A Sacred Space is Never Empty. A History of Soviet Atheism

Victoria Smolkin
Princeton University Press
2019
360 pages

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Atheism was the product, in the former Soviet Union, of Communism that envisioned a society, if not a world, without religion as the Bolsheviks sought to eliminate “sacred spaces” from Soviet life. This book is a history of this renunciation and persecution of religion, specifically Orthodox Christianity, and its attempted, but failed, replacement by the Communist Party and Marxism-Leninism. 

Religion was perceived as a barrier and obstacle to Soviet Communism’s desired monopoly on political, ideological and spiritual authority and atheism was the means to bring about a new world without religion. The author takes us through the finer points of atheism’s progress in terms of politics, ideology and spirituality which were themselves obstacles to Soviet Communism. 

In politics, the question of the State was one that the Communist Party never definitively agreed on. Indeed, although religion had been outlawed and hounded by the Bolsheviks, later on it was Stalin who effected a reconciliation between Church and State for reasons of security and social order during the war. 

Ideologically, Khrushchev sought to form a rational, harmonious and disciplined society with no place for religion since he saw it as an opponent. 

Lastly, Soviet leaders failed to replace religion in its spiritual “sacred spaces” with atheistic alternatives. Furthermore, atheism gave rise to growing apathy, hypocrisy, moral decay and selfish individualism throughout Soviet society, especially amongst the youth. This indifference to the Soviet way of life was difficult to counter since Communism did not have institutions, clergy, or dogma to fight with and, as the Russian proverb says, “a sacred space is never empty”, atheism was the mirror which reflected Soviet Communism to itself. The dilemma was that as atheism did not fill the sacred spaces then the commitment of Soviet citizens to Communism could only ever remain provisional. 

The author considers militant atheism, anti-religious campaigns, the nature of a specifically Soviet atheism, Church-State relations and the death of the Communist project in a readable and detailed style where she delineates the differing responses of consecutive Soviet leaders. Crucially, St John Paul II issued his encyclical Slavorum Apostoli (Apostle to the Slavs) in 1985 which commemorated Saints Cyril and Methodius, who had brought the message of Christ to the Slavs in the ninth century, and he commented on the contemporary situation. He envisioned a Europe, which was united by common interests and concerns. Two years later the gates of glasnost opened Soviet public life to the world and was forever changed. 

Interestingly, Gorbachev remained committed to atheism and Marxism-Leninism throughout whilst sanctioning religion and meeting with the Orthodox patriarchs. However the Communist Party eventually lost confidence in this ideology and the establishment was all too aware of atheism’s contradictions and hopelessness. People started wearing crosses around their necks and gave up the Marxist-Leninist ideology which could never make a window into their souls. 

In its various forms, this ideology is still active and influencing people and societies across the globe and so its atheistic trails are well worth bearing in mind if only to remind us of the depth and solace of faith in Christ.