The Anti-Religious Campaign of Soviet Authoroties In The Mono-City of Kazakhstan

Authors : Yerzhan PAZILOV, Gulzhan OTARBAYEVA

Pages : 19-31

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Publication Date : 2018-12-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article concerns the main direction of the anti-religious campaign of Soviet authorities in Kazakhstan on the example of Kentau multicultural mono-city. The subject of the study is the policy and practice of local authorities to fulfill the tasks of the anti-religious campaign, the response of believers, the forms of their protection and resistance, the results of the anti-religious campaign in the mono-city. The article analyzes the religious life of Kentau mono-city, built in the second half of the 20th century as a "new city", free from the vices of capitalist society, including religion. When creating new cities, their key feature and main advantage, according to the ideologists of the Soviet authorities, was the lack of historical memory, the past in any of its manifestations, including, in the religious ones. This feature was to contribute to a more active formation in the mono-city of a new life and a new type of man - a Soviet man. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite anti-religious measures on the part of the Soviet authorities and the declaration of the idea "Kentau is a mono-city without mosques and churches," the population continued to perform religious activities, and the spectrum of confessions in the city was wide enough.
Keywords : Anti religious campaign, Kentau mono city, Communist ideology, Everyday life, Soviet authorities