KYIV EPARCHY WITHIN SOVIET RUSSIAN ANTI-RELIGIOUS POLICY IN THE 1920s

Abstract

The article aims to show the standing of Kyiv eparchy under the conditions of socioeconomic upheavals during the 1920s and define the principles of the Soviet state policy towards church treasures. Research methodology is based on general scientific principles of objectivity, historicism, systematicity, comprehensiveness, which made it possible to accurately recreate the sociopolitical and economic standing of Kyiv eparchy and ensured the reliability of research findings. The scientific value of the article lies in the fact that the statistical data reflecting the standing of Kyiv eparchy in the 1920s were, for the first time, systematized and analyzed in Ukrainian historiography. It is found that whether temples, monasteries and convents were closed or destroyed. It is defined when they ceased to be the objects of religious worship. Their further fate is clarified.The article analyzes the policy of Soviet government towards the demolition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a social institution, elimination of its religious buildings, closure of temples and theological schools, destruction of monasteries and convents, prohibition of church bells, confiscation of church property and persecution of the Orthodox priesthood in the territory of an individual church administrative unit. It clarifies the position of Kyiv eparchy of the Ukrainian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in an age of Soviet legislation in the 1920s. It specifies the principles of Soviet policy towards church property within Kyiv eparchy, the position of its Orthodox clergy and the means of anti-religious propaganda, which made it possible to estimate the extent of material and spiritual losses of the Ukrainian people. The Conclusions. Studying the principles of the Soviet state policy towards church treasures within Kyiv eparchy and analyzing the standing of its Orthodox clergy, as well as the means of atheistic propaganda, one can estimate the extent of material and spiritual losses of the Ukrainian people.