Burning Orthodox Icons as a Form of Anti-Religious Activity and Ideological Struggle by Soviet Atheists in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

This article analyzes icon burning as a distinct aspect of the antireligious activity and ideological struggle of Soviet atheists in the 1920s and 1930s. Numerous icon burning campaigns organized and widely promoted by Soviet atheists in the 1920s and 1930s, were an important activity of the Soviet Security Service. These activities were carried out by Soviet atheists with the goal of desacralizing icons in the minds of Orthodox Soviet citizens, which, in turn, was intended to lead to a general decline in religiosity among the population. Likewise, public acts of voluntary burning of Orthodox icons by previously religious workers, collective farmers, peasants, and Soviet employees were clear evidence that the majority of the USSR's masses had abandoned religious "prejudices" and now held a negative attitude toward Orthodox Christianity–the religion of the USSR's national majority. This, in turn, was exploited by the Soviet government, and specifically by the Soviet Union's Security Council, in its ideological confrontation with Western capitalist countries. This study is based on archival documents, published sources, and anti-religious periodicals from the period under study. The sources are analyzed using general and specialized historical methods: the historical-systemic method, the ideographic method, and the typological method. The author explores archival documents and publications in the anti-religious press from the period under study, which provide information on acts of collective and individual icon burning. The findings allow  a general assessment of both the propaganda activities of Soviet atheists aimed at desacralizing icons in the eyes of the Soviet public, and their ideological opposition to criticism against the Soviet system by spiritual and political leaders of the capitalist countries of the West.