«HOW BOLSHEVIKS LOST ANTI-RELIGIOUS FIGHT»: RELIGIOS POLITICS OF THE SOVIET STATE AND THE MUSLIMS OF SIMBIRSK/ULYANOVSK PROVINCE

Abstract

In this article anti-religious propaganda and agitation among the non-Russian Muslim population of Simbirsk/Ulyanovsk province in the 1920s is considered within the frames of religious policy of the Soviet state. The article is based of party office documents kept in the State Archive of Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk region. The state and the party both failed to make serious headway in spreading atheistic worldview among Muslim Tatars. In this regard, using of force to suppress religion at the turn of 1920–1930s was had the obliged and objective character. The documents of the party and Soviet authorities are stated the failure of anti-religious propaganda and work in the 1920s in the regions.