MATTHEW LEE MILLER
Dominic Erdozain, research fellow at King’s College London, has assembled a remarkable collection of essays which explore the dynamic conflicts of Christianity and Communism in Soviet Russia. The Dangerous God brings together senior and junior scholars from the fields of history, literature, religious studies, and political science for a lively conversation on multiple aspects of this interaction. The book does not provide a comprehensive review of church-state conflicts in Russia, but it combines helpful introductions to issues along with path breaking studies of new topics. The authors address three overlapping themes: the Soviet government’s assaults on religious faith and activity, believers’ wide-ranging responses to these pressures, and literary reflections on the presence of the divine in the modern world.
Erdozain introduces this conversation with thoughtful and striking reminders of the significance of the book’s topic: “the harshest episode of religious persecution in human history.” The destruction of church buildings, the murder of priests, and harsh treatment of ordinary believers were all results of “a breathtaking experiment in the reordering of a civilization” (3). This venture ended in failure, but led to a variety of remarkable outcomes, such as the “interpenetration of religious ideas within a hostile Soviet culture” and the “permeation of Soviet ideology within the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Erdozain points out that the most widespread response of believers was “a resolute and radiant humanity” (4). More specifically, he argues that the evidence presented by the book’s authors demonstrated four themes in Christian resistance to Soviet persecution. First, believers consistently exhibited an “overriding concern for human dignity” (7) through an attractive practice of non-violence and compassion. Second, they committed themselves to truthfulness, which stood in stark contrast to the empty slogans and false claims of government officials. Third, the creative arts provided subversive alternatives to required perspectives. Finally, multiple accounts in the book highlight leadership of lay people in resistance when ordained leaders had been arrested or eliminated. Chapters by Scott Lingenfelter, Julie deGraffenried, Michael Bourdeaux, and Geraldine Fagan explore attempts by the Soviet state to eliminate, weaken, or control Christian influence among the Soviet population. Lingenfelter analyzes the Soviet approach to Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant bodies and describes the Bolsheviks’ internal debates, legal decrees, foreign policy strategies, arrests, and executions. His central argument connects the Orthodox revival which had developed before 1917 to repression. In the early twentieth century parish priests, laypeople, theologians, and intellectuals contributed in a variety of ways to an outburst of energy in the empire. Lingenfelter “argues that early Soviet religious policies did not imperil faith: they empowered the faithful.... persecuted believers planted the seeds of a culture of dissent that flourished far beyond the parishes themselves.” (13).
DeGraffenried’s fascinating chapter focuses on the high value placed by the Bolsheviks on forming socialist values in children and the resulting campaign to combat the influence of religious grandmothers. She analyzes the strategy of propaganda posters from the 1920s to the 1970s and concludes, “the Soviet state may have won several battles over seventy years, but God and Grandma won the war” (50).
Bourdeaux, an experienced and vocal advocate for Russian believers since the 1960s, provides a personal account of the experience of Orthodox believers under the Soviet regime from the Stalin era until the time of Gorbachev. He discusses museums of atheism, manipulated religious publications, state controlled church involvement in diplomatic and ecumenical programs, and government responses to dissenting believers. These accounts serve as a necessary introduction to an engaging description of public events in 1988 which marked a millennium of Eastern Slavic Christianity.
Fagan, editor of the East-West Church Report, provides a detailed account of Russian Orthodox collaboration with the government of the USSR. She reviews each stage of the church’s experience from the time of Patriarch Tikhon until the current time, providing meticulous documentation from Russian- and English-language sources in her footnotes. This chapter focuses special attention on the controversial statements of Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) in the 1920s and 30s, and critical reactions from his fellow bishops. Fagan explores the circumstances surrounding the re-establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate and the close relationship between KGB and hierarchy following the war. She notes information revealed since the 1990s by archival documents and the ongoing debate over the nature and necessity of collaboration. In 2007 the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia announced reconciliation after stating mutual disagreement with Metropolitan Sergii’s 1927 declaration of sincere loyalty to the USSR. However, Fagan states that recent material on Sergii published under the authority of the Patriarchate “has bordered on the hagiographical” (203).
Wallace Daniel, Lauren Tapley, John P. Burgess, and Xenia Dennen each look at specific responses by believers to Communist persecution. Daniel provides an insightful biographical portrait of Father Gleb Iakunin, an Orthodox priest, human rights activist, and poet. In 1976 he founded the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights, and four years later he was declared guilty of “parasitism” and “slandering the Soviet state” (77). Throughout his career he worked closely with like-minded clergy, such as Fathers Aleksandr Men, Dmitrii Dudko, and Nikolai Eshliman.
Tapley analyzes the connection between Orthodox Christian dissidents and the Soviet human rights movement, which developed alongside one another. She explores their common roots, linking relationships, and mutual goals. For example, she notes their shared rhetoric which emphasized human dignity and freedom—values promoted in theory by the USSR, but often denied in reality.
Burgess writes that Orthodox believers in the USSR were usually not formally allowed to conduct the educational, social, and outreach activities often practiced by churches in other countries, but they were permitted to celebrate the Divine Liturgy—their primary activity. The author argues that this service functioned as a key to endurance and survival: the Orthodox liturgy “offers not a concrete political program, but rather a vision of freedom before God. In worship, people encounter a God who delivers them from every human ideology” (169). This chapter describes the influence of Father Alexander Schmemann, whose sermons were broadcast into the Soviet Union for three decades.
Dennen’s chapter examines the resilience of Gulag inmates and centers on the story of poet Irina Ratushinskaia, who suffered the brutal realities of a labor camp and received assistance from Keston College, a British organization which assisted many Christian prisoners.
Dominic Erdozain and Josephine von Zitzewitz explore literary responses to the Soviet experiment. Erdozain analyzes Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago and reflects on the spiritual values which undergird the work’s critique of the Bolshevik revolution. He shows how Pasternak draws on Christian personalism to respond to Lenin’s ideology and its manifestations: “It was a work of demystification: a great unmasking of the Soviet Utopia performed under the modest rubric of love, decency, and human survival” (97).
Von Zitzewitz focuses her attention on the role of biblical imagery in the work of five poets who wrote in the 1970s and 80s: Olga Sedakova, Ivan Zhdanov, Viktor Krivulin, Elena Shvarts, and Vasilii Filippov. Pasternak had served as a role model with the biblical themes of his poetry. These poets each drew on the Christian Scriptures to inspire creative reflection on life in ways that exceeded the narrow materialistic boundaries of Soviet reality.
James W. Warhola and Roy R. Robson provide thoughtful conclusions for this book by reflecting on the contemporary significance of Soviet conflicts between politics and faith. Warhola, a political scientist, explores contemporary Russian government actions to identify connections between past and present. He begins by summarizing that “the post-Soviet government has increasingly turned to religious leaders and institutions to buttress its authority at home and to project influence abroad” (210). Throughout his chapter he highlights how Vladimir Putin’s administration has collaborated with the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religious institutions to address the perceived need for morality, build a stronger sense of national identity, increase the perception of legitimacy for the regime, regulate civil society, and control opposition to the government (212).
This book makes an outstanding contribution to the study of Christianity and culture in Russia. These authors have carefully analyzed an enormous range of archival and journalistic sources and provided insightful and thoughtful reflections. The research is scholarly, but the presentation is accessible and useful for anyone who wants to expand their understanding of faith and life in this part of the world. Students, scholars, journalists, and all interested readers will value the expertise and spirit reflected in this exceptional book. Highly recommended.
Matthew Lee Miller is book review editor of the East-West Church Report.
