Destroying the National-Spiritual Values of Ukrainians during the Anti-Religious Offensive of the Soviet Totalitarian State in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

The article deals with the church and religious life of Ukrainians in the context of national and political processes during the 1960s and 1970s. The author characterizes the anti-religious policy of the Soviet government, shows its directions, forms, and methods, studies the attitude of Ukraine’s title nation representatives to religious persecution and to manipulation of religious consciousness by the communist leadership, and highlights comprehensive atheistic activities and the elimination of the ways for reviving religiosity among people. The author reveals the essence, the process of creating and artificially enforcing the new Soviet ritualism in Ukrainians’ lives. This ritualism has become a convenient tool for popularizing communist ideology in the Ukrainian SSR, destroying historical memory and undermining the national identity of the Ukrainian people. The new Soviet ritualism was also a means for implementing the policy of denationalizing Ukrainians, beginning with the age-old religious oppression of Ukrainian customs, traditions, and rituals. The model of state-church policy of the Soviet power in the described period was based on the use of a variety of forms and methods of struggle against religion, including: a comprehensive control over clergy activities, destruction of religious sites and sacred objects, as well as administrative, moral, and political pressure on believers. Displacing religion, the Soviet totalitarian state destroyed not only native religious customs of the Ukrainian people, but also violated the principles of the centuries-old traditional culture and undermined the national fortitude of Ukrainians.