La sociologie des religions entre demande étatique et défi du terrain

Imposing atheism was a central preoccupation of the Soviet State between the 1920s and the beginning of perestroika. After Stalin's death, the resumption of anti-religious ideological campaigns called for the constitution of a new expertise on religion in order to legitimate atheist ideology sc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kristina Kovalskaya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Éditions de la Sorbonne 2022-06-01
Series:Revue d’Histoire des Sciences Humaines
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Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/rhsh/7023
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Summary:Imposing atheism was a central preoccupation of the Soviet State between the 1920s and the beginning of perestroika. After Stalin's death, the resumption of anti-religious ideological campaigns called for the constitution of a new expertise on religion in order to legitimate atheist ideology scientifically. This expertise was to testify to the success of secularisation in the USSR, but it also sought to build a real body of knowledge on the country's population and the ‘remnants’ of its religious practices, in order to target these. Thus a previously inexistent speciality emerged, the ‘sociology of religion’. But far from confirming the imminent disappearance of religious practice, what was observed was its widespread persistence. By examining the contrasting trajectories of two Soviet intellectuals, Yuri Lievada and Remir Lopatkin, this article attempts to understand how their research was carried out, and their strategies, in particular how they “accomodated” or resisted the political framework.
ISSN:1963-1022