"Godless Communists" offers a fresh interpretation of early Soviet efforts to create an atheistic, scientific society. William B. Husband shows that religion, contrary to Bolshevik assertions, was not merely an expression of gullibility and ignorance but a firmly entrenched system for ordering family and community relationships. The Bolsheviks' efforts to abolish the Church failed because they underestimated how tightly religious beliefs were woven into the fabric of the Russians' daily lives. Exploring the confrontation between secularism and the lower classes' traditional beliefs, "Godless Communists" illustrates how developments between 1917 and 1932 shaped the attitudes toward religion and atheism that endure in Russia today.
| ISBN: | 9780875805955 |
| Publication date: | 18th October 2002 |
| Author: | William Husband |
| Publisher: | NIU Press an imprint of Cornell University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 258 pages |
| Series: | NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies |
| Genres: |
Agnosticism and atheism European history History of other geographical groupings and regions |