Anti -Religious Activity of the Komsomol and Pioneer Organizations in Altai in the 1920s

Abstract

The article analyzes the anti-religious propaganda of the Soviet regime, conducted in the 1920s in Altai with the participation of the komsomol and pioneer organizations. After coming to power, the Bolsheviks launched an attack on religion by systematical closing and destruction of churches, as well as an active antireligious propaganda among the Soviet population. To promote anti-religious ideas in the children's environmentthere were created the communist cells and the pioneer organizations. The studied archival documents allow the author to consider the activities of the komsomol and pioneer cells in a number of settlements of the Altaiprovince in the early 1920s. Besides, the analysis is conducted of some of the periodicals of those years, which allowed the author to make a conclusionabout the methods and forms of anti-religious propaganda held in the youth environment. Inefficient work of local komsomol cells, the bad anti-religious work in the pioneer detachments, and the negative reaction of the localpopulation put before the Altai regional committee of the RKP(b) the need to develop new regulations according to which atheistic propaganda should be based solely on the promotion of scientific knowledge.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2017)5-06