Soviet Anti-Catholic Campaigns

Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Anti-Catholic Campaigns, refer to those concerted efforts taken by the Soviet Union to defame, undermine, or otherwise decrease or limit the role of the Catholic Church in Europe.

Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russia had an Anti-Catholic Tradition, dating back to Ivan the Terrible in the 16th Century and before. In the eyes of the Russian leadership, Catholicism was intrinsically linked with the West; therefore, attempts by the Holy See to expand into Russia meant attempts by the West to expand its culture into Russian territory.

Particularly during and following the reign of Peter the Great, Catholicism saw much growth in Russia. Russian nobility wanted to be more ‘Westernized,’ and in their eyes, Russia was a ‘backwards’ state. Thus, to be Catholic was to embrace Western innovation and culture. By the time of the Revolution of 1917, there were two Latin-rite Catholic dioceses, one Eastern-rite Catholic exarchate, and 331 parishes on Russian territory.

Throughout the Soviet Union, with some notable exceptions, the strategy of the various Communist parties was to assume control of the Catholic dioceses within the borders of a particular country. This involved confiscating lands, buildings, religious organizations, and also forcing clergy to submit to the state via an oath of allegiance or some other outward sign of submission.

One confirmed way which the Soviets attempted to gain influence & control in the Catholic Church was via infiltration. For example, some authors establish that the Soviets attempted to eliminate the subordination of local churches to the Vatican. When not attempting to destroy the Church in a particularly country altogether, some effort was made to create “national” churches. These churches would be self-governing, maintain the outward symbols of the original liturgy and practice, and instead have clergy which were either obedient to the state or agents of the state. The Soviets sent loyal agents to study at seminaries to learn how to perform the liturgy so that they could then install those clergymen in place of the validly ordained clergy.

One author described the Stalinist view of the Catholic Church this way:

Thus, the attempt was to remove any “foreign” ties of the Church. In Romania in 1949, all Catholic bishops were arrested within the territory, along with priests, and congregations were dissolved. In Ukraine, instead of completely subduing the Church, Stalin conducted a forced integration of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church, thus despite an official policy of state atheism, some attempt to use religion to control the population was made. In Lithuania, one of the first countries to fall under the Soviet rule, there was such a strong Catholic identity that it was not feasible to destroy it altogether. The Soviets instead kept one Catholic seminary open, infiltrated it with KGB agents, recruited seminarians, put mandatory pro-Soviet education in place, and attempted to use the Church to become a means of anti-religious policy.

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