church property and capital within 2 months: all funds located “in the cash desks of local churches and prayer houses, from church elders, treasurers, parish councils and collectives, from the rectors of churches, from deans , from diocesan and district observers of parochial schools, ... former spiritual consistories, in the capital of diocesan bishops, in the Synod, in the Supreme Church Council, in the so-called "patriarchal treasury" . Temples and liturgical objects were allowed to be transferred for use to "communities of believers" according to the inventory on the basis of an agreement with the council, a sample of which was attached. All loans for the teaching of religion in schools were ordered to be closed immediately, since "no state or other public law institution has the right to issue any amounts of money to teachers of religion, both for the present and for the time that has elapsed since January 1918" . The Instruction was accompanied by an unpublished in the newspapers “Approximate statement of capitals and fees of the former department of the Orthodox confession”, which detailed where and what church capitals should be transferred. Local privy capital, capital from tenement houses and commercial enterprises, cemeteries and fees for the maintenance of the Local Council were left at the disposal of individual Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. The capital of theological educational institutions and church schools was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Education, insurance fees - to the Commissariat for Insurance and Fire Fighting.

Freedom of Religion

Registration of acts of civil status

The consequence of the issuance of the Decree was the removal of the function of registration of acts of civil status from religious organizations. On February 1 (February 14), 1918, the first registry office in Russia began its work in Petrograd. The process of introducing a system of secular registration of acts of civil status dragged on, especially in the outskirts not controlled by the Bolsheviks. For example, in Irkutsk, civil metrication was introduced in 1920, and in Chita only in 1924.

Course towards state atheism

“Already in the first decrees of the Soviet state, aimed at the secularization of church property and at limiting the influence of the Church, an obvious commitment of the new government to atheism is manifested.” The decree became the crowning achievement of Soviet legislation at the end of 1917-beginning of 1918 and laid the foundation for the development of atheistic propaganda and agitation, and atheistic education.

“By the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church” dated January 23, 1918, the Orthodox Church was separated from the state, but at the same time did not receive the rights of a private religious society, was excluded on the territory of the Soviet state from among the subjects of civil law, its legal status approached illegal.

Decree and various religious groups

Since the introduction of the decree, a person's religion has ceased to be indicated in any official state documents and was formally considered a private matter, but in fact could provoke discrimination and even direct persecution. The actual, and not declarative, religious policy of the Soviet government, discriminating against all religions and all believers, was, however, not unchanged over time and changed the degree of rigidity in relation to specific religious groups.

Certain groups in certain periods could enjoy the relative favor of the Soviet authorities. For example, in January 1919, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On exemption from military service for religious reasons" was issued. Although it applied to Mennonites, Doukhobors, and Tolstoyans, it was also used for some time by Baptists and Evangelical Christians. In addition, in 1921, a commission was formed under the People's Commissariat for Settling Evangelical Christians, Baptists, Old Believers and other believers in free lands and former landowners' estates, however, members of the Russian Orthodox Church were excluded from the number of those settled.

Orthodox Christians

Events in Soligalich

On February 24, protest processions were held in Kostroma and other cities of the province, and in Soligalich the procession was especially crowded. However, the Soviet authorities responded to the protest with new repressions and, in the person of their head, the Bolshevik V. A. Vyluzgin, appointed a “requisition of grain surpluses” in the Bogoroditse-Feodorovsky Monastery near Soligalich on February 26. On the evening before the planned requisition, at a meeting of the city duma, which did not recognize the new government, the monastery priest, Priest Vasily Ilyinsky, spoke. It was decided to save the monastery from the pogrom, and people began to gather at its walls, led by the same priest Vasily. As a result, the representatives of the Council were forced to abandon their intention.

Subsequent events included: a spontaneous popular uprising near the building of the executive committee; the unsuccessful attempts of the Bolshevik Vyluzgin to convince the people to disperse, the revolver fire opened by them and the death from the shots of one person; a flash of popular anger, the flight of members of the executive committee and the arrest of the wounded Vyluzgin; the murder of Vyluzgin in the hospital at the hands of unknown people the next morning. The power of the Bolsheviks fell, but was soon restored. Her response to the death of a comrade-in-arms was the mass execution of local residents on February 22 (March 7), 1918, by the verdict of the "military revolutionary court".

"1. The decree issued by the council of people's commissars on the separation of the Church from the state is, under the guise of a law on freedom of conscience, a malicious attempt on the entire order of life of the Orthodox Church and an act of open persecution against it.

2. Any participation both in the publication of this legalization hostile to the Church, and in attempts to put it into practice, is incompatible with belonging to the Orthodox Church and brings punishment on the guilty, up to excommunication from the Church (in accordance with the 73rd rule of the holy apostles and 13th rule of the VII Ecumenical Council) ."

This decision of the Council was announced in the churches. In addition, on January 19 (O.S.), immediately after attempts to requisition the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Patriarch Tikhon issued an Appeal in his own name, anathematizing the “madmen,” who were characterized as follows: sacraments that sanctify the birth of a person, or bless the marital union of a Christian family, are openly declared unnecessary, superfluous; holy churches are either destroyed by shooting from deadly weapons (the holy cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin), or robbed and blasphemously insulted (the chapel of the Savior in Petrograd); the holy cloisters revered by the believing people (like the Alexander Nevsky and Pochaev Lavra) are seized by the godless rulers of the darkness of this age and are declared to be some kind of supposedly national property; schools maintained at the expense of the Orthodox Church and preparing pastors of the Church and teachers of the faith are recognized as superfluous and turn either into schools of unbelief, or even directly into hotbeds of immorality. The property of Orthodox monasteries and churches is confiscated under the pretext that it is the property of the people, but without any right and even without the desire to reckon with the legitimate will of the people themselves ... And, finally, the government, which promised to establish law and truth in Russia, to ensure freedom and order , shows everywhere only the most unbridled self-will and sheer violence against everyone and in particular - over the holy Orthodox Church. The message called for the defense of the Church: “The enemies of the Church seize power over her and her property by the power of deadly weapons, and you oppose them with the power of faith of your nationwide cry, which will stop the madmen and show them that they have no right to call themselves champions of the people’s welfare, builders of a new life at the behest of the people's mind, for they even act directly contrary to the conscience of the people. On January 22, the Council discussed the “Appeal” of the Patriarch and adopted a resolution approving the appeal and calling on the Church “to unite now around the Patriarch so as not to allow our faith to be desecrated.”

A form of protest against the decree was the religious processions, which took place, following the example of Petrograd (where the religious procession on January 21, 1918 was the answer of the city's believers to Smolny's attempt to requisition the premises of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra), at the end of January-February 1918 in Moscow, Vladimir, Voronezh , Vyatka, Nizhny Novgorod, Odessa, Kharkov and other cities. The religious processions were generally peaceful (even in Moscow), but in some cities there were clashes with the authorities. For example, religious processions in Shatsk, Tula and Kharkov were dispersed, and the religious procession in Soligalich continued with events that ended a few days later with the mass execution of local residents (see sidebar).

The decree marked the beginning of the looting of churches and monasteries throughout the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks. At the same time, it was often necessary to overcome the stubborn resistance of believers, which led to bloodshed. According to Soviet sources, during the period from February to May 1918, the actions of believers and attempts to protect church property were accompanied by the death of 687 people.

In the conditions of anticipation of the arrival of the Antichrist and the imminent Last Judgment, the peasant environment was seized by a drunken and hysterical revelry, and the new authorities decided to refrain from closing liturgical buildings: in most cases, religious communities received the right to use them. The main blow fell on the monasteries, most of which were destroyed and closed in 1918-1919.

In line with the implementation of the decree, there was a campaign launched in 1918 to open, seize and liquidate relics.

The actual religious policy of the Soviet government, fundamentally discriminatory against all religions and all believers, during the 1920-1930s made the Orthodox Church the main direction of the application of repressive measures.

Baptists and Evangelical Christians

The decree expressed most of the political aspirations of the Russian Baptists. Such are the separation of the Church from the State; declared. Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess any religion or none, to practice religious cults or conduct atheistic propaganda. Incitement of enmity and hatred in connection with religious beliefs is prohibited. RSFSR In May 1929, Article 4 of the Constitution of the RSFSR was amended, replacing the freedom of religious propaganda with the freedom religious denominations while retaining the right to anti-religious propaganda. The Congress decided, in particular, to state Article 4 in the following wording:

According to Article 13 of the Law, for the first time since 1918, the rights of legal entities were granted to individual parishes and church institutions, including the Patriarchate. “According to Article 18, religious organizations were recognized as the owners of buildings, objects of worship, industrial, social and charitable facilities, funds and other property necessary for the implementation of their activities. Article 6 opened up a legal possibility for the religious education of children.

Decree scores

Official assessments of the decree in Soviet times were positive. An example is the 3rd edition of the TSB, which states:

In order to ensure freedom of conscience for citizens, the church in the USSR is separated from the state and the school from the church. Freedom of worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens. Every citizen can profess any religion or none. The laws of the Soviet Union categorically prohibit any kind of discrimination against believers. The teaching of religious beliefs in all state and public educational institutions is not allowed. Citizens can teach and learn religion only in private.

Assessment of current communists

This decree clearly defined the attitude of the new government towards the church and religious societies. The principle of secularism was established in the exercise of state power. No religion could be given preference, an indication of religion or lack thereof could not give privileges or advantages in holding public office. Atheism was equated in rights with the profession of religion. In the educational process, the teaching of religious subjects (the Law of God) in state general educational institutions was not allowed. These formulations became the basis of the secular policy of the USSR for a long time, “all citizens were guaranteed the right to profess any religion or none. Many foreigners and all enthusiastic admirers of Soviet power, taking these statements at face value, thought that the happy citizens of Russia were granted an unparalleled freedom of religion.

Moreover, the principle of separation of church and state was interpreted by the Soviet authorities in the sense that "the clergy cannot act in an organized manner, that is, as a single national church: attempts to communicate between communities or recognize the hierarchy were considered prima facie as indisputable evidence of counter-revolutionary intentions" .

According to the meaning of the decree on the separation of church and state, the existence of a "church hierarchy" as such is impossible. The decree provides only for the existence of separate, not united among themselves by any administrative authority, religious communities.

In addition to what has already been listed, Pipes notes the fact that although the decree “granted freedom of religion” de jure to every citizen, “the fulfillment of religious needs in public places was prohibited. It was not allowed to perform church rites even at funerals.

Decree on freedom of conscience.

On January 20, 1918, just at the moment of the opening of the second session of the Local Council, a decree appeared abolishing all state subsidies and subsidies to the Church and the clergy from March 1, 1918. The demand of the Council, which assumed that the state would finance the church

life was annulled, and the Church had to exist only at its own expense.

On January 20, 1918, a decree was adopted on freedom of conscience in church and religious societies, which was to become the legislative basis for the Bolsheviks' policy towards the Church. This decree is better known as the decree on the separation of the Church from the state. This decree was of great importance, since it meant a complete revolution in church-state relations in Russia. It was the main legislative act of this kind until 1929, when new legislation was passed.

This decree was discussed at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars. Several people prepared his project: People's Commissar of Justice Stuchko, People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky, People's Commissar of Justice Krasikov, Professor Reisner (lawyer, father of Commissar Larisa Reisner, Raskolnikov's wife) and defrocked priest Galkin. The clergy even then, alas, began to give cadres to the persecutors of the Church as consultants. The project was prepared at the end of December 1917 and approved by the Council of People's Commissars with amendments. The meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was attended by: Lenin, Bogolepov, Menzhinsky, Trutovsky, Zaks, Pokrovsky, Steinberg, Proshyan, Kozmin, Stuchko, Krasikov, Shlyapnikov, Kozlovsky, Vronsky, Petrovsky, Schlichter, Uritsky, Sverdlov, Podvoisky, Dolgasov, Maralov, Mandelstam, Peter , Mstislavsky, Bonch-Bruevich. This is also the so-called "coalition" structure: there are Left Socialist-Revolutionaries here. So, the document came out, as they say, from the “holy of holies” of the Soviet government. Let's take a closer look at this document.

The church is separated from the state.

It is forbidden within the republic to issue any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict the freedom of conscience or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.

Indeed, it is good if laws are not issued that give privileges on the basis of religious affiliation, but pay attention to the initial part: "... which would hamper or restrict freedom of conscience." This concept of “freedom of conscience” is introduced here, which is very vague from a legal point of view. The rights of religious associations and confessions are something concrete, but a free conscience is something completely vague. And if so, then the legal document, with such a vagueness of its wording, opens up the possibility for any arbitrariness.

Every citizen can profess any religion or none. Any right deprivation associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith is canceled. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation and non-affiliation of citizens is eliminated.

This is a qualitatively new moment. The law of the Provisional Government nevertheless provided for the mention in documents of either religion, or a non-religious state.

The actions of state or other public legal public institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites and ceremonies.

It is clear what is at stake. Religion here, first of all, means the Orthodox faith. Of course, it would be strange to accompany the meetings of the Council of People's Commissars with a prayer service or the collegium of the Cheka - a memorial service. True, looking ahead, we can say that religious symbols and religious paraphernalia will still appear among the Bolsheviks.

The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by an infringement on the rights of citizens and the Soviet republic ... Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.

Think about this abracadabra: "insofar as." What does it mean from a legal point of view: "They do not violate the public order"? The procession is on the road, it is already violating public order - transport cannot pass, and unbelieving people cannot go their own way, you need to step aside. At such an absurd level, with references to this law, claims were later made locally. The fact that for centuries in our country the social order was not violated by religious rites, no attention was paid. The decree equates this kind of action with a drinking bout or a fight that violates public order. But the most important thing here is something else - legal vagueness, which allows local authorities to do whatever they want, referring to it "insofar as". What are the steps they can take? Nothing is specified. You can do absolutely everything that local authorities deem necessary, although the law is something all-Russian; local authorities are given the sanction to do whatever they want if they consider that some religious action violates public order.

No one can, referring to religious beliefs, evade the performance of his civic duties. Exemption from this provision under the condition of replacing one civil duty with another in each individual case is allowed by decision of the people's court.

Keeping in mind that the "People's Court" for the Bolsheviks was essentially not a court organ, but an organ of reprisal, one can imagine how it would resolve these issues. And most importantly, that this was ignored already in the summer of 1918, when, for example, they began to carry out forced mobilization into the Red Army, and even clergy could be mobilized. We are not talking about labor service and so on. After all, what is labor duty? When representatives of the “exploiting classes” were deprived of cards, which meant that they were deprived of their daily bread, because it was impossible to buy anything in the cities under war communism (everything was distributed according to cards). They could get some rations only on the condition that some elderly professor, retired general, or the widow of some government official went to dig trenches. And only then did they get some piece of bread, a piece of roach. That's what "labor duty" is. Labor service allowed the authorities to put unwanted people in the position of prisoners, transport them from place to place and keep them in very difficult conditions. All this extended, of course, to the clergy. And the people's court could in some cases replace one labor service with another.

The religious oath or oath is revoked. In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.

It is not so significant if the state refused the religious consecration of its acts.

Civil status acts are conducted exclusively by the civil authorities, marriage and birth registration departments.

The Provisional Government wanted to seize these acts, the Bolsheviks did it, and this was fully justified, from their point of view.

The school is separated from the Church. The teaching of religious beliefs in all state, public and private educational institutions where general subjects are taught is not allowed. Citizens can teach and learn religion privately.

Compare this with the corresponding paragraph of the definition on the legal status of the Church. All general education is opposed to religious education. The wonderful wording "privately" implies that theological schools cannot exist either. A priest can come to someone or invite someone to him privately and teach something there, but a group of priests, theologians, and open an educational institution (not public, but private) turns out to be impossible, based on this formulation. Indeed, when the Theological Seminaries and Theological Academies were closed in 1918, it was extremely difficult to resume the activities of theological educational institutions, at least as non-state ones.

All ecclesiastical religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and associations and do not enjoy any advantages or subsidies either from the state or from its local autonomous self-governing institutions.

Any financial assistance to the Church from the state ceases and it ceased from March 1918 formally, according to the relevant law. Here is another point, it is very crafty.

Coercive collection of dues and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their members, is not allowed.

In practice, this gave local governments a very wide range of opportunities. It was possible at any prayer service, with such a wording, to detect a forced withdrawal of money. You got together, pray for some deliberate reason, and people donate to you, which means you are taking money from them. Similarly, the payment for the requirements.

It was enough for a parishioner not to agree with a priest on the price for baptism or a funeral service, as he quite calmly, referring to this law, could apply to state authorities and say that the priest was extorting money from him.

No ecclesiastical religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have legal personality.

We had this system until 1989. Notice the word "none". Before the revolution, parishes did not have the right of legal personality and property rights, but other church institutions could have these rights, but here all this is cancelled.

All property of the church religious societies existing in Russia is declared to be the property of the people. Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, according to special resolutions of local and central state authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.

Even what has not yet been practically confiscated is no longer ecclesiastical. An inventory of everything that the Church has had to take place, and then the local authorities could, in some cases, leave something for the Church for the time being, and take something right away.

The unwillingness of the Church to give something away was seen as resistance to the fulfillment of the all-Russian law, no matter how this property came to the Church. All of this immediately - state property and doomed to withdrawal.

Such was the decree on freedom of conscience.

On August 24, 1918, an instruction to the decree appeared, which provided for specific measures for its implementation. This instruction stated that in the parish the responsibility for everything rests with a group of 20 lay people. This is how the G-20s appeared, and it was a completely thought-out measure. The power of the abbot, the power of the priest in the parish, was undermined, and, moreover, he was placed under the control of the laity, this twenty, because they were responsible for any actions of the clergyman that might not please the authorities, and thus were forced to somehow control him. Naturally, it was much easier to influence a group of laity than a priest. One layman could be summoned and told that he would be deprived of his cards if he did not do what was necessary, another could be deprived of firewood, and a third sent to labor service.

The shifting of responsibility to the twenties already in the summer of 1918 assumed division within the parish, opposing the rector to the laity and influencing parish life through these very laity, which, of course, could include people associated with the authorities.

On July 10, 1918, the first Soviet constitution, with its 65th article, declared the clergy and monastics to be non-working elements, deprived of voting rights, and their children, as children of "disenfranchised", were deprived, for example, of the right to enter higher educational institutions. That is, already the first worker-peasant constitution placed some social groups, including the clergy, in the category of people without rights. And this is at the level of the highest state power.

ABOUT CONSCIENCE When a person embarks on the path of following the Lord, he wants to live in harmony with the gospel commandments and his own conscience. And now about what conscience is in the biblical sense and what makes us deaf to the voice of conscience, we are with you today and

Teaching 3. About conscience When God created man, He instilled in him something Divine, as if some thought, having in itself, like a spark, both light and warmth; a thought that enlightens the mind and shows it what is good and what is evil: this is called conscience, and it is