1) THREAD on *The League of Militant Atheists*
How many of you have heard the name of one of the important arms of the Soviet regime - Soyuz Voinstvushchikh Bezbojnikov or the “Union of Militant Godless People”, also called the "League of Militant Atheists"?
How many of you have heard the name of one of the important arms of the Soviet regime - Soyuz Voinstvushchikh Bezbojnikov or the “Union of Militant Godless People”, also called the "League of Militant Atheists"?
2) The League was purportedly formed to fight "religious bigots" across the Soviet Union, from orthodox Christians to Muslims.
They brought out a newspaper Bezbozhnik (Godless, Atheist) in several languages between 1922 and 1941.
They brought out a newspaper Bezbozhnik (Godless, Atheist) in several languages between 1922 and 1941.
3) Bezbozhnik's Editor Yaroslavsky said: 'It is our duty to destroy every religious world-concept... If the destruction of ten million human beings, as happened in the last war, should be necessary for the triumph of one definite class, then that must be done and it will be don.'
4) From 1922 onwards, Bolsheviks carried widespread anti-religious campaigns, targeting priests and Christmas festivities. Most vulgar satires were written to ridicule the religion.
5) Komsomol (Youth organization) members played an important role in disrupting carnivals and other religious gatherings, chanting slogans “Down with the priests, down with the monks. We will climb to heaven and chase away the Gods”.
6) Mosques and churches were consequently demolished systematically. The League members "arrested, shot, and sent to labour camps" bishops, priests, and lay believers" in the Chrisitan parts of the USSR.
7) Thousands of churches and monasteries were destroyed, shut down, or converted to local government offices, inns - and in extreme cases into bars.
8)
Image 1: The anti-religious activists remove the large (5000 kg) bell from the St Volodymyr's Cathedral central Kiev USSR (now Ukraine). -WikiMedia
Image 2: 1929 magazine cover showing muscular workers dumping Jesus with garbage (WikiMedia)
Image 1: The anti-religious activists remove the large (5000 kg) bell from the St Volodymyr's Cathedral central Kiev USSR (now Ukraine). -WikiMedia
Image 2: 1929 magazine cover showing muscular workers dumping Jesus with garbage (WikiMedia)
9) Local chapters of the League of "Godless People" used similar tactics in Eurasia. Lakhs of religious leaders were arrested and purged in the first few decades of the Soviet rule in Central Asia alone.
10) Mosques, shrines, and madrasas were either destroyed or converted to local offices, or to more degenerate uses. For example, the shrine of Suleiman in Osh city was blown in 1963 one night and a poster was put there that read “Long Live the CPSU”.
