When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in November 1917, they used a wide range of techniques - some subtle, some violent - to eradicate religion in areas under their control. The new Soviet government arrested priests, closed church buildings, exposed fraudulent monastic relics, forbade the printing of religious literature, and denied religious education to the young - all the while proclaiming abroad that there was no religious persecution in Russia. They set out to crush not only all organised religion but even the likelihood of religious thought. "And God Created Lenin" examines in depth the conflict between Lenin's logic-driven efforts to stamp out religion and the churches' passionate attempts to save themselves from obliteration. It looks at both sides objectively and admits that they both presented strong cases. In this thoroughly researched yet accessible study, historian Paul Gabel offers a new understanding of the only effort in world history to upset the universality of religion. Besides the main conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the atheist state, Gabel also considers the tensions that this campaign against religion caused within the Communist Party. In addition, he discusses the bitter hatred dividing the Orthodox factions that refused cooperation with the government from those that tried to adapt the church to communism. Was the failure of Soviet communism to eradicate religion simply a matter of practical miscalculation, or was this effort, in light of the persistence of religion throughout history, ultimately unrealistic and doomed from the start? This is the key question that Gabel's fascinating, insightful narrative attempts to answer.
And God Created Lenin
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Paul Gabel (Scotts Valley, CA), trained as a historian at the University of California at Berkeley, is a retired educator and the creator of the educational software The Vietnam War.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Paul Gabel is a graduate of the History Department at the University of California at Berkeley and has taught history for 33 years. He is the author of two books dealing with Christianity and history. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, between the mountains and the sea.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting Study of the Conflict Between Marxism and Religion.,
By New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion In Russia, 1917-1929 (Hardcover)
_And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs. Religion in Russia, 1917 - 1929_, published in 2005 by Prometheus Books by historian Paul Gabel is a fairly interesting study of the conflict that arose between Marxism and religion. The author makes the contention that he is investigating whether the Bolsheviks had a realistic chance of creating a perfectly secular society free from the influence of religion. Unfortunately, at times the author is quite unfair to religion, relying on hostile sources for information about the Russian peasantry, and maintaining for example that prayer is "superstition" though with no evidence to back up this complicated issue. The author obviously favors secularism and ends his book with the hope that a perfectly secular society free from religion may one day be constructed. He also offers several possibilities for the secular state, though as I see them none of these are legitimate functions of any state. Ultimately the book is written to explain why Marxism failed in Russia and why religion persisted (though the author maintains it was severely weakened by the process). Despite these criticisms however, the book does offer quite a bit of useful information about this complicated relationship and the history of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. The book does make some interesting points about the brutality of the Soviets and how in trying to quash all religion committed excesses far worse than any committed by the religious. However, the author's central argument that Marxism itself is not religious in nature is not something I believe that can really be taken seriously. In the absence of religion, something must arise to take its place. And that something in the Soviet Union turned out to be a gigantic bureaucratic and totalitarian state. Eric Voegelin for example has written about this and refers to such modern "secular religions" as a revival of old Gnostic heresy with the goal of creating heaven and hell here on earth. This book offers some useful and interesting reflections nonetheless and provides information that really is difficult to come by. As such it is certainly worth reading, although at times I find myself disagreeing adamantly with the author's perspective.
In the "Introduction" the author lays out the question of the nature of the conflict between Marxism and religion, in particular the conflict between Bolshevism and the Russian Orthodox Church. The author explains that both sides may be seen as the opposites in a Chinese yin-yang symbol. Following this, the author examines the meaning of religion. The author notes that Leninism developed the external trappings of religion but maintains that it in fact was not religion (however this claim seems spurious in light of the remarks made above). Part I of this book is entitled "Prelude". The first chapter of this book is entitled "A Fourth There Will Never Be: A Brief History of Russian Orthodoxy". Here, the author explains the conflict between East and West and expounds upon the relationship between the tsar and the church. The author also considers the Russian peasantry regarding them largely as a superstitious lot prone to fatalism and not truly Christian but rather pagan. However, it should be noted that much of the information the author uses on the peasantry is obtained from hostile sources. In particular, Marx hated the peasantry and regarded them as a backwards people prone to reaction. The second chapter is entitled "They Resign Their Lives to Providence: Weaknesses in Church and Culture". Here, the author examines the role of myth, ikons, wealth and poverty, as well as the Russian monk Rasputin (maintaining that he served as a corrupting influence for the Russian Orthodox). The third chapter is entitled "Reflections in the Minds of Men: An Introduction to Marxists on Religion". This chapter examines the role of various pre-Marxist atheist thinkers and the role of Karl Marx and his theories of alienation and class consciousness as well as his notion of religion as "opium of the masses". The fourth chapter is entitled "The Fog of Religion: Marxists on Christianity, and Theories of Revolutionary Timing". This chapter examines such things as the role of Christianity and the plan for revolutionary timing in overcoming religion. Part II of this book is entitled "Conflict". The fifth chapter of this book is entitled "We Have A Tsar No More: The First Church Sobor" and examines the question of the church sobor and the role of the patriarch. The sixth chapter is entitled "Shedding Tears of My Suffering Soul: The Civil War, Émigré, and Ukrainian Churches" and examines the role of the church in the civil war as well as the role of the Ukrianan church. The seventh chapter is entitled "A Stone Instead of Bread: Separation of Church and State". This chapter examines the problems of church and state and Marx's interpretation of religion. The eighth chapter is entitled "How, Then, About Elijah? Religion and the Schools" and examines the role of religion in the schools and the role of Elijah as the cause of thunder which the schools attempted to refute with "science". The ninth chapter is entitled "Parades Moving Along Empty Streets: Bolshevik Attempts to Socially Undermine the Clergy" and examines such things as various forms of mockery of religion, attempts to descrate holy relics, and the project of "Godbuilding" as a means to replace religion. The tenth chapter is entitled "Who Knows That I'm Married? Reinventing the Religious Calendar" and examines the various efforts to reinvent the religious calendar and life events among the Bolsheviks. The eleventh chapter is entitled "The Mountain Brings Forth a Mouse: Bolshevik Uses of the 1922 Famine" and examines various ways the 1922 famine was used against the churches. The twelfth chapter is entitled "The Foulest, Blackest Foe of the Working People: Trials of the Orthodox Clergy" and examines the way in which the Orthodox clergy were tried by the Soviet state. The thirteenth chapter is entitled "An Unfortunate Misunderstanding: The Emergence of the Living Church Movement" and examines the role of the "Living Church Movement" among the Soviets. The fourteenth chapter is entitled "A Christian By Nature: The Second (Renovationist) Sobor" and examines the Second Renovationist Church Sobor and the role of Patriarch Tikhon. The fifteenth chapter is entitled "The Night Will Be Long and Very Dark: Patriarch Tikhon's Confession, Release, Death, and Will" and examines the role of Patriarch Tikhon in opposition to the Soviets. The sixteenth chapter is entitled "Our Joys and Successes: The Decline of the Living Church and the Rise of the Soviet Church" and examines how the Soviet church came to take over the role of the Living Church. The seventeenth chapter is entitled "The Abyss of Condemnation: Antireligious Organizations, a New Crackdown, and the Catacombs" and examines the continuing crackdown on religion by antireligious organizations and the role of the catacombs church. The eighteenth chapter is entitled "Abolishing God: Reassessing Propaganda" and examines the role of propaganda in the abolishment of God. The nineteenth chapter is entitled "A Bandage Over the Eyes of Man: Propaganda Vehicles and Techniques" and examines the role of continuing propaganda techniques against religion. The twentieth chapter is entitled "The Black International: The Catholic Church and Alleged Conspiracies" and examines the role of the Catholic church in providing support to Russians mentioning in particular the role of the Eastern Rite Catholics and alleged Catholic conspiracies. The twenty-first chapter is entitled "A Statesman of the Catholic Counterrevolution: Trials of the Catholic Clergy" and examines the role of various arrests and trials of Catholic clergy including a mock trial of the pope as well as the role of Father Klimaszewski and Father Edmund Walsh. The twenty-second chapter is entitled "The Greatest Menace: Sectarians" and examines the role of such sects as off-shoots of Russian Orthodoxy including Old Believers, Tolstoyans, Dukhobors, Khlysty, Molokans, and Skoptzy, as well as various Western Protestants including Lutherans, Baptists, Mennonites, and Adventists and the difficulty the Soviets faced in eliminating sectarianism. Part III of this book is entitled "Meaning". The twenty-third chapter is entitled "Yes, A Miracle!: Religious Persistence" and explains how religion continued to persist despite the onslaughts against it made by the Soviets. The twenty-fourth chapter is entitled "A Picture Badly Out of Focus: Proximate Causes of Failure" and explains the author's reasons for why he thinks the Bolsheviks ultimately failed to eliminate religion from Russia and in their battles with the Russian Orthodox Church. The twenty-fifth chapter is entitled "An Elemental Impulse: Ultimate Causes of Failure" and considers the universality of religion and the possibility that the religious impulse is innate to man leading to the ultimate failure of the Soviet project. This book offers an interesting study of the conflict between Marxism and religion (in particular the Russian Orthodox Church) in Russia and attempts to explain various reasons why the Marxists ultimately failed to uproot religion from Russia. In many ways, the book covers similar material to that covered in the book _Storming Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless_ by Daniel Peris. Ultimately, the author hopes for a completely secular society, something which I see as not only a dangerous impossibility but also as not desirable. I feel that the author is less than fair to religion in this regard and has a tendency to too frequently throw out the baby with the bathwater. Ultimately, the Russian experiment proved a colossal failure and the widespread destruction caused by the rise of Marxism in Russia has still yet to be undone. As such, I believe one should not continue to hope that such results of bringing about a paradise on earth will come to be. Whenever such attempts are made the results are always failure and endless horrors ensue.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, fun to read, overlooked topic,
By Kleevis Siveelk (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion In Russia, 1917-1929 (Hardcover)
For fans of history, this is a look at a fascinating time after the Russian revolution. The time this book covers happens within twenty years of the two world wars and the great depression. Obviously, the first wide scale attempt to force atheism on a population would get overshadowed. A lot of good stories in here, written in an easy to read fashion. Stamping out faith wasn't the first concern of the communists, but government barbarities were set up to deal with the issue creating some interesting interactions with the uneducated populace. The most ambitious of plans had to be scrapped due to resistance.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating story of how Marxism attempted to destroy religion,
By
This review is from: And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion In Russia, 1917-1929 (Hardcover)
Marxism was utterly opposed to religion. Marx himself thought religion would simply vanish once social justice was achieved.
In 1918, facing the implacable hatred of the communists, Tikhon, head of the Russian church, announced "'The time has come to go to martyrdom and suffering'" (p 111). Few words have proven so truly prophetic. Ominously, the party announced it "should keep records of a citizen's religious affiliation for use at a later date" (p 137). As the communists gained control of the country, their attention turned to religion. Churches were closed. Priceless historical books and art were destroyed. Soldiers defecated on altars and turned churches into horse stables. It was forbidden to teach religion or even baptize a child. Priests and nuns and monks were rounded up and either shot or sent to die of starvation and abuse in the gulag. Two other good books on this subject are "The Plot to Kill God", a short, absorbing book on how Marxism attempted to kill religion in the old Soviet Union. The other is "The Forgotten; Catholics in the Soviet Union" which is a brilliantly written book that reveals how the communists tortured, murdered, and staved priests, nuns, and believers. The "Forgotten" is the best book on this subject, and it will truly move you.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
