The ideological instructions of the Soviet state in relationship to the Russian Orthodox Church and their implementation during the preparation and holding of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957

Abstract

The article analyzes the features of the practical implementation of the ideological guidelines of the Soviet state during the preparation and holding of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students, held in July-August 1957. This event took place in the context of the policy of «de-Stalinization» developed by N.S. Khrushchev, and as a consequence of the relative uncertainty of the relations between the state and Church. An analysis of the methods and means of ideological preparation and control of the host country participants, implemented by the state authorities, primarily by the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the USSR Council of Ministers, is important not only for understanding the existing subordinate status of the Russian Orthodox Church in state-church relations. The directives prepared for the clergy, interpreting the issues of the structure and position of the Russian Orthodox Church, freedom of conscience, the significance of religion as a remnant of capitalism in the USSR, testified to the beginning of a new round of theomachist policy. At the same time, the expected but provocative questions for the authorities about the true position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR, as well as persistent statements by foreign guests about the competitiveness of the Orthodox faith in the conditions of the existing state ideology of communism, could serve as a catalyst for the anti-religious persecutions launched by the Soviet government in 1958.