Peasant resistance to the Soviet anti-religious policies (1929-1941)

The aim of the project is a comprehensive study of the resistance of Siberian peasants to the policy of forcibly imposed atheism in the years 1929-1941. The timeframe is based on the fact that almost all churches in the countryside were closed during these years.

On the basis of peasant letters, complaints, political reports and other sources, the research attempts to prove the thesis that peasant protest against the violation of their religious rights is not just a "wrapper" of political protest, as some historians assume, but a form of cultural and existential self-preservation of the peasantry under Bolshevik’s politics. Special attention is paid to the multi-religious aspect of the Siberian peasantry, as this allows for comparative aspects of the behaviour of followers of different confessions and religions.

A treatment of this topic will appear on the basis of sources collected by the author in various archives in Siberia (Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk) and in the Central State Archive in Moscow. The dissertation project fills a gap in research that counters previous "top-down" approaches with a "bottom-up" perspective, in which peasants are no longer understood as objects of Soviet anti-religious policy, but as subjects with their own opportunities for activity.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ricarda Vulpius