Tabunshchikova Liudmila

The Campaign Against Church Bells in Don Region (1920–1930)

Abstract

This article deals with the campaign against church bells that was led by Bolsheviks in 1923–1924 and 1929–1930. The study is based on a wide range of archival materials, namely on documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the State Archive of Rostov Region, the Documentation Centre of the Contemporary History of Rostov Region, Taganrog branch of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Depository of Archival Documentation in Shakhty (Russ. Шахты), the Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia as well as publications in local newspapers. The paper describes the course of this campaign in Don region and gives a detailed description of each stage of the campaign. In the first period, the removal of church bells had a sporadic character. The reason for the removal was to help Voszdukhofl ot (Russ. Воздухофлот). In the second period (1929-1930), the campaign intensifi ed dramatically. In 1930, it was spread all over the country. The government was interested in bell copper for political and economical reasons. In 1930, the Russian Church faced the wave of repressions and mass closure of churches, but at the same time, the country needed nonferrous metals in the processes of industrialisation. The campaign also affected those churches that had already been closed, churches that were in the process of closing; sometimes defective bells from functioning churches were removed as well. This campaign did not lead to any public outcry in the Don region.

Keywords

Russian Orthodox Church, church bell, campaign against church bells, antireligious propaganda, Don region, church-state relationships, closure of churches

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Tabunshchikova Liudmila