Protestant Minorities in the Soviet Ukraine, 1945-1991 Volume I

The study focuses on Protestants in the postwar USSR. It has two major aims. The first is to elucidate the evolution of Soviet policy towards Protestant denominations, using archival evidence not available to previous students of this subject. The second is to reconstruct the internal life of Protestant congregations as marginalized social groups. The dissertation is thus a case study both of religious persecution under state-sponsored atheism and of the efforts of individual believers and their communities to survive without compromising their religious principles. A major element of the state’s approach to Protestants was to co-opt religious leaders and transform them into state-appointed, rigid hierarchies assisting the government in its surveillance of parishes, enforcing state-imposed regulations, and serving as a mouthpiece of Soviet counterpropaganda abroad. The Soviet state also tried to gradually reduce religion by driving a wedge between believing parents and their children. The study examines numerous technologies of control over religion in the USSR and shows why the Protestant communities did not turn into abodes of aging folks but experienced rejuvenation.