RELIGIOUS POLICY OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV (1985-1991)

Abstract

The article considers the reign of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and later the President, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his religious policy, main goals and aspects, "Religious perestroika" and its consequences.

1. Gorbachev's religious policy was characterized by different trends at different stages of his rule, and each of them is extremely interesting. Based on the research, we conditionally divide it into three stages:

 Stage I (1985-1986) - incumbent government continues religious course of its predecessors. Religion is still considered to be an opponent of the communist party and its being  persecuted. 

  Stage II (1987 -1988) – M. Gorbachev launches so-called "perestroika", what obviously, had an effect on the religion, however, in a segregation form. In particular, positive changes concerned mainly Russian Orthodox Church – the main one in the Soviet Union, while non-Russian and non-Orthodox churches still had to exist in restrictions.  

 Stage III (1988 - 1991) –  Under the influence of the Western world and particularly, the United States of America and the Vatican, "religious perestroika" spread to other Christian (Catholic and Protestant) churches throughout the Soviet Union.  

   In the work, we have also covered the main trends and stages of "religious perestroika". So, for example: if at the initial stage it used to envisage the rehabilitation of those, repressed on religious grounds, stopping of discreditation, returning of churches and monasteries to Russian Orthodox Church and other measures, at the next stage the regulation of relations with non-Orthodox communities begins. However, all this did not provide for the safety of religious organizations or religious communities, since changes were not made in the legislative framework of the Soviet Union. The last stage of "religious perestroika" was characterized with legislative changes, when laws on freedom of conscience and religion have been passed.

        By all means our paper does not pretend to exhaust the issue, however, we think that this research will contribute to the further study of the Soviet past, religious politics or church history.

Keywords: Soviet Union; Mikhail Gorbachev; religion; politics; "Perestroika"; Russian Orthodox Church; USA; The Vatican.