Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Church opposed our communist victory. That's what these useless relics are for.
They remind the people of our victory and their freedom.”
When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established in 1924,
the communist regime led by Vladimir Lenin inherited a multicultural empire orig-
inally forged by ruthless tsars whose cruelties precipitated the revolution in the
fi rst place. The Soviet Union (short for USSR) extended from Eastern Europe to the
Pacifi c Ocean and from the Arctic to Central Asia. It was territorially the largest
state in the world and culturally one of the most diverse.
Planners of the Soviet Union offi cially recognized the cultural diversity
of the country by creating “republics” mostly named after the dominant peo-
ple within the boundaries of each republic, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Russia. Culturally, the Soviet Union favored Russia,
which was evidenced by the country's policy of
Russifi cation
. Through
Russifi cation, the Soviet Union sought to spread the Russian language and cul-
ture throughout the entire Soviet Union. Politically, the Soviet Union believed
its people would show less allegiance to their republics and more allegiance to
the Soviet Union if power rested in the local rather than the republic scale. Each
republic had a diversity of people within its boundaries. The Republic of Russia,
for example, included 70 distinct territories, which largely corresponded with
ethnic groups.
Culturally, the Soviet Union also espoused an offi cial policy of atheism with
the goal of discouraging and suppressing religious practice. This was no easy task:
among Soviet citizens were many millions of adherents to numerous faiths ranging
from Christianity to Buddhism and from Islam to Judaism. In the Russian Republic,
the Russian Orthodox Church was at the heart of Slavic culture.
The Russian Orthodox Church posed the greatest potential challenge to
communist rule, so Soviet leaders set about arresting religious leaders, closing
churches, seizing church bells and other religious paraphernalia. As a result, much
of the Russian Orthodox Church's architectural heritage and artistic legacy was
lost. The Soviet government forced schools to teach the “evils” of religious belief.
Many churches, such as the one in Figure 7.1, were simply left to decay; others were
converted to “practical” uses such as storage sheds and even livestock barns.
In more remote corners of the Soviet Union, where Islam was fi rmly estab-
lished, the communist rulers tolerated Islamic practice among the old, but not
among the young, who were indoctrinated into the tenets of Marxism. The Soviets
appeared to regard Buddhism as a lesser threat; the mostly Buddhist Kalmyks did
not face the same pressure. Jewish citizens saw their synagogues close, but close-
knit communities often managed to stay below the communist radar. In any case,
the Soviet planners believed that time would slowly but surely erase the imprints
of the empire's many faiths.
By the 1960s, when I took this photo, it seemed as though the Soviet plan
to diminish religion would succeed. In the mainly Muslim republics, Islam was
tightly controlled and in retreat, but Islamic structures tended to be preserved
as museums or libraries. However, in the Russian Republic, Moscow showed little
residue of centuries of Orthodox Christianity. In 1931 the Soviet regime decided
to destroy one of Moscow's great monuments, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The Soviet government planned to build a palace to commemorate Soviet lead-
ers on the site. The government never built the palace, and the large pit that was
to contain its foundation marked the site for decades. Russian geographer Dmitri
Sidorov described the pit as “Russia's most famous geographical symbol for the
failed communist endeavor.”
