How in the USSR they looked for similarities between Christianity and communism and invented their own religion

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Despite the fact that the communists deny the existence of God and higher powers, the question arises, what's the difference in what to believe: in God and heaven or communism and a bright future? If both, in one way or another, fall under ideology, imply behavioral norms and even the cult of individual individuals? However, there are still a lot of similarities between religion and communism, which only explains the reason why the communists fought on such a large scale against religion in all its manifestations, rather trying to replace one ideology with another.

For the first time this idea of the similarity between Christianity and communism was voiced by the philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev in his article "The Kingdom of the Spirit and the Kingdom of Caesar", it happened back in 1925, later he deepened this idea in a book on communism. However, although Berdyaev was an educated person, he was still a religious philosopher, and besides, he migrated from the country when the Bolshevik showdown began there, so his works were perceived through the prism of attitudes towards him. However, now, when this topic can be viewed relatively objectively, the parallels can be identified the most obvious. And there are many more of them than you might think.

So, religion is usually called a system of views, customs and rituals, moral dogmas. A feature of religion is the fact that it regulates the behavior of a group of people, unites them around one value.

Communism dates back to the 19th century, due to the fact that the concept of "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie" appeared. Those who "preached" Marxism came to the true opinion that being determines consciousness. No wonder there is a line in the International that the old world must be destroyed to the ground in order to build a new one. The Bolsheviks saw many negative aspects of Christianity and the values that it preaches. Therefore, the struggle with religion began, but people had to believe in something, because communism came to the vacant place in human consciousness.

However, the main disadvantage of Christianity was that, in principle, it exists and has a certain (and rather strong) influence on human consciousness, largely determining their behavior, forming values. Even the Tatar-Mongols recognized the power of religion and granted the church a lot of indulgences and deliberately raised it above the laity. This allowed them to influence society not only through intimidation.

The party said it was necessary

Despite the fact that the whole phrase sounds somewhat different, it is often used even by contemporaries, because it largely determined consciousness. And it is she who is one of the main similarities between religion and communism. The party in the USSR was not just omnipotent, its power was unlimited, and decisions were not discussed, as if it was God's intention. At least, this is how they used to treat church prescriptions.

Initiative, unnecessary questions were not welcomed, moreover, the state tried to monitor how citizens live, how they have fun and what they think about. The Bolsheviks not only believed that they could control the minds of citizens, but they did it successfully. Using where intimidation, where is the encouragement, they still managed to get what they wanted.

A person cannot live without faith. So it is believed both in religion and in communism. Only if in religion this belief is associated with the afterlife, then in communism it is a bright future, for which today you need to work hard, think correctly, bring up children with the right thoughts and endure. Religion promises paradise if you live according to the commandments and are pleasing to God, bring up pious children and endure hardships. Communism promises a bright future if you follow all party instructions and be faithful to the dogmas of Marxism. In the USSR, they openly promised to build a paradise on earth, not at all embarrassed by the divine origin of this definition.

Any religion presupposes the presence of temples - places where people come to perform certain rituals, communicate with each other and for advice from a spiritual mentor. If everything is clear with religion here and places of worship were churches, monasteries and parishes, then in the USSR, such places were palaces of sports, culture, clubs and libraries. It is noteworthy that in the USSR there was a practice of building communist cult buildings on the sites of destroyed churches. Thus, the Palace of Soviets was built on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. History knows cases when temples were built on the site of pagan temples. Quite a self-explanatory coincidence.

In addition, there are a lot of smaller details that all lead to the same idea. The presence of similar rituals, the child is not baptized, but a birth certificate is issued, instead of a wedding, solemn registration at the registry office, skating with music. Instead of Christmas - New Year, instead of Easter - May 1, and then May 9, later united in a whole galaxy of "May holidays". At first, this was done as an alternative, in order to distract people from the usual Christian holidays, then it took root as a new tradition.

If believers worshiped the relics of saints, then atheist communists stood in line for hours at the Mausoleum in order to see at least one eye the one who “lived, is alive and will live”. Moreover, it was the common people, and not the party elite, who were imbued with a special love for the new communist rituals. Apparently the people still longed for spectacles.

Opium for the people

In Tsarist Russia, all culture pursued one goal - the service of religion. With the change of power and regime, only that which art worshiped has changed. Back in the 1930s, Stalin approved the principles of social realism, according to which culture had to pursue exclusively those goals that were designated by the state as a course of alignment.

The opposition between the bourgeoisie and capitalism was characteristic of both spiritual leaders who were devoted to their cause (we are not talking about priests who profited from parishioners fraudulently) and communism. Asceticism and striving for minimalism are inherent not only in many religions, but also in communism. In both ideologies, there is an opinion that any excess distracts from the main goal. It is believed that this is why communism did not take root in Europe, they were not ready for asceticism. It was precisely this escape from luxury that largely determined the Soviet style, which can be traced in everything that was "made in the USSR", even in fashion and architecture. The main quality of the thing was to be practicality, not aesthetics. And everything that was too beautiful immediately became bourgeois and capitalist.

Rejection of other views is also characteristic of both religion and communism. The church condemned (and this, to put it mildly) for heresy, and the communists for the "bourgeois attitude", "cosmopolitanism", "worship of the West", "betrayal of the party's ideas" were branded as "the enemy of the people." The church had a system of punishment for those who spread heresy. The Communists ordered the NKVD to deal with the spread of the wrong ideology. How it happened is well known.

The literature of those times clearly demonstrates the mood that was in the air. People sincerely believed that they were on the verge of a new life, that the world around them would become completely different and thanks to them, their efforts. For the literature of those years, the description of nature is almost not characteristic, as was typical before, but more attention is paid to industrialization, progress in general. This moment also only proves the fact that the prototype of the Creator God was taken by the creator people, who at the same time retained all the qualities and options of the former.

Almost immediately after the revolution, the Bolsheviks published the "Ten Commandments of the Proletariat" - here, as they say simply without comment, there is no need even to draw an analogy. Many Bolshevik posters are copied from icons. So, a worker or soldier is often depicted in the image of St. George - he sits astride a horse and defeats the dragon. The horse is red, and the dragon personifies the bourgeoisie. Sometimes you can even find that an inscription calling on the proletarians about the need for unification is written in ligature referring to church writings and books.

"Word of God" on earth

All this leads to the idea that the Bolsheviks did not seek to come to atheism, to eradicate the image of God from the heads and hearts of the laity, but rather wanted to take its place. In this difficult and highly ambitious task, these similarities between religion and communism helped. After all, the new ideology had to be a working scheme.

Lenin's struggle against the opportunists is extremely similar to the struggle for the purity of church teachings at the dawn of its formation. Like the church, the Communist Party will honor those who have spared their lives for the sake of a just cause. Their names and images are fondly immortalized on the pages of textbooks. The party, like the church, is absolutely sinless, and if mistakes are made, it is the fault of a particular individual, which in no way can denigrate the entire system as a whole. Religious processions replaced the May Day demonstrations; instead of icons, they took up posters, or even portraits of new "saints."

But perhaps the most obvious are the scriptures, sources of knowledge and repositories of ultimate truths. If for the church the Bible was such a scripture, then for the communists, in addition to Karl Marx's Capital, there were also collections of works by Lenin and Stalin, which they poured from a cornucopia. And when did everyone have time? Like the scriptures, these sources cannot be criticized, but they can and should be quoted to the place and out of place, in order to demonstrate their innocence, broad outlook and decency.

Any religion divides people into right and wrong, faithful and unfaithful. In communism it runs like a red thread, here the right are exploited, and the wrong are exploiters. Therefore, the former can and should not only fight against the latter, but also have every moral right to destroy them as a class. The Red Terror and the period of collectivization have become just such periods in the history of the country. The passionate desire and fanaticism with which the communists defended their ideology is extremely reminiscent of the position of religious fanatics who do not see and do not accept any point of view other than that dictated by their religion. How, if not fanaticism, to explain the shootings, denunciations, the camp system and surveillance.

Why did the people agree to this?

Based on the foregoing, a logical question arises: why did the people agree to such a paradigm shift when horseradish turned out to be no sweeter than a radish? Is it possible that faith, what a person grew up with since childhood, absorbed with mother's milk, can so easily be replaced, although not eradicated, as we have already found out above. So why did the overwhelming majority agree to the new terms?

The difference between the estates has always determined a certain conflict between them. The peasants saw oppressors in the nobles, and the gap between the estates was so huge that many could not even think of any other relationship between them. In this conflict, the clergy most often took the side of the masters. This happened for a number of reasons. Firstly, many clergymen were simply fed by the same landowner, received benefits and patronage from him. Secondly, taking the side of the nobles. The priests kept the old peaceful way of life, otherwise they would simply not be able to behave - not according to Christian rules.

This could not but disappoint the progressive peasants, who in the sermons of such priests again and again saw supporters of the oppressors and their justification. This undermined faith in the bud. This was one of the reasons why people willingly picked up the new ideology and carried it into life. In addition, she met all the criteria that are necessary for the vitality of religion.

From the point of view of science, religious thinking is usually called what can be analyzed from the same point of view. That is, it is possible to explain religious dogmas only with the help of this same religion. It cannot be tested or proven using mathematics or physics, as happens with something not endowed with a divine attribute. It follows from this that religious foundations cannot be challenged, in scientific terms - this is an axiom. Well, just take it and believe it. No one (we are talking about true believers, of course) will not even think about the need to prove this theory.

According to these parameters, communism again fits into religion. And again, and again, parallels emerge - party meetings are like masses, there is also a God-man, otherwise, why would Lenin's body be kept for so many years in the mausoleum, if it were not for the religious cult of thousands of people? Moreover, Christians exclaim during a religious holiday, they say, "Jesus is risen," and the communists write in children's textbooks that Lenin lived, is alive and will live. Neither one nor the other is in a hurry to part with their God-man.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, together with Lenin, gather in the "holy trinity". If the God-man is holy, infallible, then the forerunners have the right to worldly flaws and more human weaknesses.

Another important detail that unites these two ideologies is symbols. Communism could not do without a new, bright and catchy symbolism - it was the red star. And so that the similarity was final, they began to install it on the roofs of buildings and wear it on the chest, as if it were a pectoral cross.

All this mess around Christianity and communism, an attempt to replace one with another, in the end, has created a unique Russian flavor, which can hardly be found anywhere other than Russia. Although in the Muslim republics and the CIS countries, the mixture of religions and Soviet ideology turned out to be even more complex. This became a prerequisite for the emergence of new holidays, traditions and worldviews. That there is only the May Day tradition of "rolling eggs from the mountain", in which Easter, May 1, and a simple desire to have fun, rejoicing at the onset of spring, are mixed.