1. The church is separated from the state.
2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to enact any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.
3. Every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. All legal deprivations associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith are abolished.
Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation of citizens is eliminated.
4. The actions of state and other public legal social institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.
5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.
6. No one can, citing their religious views, avoid fulfilling their civil duties.
Exemptions from this provision, under the condition of replacing one civil duty with another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.
7. The religious oath or oath is canceled.
IN necessary cases only a solemn promise is given.
8. Civil status records are maintained exclusively by the civil authorities, marriage and birth registration departments.
9. The school is separated from the church.
Teaching religious doctrines in all state and public as well as private educational institutions, where general education subjects are taught, is not allowed.
Citizens may teach and study religion privately.
10. All ecclesiastical and religious societies are subject to general provisions about private societies and unions, and do not enjoy any benefits or subsidies either from the state or from its local “autonomous and self-governing institutions.
11. Forced collection of fees and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their fellow members, are not allowed.
12. No church or religious societies have the right to own property.
Right legal entity they do not have.
13. All property existing in Russia, church and religious societies are added to the national property.
Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given away, according to special regulations of the local or central state power, for the free use of the respective religious societies.
Signed by: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Ulyanov (Lenin). People's Commissars: Podvoisky, Algasov, Trutovsky, Schlikhter, Proshyan, Menzhinsky, Shlyapnikov, Petrovsky. Manager of the Council of People's Commissars Vl. Bonch-Bruevich.
Of the year. The decree served as the basis for the beginning of the oppression of believers, which then turned into open persecution.
1. The church is separated from the state.
2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to enact any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.
3. Every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. All legal deprivations associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith are abolished.
Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation of citizens is eliminated.
4. The actions of state and other public legal social institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.
5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.
6. No one can, citing their religious views, avoid fulfilling their civil duties.
Exemptions from this provision, under the condition of replacing one civil duty with another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.
7. The religious oath or oath is canceled.
In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.
8. Civil status records are maintained exclusively by the civil authorities, marriage and birth registration departments.
9. The school is separated from the church.
Teaching religious doctrines in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not permitted.
Citizens may teach and study religion privately.
10. All ecclesiastical and religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and unions, and do not enjoy any benefits or subsidies either from the state or from its local “autonomous and self-governing institutions.”
11. Forced collection of fees and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their fellow members, are not allowed.
12. No church or religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have the rights of a legal entity.
13. All property existing in Russia, church and religious societies are added to the national property. Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, according to special regulations of local or central government authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.
Signed:
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Ulyanov (Lenin)
People's Commissars:
Podvoisky,
Trutovsky,
Menzhinsky,
Shlyapnikov,
Petrovsky.
Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars
Vl. Bonch-Bruevich.
After the publication on December 31 of the draft decree on the separation of the Church from the state, Metropolitan Veniamin (Kazan) of Petrograd addressed a letter to the Council of People’s Commissars on January 10 of the following year, which stated:
"The implementation of this project threatens great grief and suffering to the Orthodox Russian people... I consider it my moral duty to tell the people currently in power to warn them not to carry out the proposed draft decree on the confiscation of church property." .
There was no official response, but V.I. Lenin, having read the metropolitan’s letter, issued a resolution in which he called on the board at the Commissariat of Justice to hasten with the development of a decree on the separation of Church and state.
Among the bishops, the decree was supported by the Astrakhan vicar Leonty (Wimpfen). On September 4, 1918, while the ruling bishop Mitrofan (Krasnopolsky) was in Moscow, at the third session of the Local Council, Bishop Leonty composed a message “To the Orthodox Population,” which said in particular:
“As a local bishop, I consider it my duty to address the Orthodox population of Astrakhan and the Astrakhan region with the following lines. In one of the coming days, the decree of the people's commissars on the separation of Church and state should be read in churches. This decree is the implementation and satisfaction of long-standing and most pressing issues in the relationship between the state and the Church, requiring the complete emancipation of the religious conscience of the people and the liberation of the Church and its clergy from a false position.”
This act became the cause of his conflict with the ruling bishop Mitrofan (Krasnopolsky) and was condemned by the bishop's court headed by the patriarch
Congratulating Patriarch Kirill on the 9th anniversary of his enthronement, Dmitry Medvedev called the relations of the Russian authorities with the Moscow Patriarchate a “symphony” (in Greek - “consonance”, “harmony”). This statement comes into some conflict with the Constitution, which separates church and state and guarantees the equality of all faiths. For the first time in Russian history Such formulations appeared in the Soviet decree “On the separation of church from state and school from church,” adopted exactly 100 years ago.
The decree was officially adopted at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars chaired by Lenin on February 2, and published three days later. In some ways, it repeated the norms of the law on freedom of conscience adopted by the Provisional Government in July 1917, which, however, was “transitional”: according to it, the church continued to remain part of the state structure, but the authorities were deprived of the right to interfere in the life of the church. To the drafting commission Soviet decree included the then quite famous Petrograd priest Mikhail Galkin (literary pseudonym Gorev), a famous “fighter against obscurantism.” Later, he took part in drawing up the instructions of the People’s Justice (on the implementation of the decree), which legally “justified” the first large-scale persecution of the church in Soviet Russia.
So the phenomenon of the “red priest” arose at the very dawn of the revolution - later renovationism and Sergianism (which the modern Moscow Patriarchate adheres to) only historically modified it.
Anticipating the appearance of the decree, the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in December 1917 proposed its project of church-state relations in new Russia. Like the law of the Provisional Government, it was also “transitional”, a compromise. From the royal “symphony” of church and state, the draft included provisions on the primacy status of the church among all confessions, coordination with the church of state laws relating to religion, the Orthodox religion of the head of state and some ministers, as well as the legal recognition of church weddings. On the other hand, from the revolution the project inherited demands for the independence of the church in internal governance, legal force for decisions of church authorities, recognition by the state church hierarchy. Of course, the Bolshevik commissars did not even read this draft, and the Constituent Assembly, to which it was mainly addressed, was dispersed.
Literally on the eve of the adoption of the decree, on February 1, Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin) published his famous anathema against the persecutors of the church who had renounced God, although he did not directly mention the Soviet regime or the Bolsheviks in it. “The government, which promised to establish law and truth in Rus', to ensure freedom and order,” says the patriarchal message, “everywhere shows only the most unbridled self-will and continuous violence against everyone and in particular over the Holy Orthodox Church.” The local council was not as radical as the patriarch, but even he, in a resolution of February 7, recognized the decree as “an act of open persecution” of the church.
Subsequently, the Moscow Patriarchate, reorganized by Metropolitan Sergius (the term “Sergianism” comes from his name) in 1927 and officially recognized by Stalin in 1943, revised its attitude towards the decree. In his message to the 30th anniversary of the “Great October Socialist Revolution,” Patriarch Alexy I wrote that the decree “gave the Church the opportunity to act freely in its characteristic spirit along the path indicated by church canons.” Another 30 years later, this idea was developed by the future Patriarch Alexy II: “This decree was of great importance for the improvement of the internal life of the Church... The Church, as a result of separation from the state, acquired inner freedom, so necessary for the true implementation of her Divine mission - the spiritual guidance of believers."
The decree begins with the key norm of a secular state: “The Church is separated from the state.” Further, this norm is revealed in the categories of human rights: “Every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. All legal deprivations associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith are abolished.” Is this very different from the current Constitution? Article 14: “No religion may be established as state or compulsory. Religious associations are separated from the state and are equal before the law.” Article 28: “Everyone is guaranteed freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including the right to profess, individually or together with others, any religion or not to profess any.”
Further, the decree proclaims a rule that is very relevant for the modern Russian Federation: “The actions of state and other public legal social institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.” Prayer services in various government institutions, the blessing of military equipment and the sprinkling of holy water on military personnel have become commonplace. Russian life. Another relevant provision of the decree: “The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens.” Here we immediately remember the mass protests of citizens against the development of courtyards and green areas with “temples within walking distance”, which the authorities most often ignore.
“No one can, citing their religious views, evade the fulfillment of their civil duties,” the decree states. Here, however, the Bolsheviks soon softened their positions, allowing some groups of believers not to serve in the army. And here are some more relevant provisions: “Teaching religious doctrines in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not allowed.<…>Forced collection of fees and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their fellow members, are not permitted.” The teaching of religious beliefs is being shyly introduced into schools and universities in Russia under the guise of “Fundamentals” Orthodox culture” or “theology,” and billions of dollars in government subsidies for the maintenance of churches and monasteries transferred to the ownership of the Russian Orthodox Church have become the talk of the town.
Most often, the decree is criticized for its last two paragraphs, 12th and 13th: “No church or religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have the rights of a legal entity. All property of church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared national property. Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, according to special resolutions of local or central government authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.” True, already the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of 1929 endowed religious societies with certain attributes of a legal entity, and after Stalin’s Concordat of 1943 they were completely allowed to open accounts, own buildings, land and transport, hire employees, etc. According to the eternal Russian rule, the severity of laws is softened by the optionality of their implementation...
Photo: RIA Novosti Professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, adheres to the traditional point of view on the decree as the starting point of the Red Terror against the church. And his key argument is the same “non-binding implementation”: “The real policy of the Bolsheviks, as a rule, was very different from the laws they adopted: one cannot judge their real policy by the letter of the law. The decree actually covered up the policy of a consistent struggle between the state and the church,” the archpriest said in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Russian State University for the Humanities Professor Mikhail Babkin has a different point of view. “The clergy themselves gave a kind of reason to the Bolsheviks to persecute themselves,” he says in an interview with Novaya. - IN synodal translation The Bible, implemented in the middle of the 19th century (in the Epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the Romans), instead of the phrase “there is no authority except from God” (literally - “there is no authority except from God”), representatives of the clergy introduced: “ There is no power that is not from God.” This is where the common thesis “all power comes from God” comes from. And it turns out that if anyone from the clergy “resisted” in any way Soviet power- he “resisted God’s command.” And if so, then he rightly deserved punishment from the authorities themselves.”
On the one hand, depriving the church of the rights of a legal entity and property does not fit with democratic ideas. On the other hand, the church in Russia never had such rights: before the revolution, the church itself and all its property were part of the Orthodox state, headed by the Orthodox emperor, who was revered as the head church organization. Monasteries and some parishes, of course, owned lands, buildings, and, until 1861, peasants, but only because they were “allocated from the treasury.” Modern Russian Orthodox Church is trying to build the most clerical model of church property in the entire history of the church - according to its charter, all the gigantic property transferred to the church is managed by the episcopate (now 226 people), which is completely dependent on the patriarch and the synod (15 people).
Such concentration of ownership in such narrow circle there were no persons in the history of the Russian Church.
The revolution of 1917 broke the established stereotypes that had been formed in Russia for a very long time. There was a split between the two strongest structures of the country - the state and the church. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the founders of the Soviet state came to power, the main slogan was that the church, faith in God, religion, and the Bible were destroying society, the thoughts of the people, and did not allow Soviet society to develop freely. The same address to the people spoke about the attitude of the Social Democrats to the church, and what “reforms” would be carried out if they came to power. The main principle of the reform was the separation of church and state, so that the authorities could fight the religious “fog” in the heads of the workers.
So, from the very beginning of the formation of the RSDLP, the church became the main ideological rival in the state. Having come to power, decrees were proclaimed, their goal was to change the ideology in the thoughts of people, to configure people in such a way that the church is evil, and it should not interfere with free development. In schism, church and state existed for a very long time.
The first decree that laid the foundation for the separation of the state from church shrines was the “Decree on Land”. After its adoption, the entire economic base of the church was undermined, the church was deprived of its lands. All the wealth of the church was confiscated, making the church “poor.” By decree, lands belonging to the church were transferred to landowners at the disposal of land committees.
In 1917, after the revolution, the church was confiscated a large number of land, more than 8 million acres. The Orthodox Church, in turn, asked everyone to pray for the sins committed by the authorities; the seizure of land was perceived as the destruction of people's shrines. With its sermons, the church asked the authorities to return to the path of Christ.
The Russian Orthodox Church could not help but react to the situation in the country. On December 2, 1917, the church declared itself primacy, and the head of state, the minister of education and all their followers must be Orthodox. According to the council, property belonging to the church should not be confiscated.
Everything that was proclaimed by the church during this period ran counter to the policies of the new Soviet government. Considering the policy pursued by the state, the relationship between the authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church were very tense.
On December 11, 1917, the government of the newly formed country adopted another decree depriving the church of privileges. It said that the church should be deprived of all parochial schools and colleges. Everything was transferred, right down to the ground and buildings where these schools were located. The result of this decree was the deprivation of the church's educational and educational base. After this decree appeared in the press, Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd addressed the government with a letter. It said that all the measures taken threatened great grief for the Orthodox people. The Metropolitan wanted to convey to the government that this reform cannot be carried out, that it cannot be taken away from the church what has belonged to it for centuries. It was also said here that the Bolsheviks were excommunicated from the church, and the people were called upon to fight for church property.
By adopting its decrees, the Soviet government tried to provoke the church into serious confrontation. This was followed by the decree “On freedom of conscience, church and religious societies”, and then “On the separation of church from state and school from church”. As part of these decrees, it was said that it was necessary to give every person the right to independently choose the religion to worship.
The church was deprived of legal rights: all property previously belonging to the church was declared public property and transferred for the use of the people, it was forbidden to have any property, buildings where services were held, by special orders, were transferred for the free use of newly created religious societies. These articles nationalized all churches so that at any time property belonging to the church could be confiscated for the benefit of those in need. This is exactly what the authorities did in 1922, confiscating property in favor of the starving people in the Volga region.
Until the 1917th century, marriages were the responsibility of the church, but this opportunity was also taken away from them. Now marriages began to be concluded by the state, religious marriage was declared invalid.
On January 23, 1918, the Decree was adopted, and already on July 10, 1918, all provisions were enshrined in the Constitution of the Soviet State.
It is impossible to say that by one decree they were able to separate the church from the state. The new government followed this path for a year and clearly set itself the task of depriving the church of everything it had before.
Before Soviet power came to rule the country, the church was the richest unit of the state; subsequently it was deprived of everything that was in its use.
A secular state is a state resulting from the separation of the church, which is regulated on the basis of civil rather than religious norms; solutions government agencies cannot have a religious justification. The legislation of a secular state may correspond (in whole or in part) to religious norms; “secularism” is determined not by the presence of contradictions with religious attitudes, but by freedom from them.
COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS OF THE RSFSR
DECREE
ABOUT THE SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE STATE AND SCHOOL FROM THE CHURCH
1. The church is separated from the state.
2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to enact any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.
3. Every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. All legal deprivations associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith are abolished.
Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation of citizens is eliminated.
4. The actions of state and other public legal social institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.
5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.
6. No one can, citing their religious views, avoid fulfilling their civil duties.
Exceptions from this provision, subject to the condition of replacing one civil duty with another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.
7. The religious oath or oath is canceled. In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.
8. Civil status records are maintained exclusively by civil authorities: departments for registering marriages and births.
9. The school is separated from the church.
Teaching religious doctrines in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not permitted. Citizens may teach and study religion privately.
10. All ecclesiastical and religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and unions, and do not enjoy any benefits or subsidies either from the state or from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.
11. Forced collection of fees and taxes in favor of church and religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their fellow members, are not allowed.
12. No church or religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have the rights of a legal entity.
13. All property of church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared national property. Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, according to special regulations of local or central government authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.
