DOI: 10.7256/2454-0684.2016.6.15907

Abstract: The subject of this research is the interrelation of the diverse classes of youth with Komsomol, which strived to eliminate the religious moods in the Soviet society. Attention is focused on the examination of the atheistic influence of Komsomol upon youth on the brink of the 1950’s – 1960’s, a period that became crucial in the relations between the church and the state, as well as upbringing of the new generations, which according to the Soviet authorities were destined to live in the era of Communism. One of the main plots of this article is dedicated to the analysis of the activity of Komsomol aimed at separation of the religion from the folk traditions, and their adaptiveness to the tasks of propaganda of the Communist ideology, as well as the Soviet style lifestyle. Komsomol is being viewed as a sociocultural phenomenon of the XX century. In study of the atheistic influence upon the youth, the authors based themselves on the fact that atheism is one of the forms of the freethought with regards to religion, and a rather characteristic element of the spiritual and ethical life. It is demonstrated that atheistic work in Komsomol was primarily aimed not at the struggle against the religious views, but at the consolidation of the atheistic outlook among the members of Komsomol themselves. However, the attempts to completely overcome the religious influence within Komsomol have failed. The Komsomol was leading the youth away from religion not as much by its antireligious work, as much as by its successful cultural-public work, and organization of groups of diverse interests.  The broader was impact of the new Soviet culture, the narrower became the influence of the religious culture upon the society.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0684.2016.2.12316

Abstract: The fight for the youth has always been very important for the political and religious unions, being in essence the fight for their future. Due to this fact, the study of the influence of the True Orthodox Christians on the youth during the “Khrushchev’s attack” on the church is quite interesting, particularly because namely the activity of the True Orthodox Christians was most noticeable among the unregistered religious unions at this point in time. Even though the territorial frameworks of the research are limited by the region of Tambov Oblast, its typicality allows extrapolating the majority of the results onto the history of almost entire Central Russia. At the same time, the regional localization lets us to clarify many conclusions by thoroughly examining the processes and phenomena. The author also tried to consider the fact that Tambov Krai traditionally is referred as one of the main forms of the Russian religious sectarianism. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that this article is a first special research dedicated to the comprehensive examination based on the materials of Tambov Oblast of how the True Orthodox Christians, the True Orthodox Church, and the hesychasts affected the youth during the period of 1958-1964.