Paul Goble
Staunton, June 20 – During World War II, Stalin not only restored many figures of the Russian past and declared them and their Soviet successors holy and worthy of sacrificing one’s life, he also loosened state control of religion and was even pressed to dispense with religion altogether and replace it with “a cult of the Holy Motherland.”
If Stalin’s exploitation of the Russian past and his use of religion are well known, the fact that he was pushed to replace religion entirely with such a cult is not, pressure he rejected but that nonetheless lives on among many Russians in the Putin era (russian7.ru/post/kult-svyashhennoy-rodiny-chem-v-sssr-k/).
In mid-1944, Andrey Chaldymov, a leading Soviet architect, sent a letter to Stalin and other Soviet leaders urging the introduction of a Cult of the Holy Motherland. He argued that traditional Soviet celebrations didn’t take into account “the growing demands of the culture of our people” and that more religiously based actions were needed.
As the centerpiece of such a new faith, the architect continued, the authorities should erect a Shrine of the Holy Motherland in Moscow in which could be celebrated the triumphs of Russia in the past and present. He assured Stalin’s secretary Aleksandr Poskryobushev that Malenkov and Kaganovich were interested in the idea.
Ultimately, however, Stalin rejected this notion lest it undermine his own cult and decided to rely on religions he could control in conjunction with official propaganda. While the Russian Seven portal doesn’t make this point, many are certain to see many of the things Putin has done as a step in the direction Chaldymov urged almost 80 years ago.
Indeed, the appearance of this article now is evidence of that, an indication that a new civic religion is being created by the Kremlin, one in which religion is an ally but not the defining feature of the worldview that the not-so-former communist and KGB officer is promoting.
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