Use of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults by the Totalitarian Regime to Fight against Protestant Communities in Ukraine

Школьна, Ольга Володимирівна (2024) Use of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults by the Totalitarian Regime to Fight against Protestant Communities in Ukraine Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe (Окремі праці з релігії у Східній Європі), 10 (44). ISSN 2693-2229

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Abstract

The article analyzes the use of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults in the fight against Protestant communities in Ukraine by the totalitarian government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1940s, the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, established by the order of J. Stalin, directed its activities toward the unification of Protestant communities and their comprehensive subordination to the totalitarian regime. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Council continued to successfully perform registration, control, punitive, and repressive functions toward Protestant communities in Ukraine, practicing systematic supervision of believers’ prayer meetings, religious practices, and rites. The employees of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults crudely interfered in marriage and funeral ceremonies and issued instructions regarding the repertoire of wedding songs, funeral services, and leisure activities of Protestant believers. In the 1970s, the Council carried out active preventive and repressive actions against Protestant communities, paying special attention to unregistered communities and their leaders. In the 1980s, the role of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults was gradually neutralized, and the Soviet totalitarian system began to degrade and lose its repressive potential; therefore, the decisions of the Communist Party and Soviet bodies were implemented formally and nominally.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ukraine; Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults; Protestant communities; Evangelical Baptist Christians; the USSR; Ukrainian SSR; totalitarian regime; repressions
Subjects:	Статті у періодичних виданнях > Інші (не входять ні до фахових, ні до баз даних)
Divisions:	Факультет образотворчого мистецтва і дизайну > Кафедра образотворчого мистецтва
Depositing User:	Вікторія Анатоліївна Загорій
Date Deposited:	04 Feb 2026 14:37
Last Modified:	04 Feb 2026 14:37
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/56271

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