Friedrich Engels

Historical impact

Marxism as state ideology and the persecution of Christians and other believers

Written for grades 9–12. Every figure is taken from the sources listed below.

Marx died in 1883 and Engels in 1895, before any government ruled in their name. In the twentieth century, Communist parties that took Marx as their founding authority came to power in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Albania and elsewhere and made Marxism-Leninism the official ideology of the state. Because Marx taught that religion was an illusion that would pass away, these governments set out to hasten its end: they closed churches, banned Christian teaching of the young, and imprisoned or executed pastors, priests and ordinary believers. Many Christians kept the faith at the cost of their freedom or their lives, and churches today honour them as martyrs and confessors. Students reading Marx and Engels should know this history. The facts below are taken from the sources listed at the end.

From Marx's writings to party doctrine

In 1844 Marx wrote that religion "is the opium of the people" and that "the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." ^[1]

In 1909 Lenin, who would lead the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia in 1917, called this "dictum by Marx" "the corner-stone of the whole Marxist outlook on religion" and wrote that Marxism regards all churches and religious organisations "as instruments of bourgeois reaction." In the same article Lenin recalled that Engels had called an open declaration of war on religion by exiled French radicals in 1874 a piece of stupidity, likely to revive interest in religion rather than end it. ^[2]

The Soviet Union

The Library of Congress describes the Soviet Union as "the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion." The regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers and taught atheism in the schools, although most organized religions were never formally outlawed. ^[3]

During the famine of 1922 the government ordered the seizure of church valuables. In a secret letter to the Politburo dated March 19, 1922, after believers in the town of Shuia resisted, Lenin wrote: "The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie that we succeed in shooting on this occasion, the better." ^[4]

The League of the Godless, founded in 1925 and renamed the League of the Militant Godless in 1929, campaigned for the closure of churches, the silencing of church bells and against religious holidays. It claimed 5.5 million members in the early 1930s, though the historian Daniel Peris notes that many were members only on paper and that church closures were chiefly the work of state power. ^[5]

The Russian Orthodox Church, the largest, was the main target in the 1920s and 1930s. Nearly all of its clergy, and many believers, were shot or sent to labour camps; theological schools were closed and church publications banned. By 1939 only about 500 of more than 50,000 churches remained open. ^[3]

According to Russian state records cited by church historians, 136,900 Orthodox clergy were arrested in 1937, of whom 85,300 were shot, and 28,300 were arrested in 1938, of whom 21,500 were shot. ^[6]

Other churches suffered too. By 1926 the Roman Catholic Church had no bishops left in the Soviet Union, and by 1941 only two of the almost 1,200 Catholic churches that had existed in 1917 were still active. The Ukrainian Catholic Church was forcibly subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1946. Protestants were persecuted, attacks on Judaism were constant throughout the Soviet period, and Islam was suppressed by force until 1941. ^[3]

Stalin allowed a revival of the Orthodox Church during the Second World War, and by 1957 about 22,000 churches were active. From 1959 Nikita Khrushchev forced the closure of about 12,000 of them, and by 1985 fewer than 7,000 remained active. ^[3]

Albania

Albania's Communist leader Enver Hoxha, whom the Library of Congress country study calls "a dogmatic Stalinist," nationalized most church property in 1945 and expelled all foreign Catholic priests, monks and nuns in 1946. Between 1945 and 1953 the number of Catholic churches fell from 253 to 100. Many clergy and believers were tried, tortured and executed. ^[7]

By May 1967 religious bodies had been forced to give up all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters and shrines in the country; the literary monthly Nendori declared that Albania's youth had "created the first atheist nation in the world." More than 200 clergy of various faiths were imprisoned. The 1976 constitution banned religious activity and propaganda, and the 1977 penal code set prison terms of three to ten years for religious propaganda and for producing or keeping religious literature. In 1980 a Jesuit priest was sentenced to life for baptizing his nephew's newborn twins. ^[7]

China

The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist, and Pew Research Center notes that its stance "aligns with the Marxist view that religion is a temporary historical phenomenon that will disappear as societies advance." After 1949 the government confiscated many churches, temples and mosques, deported foreign missionaries and set up patriotic associations to manage and monitor each of five recognized religions. ^[8]

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), "all religious activities were banned, and religious personnel were persecuted"; Red Guards attacked or destroyed many churches, temples and mosques, and believers practised in secret. After Mao's death the party allowed only "normal" religious activity under state control and continued to bar its members from religious belief. ^[8]

For students and teachers

The Library of Congress notes that Soviet policy toward each religion was shaped by the interests of the state, so that churches linked to foreign authorities, such as Catholics loyal to the Pope, were treated most harshly. Historians still debate how much of this persecution follows from Marx's own view of religion and how much from Lenin's one-party state and the choices of later rulers; students can weigh both as they read the Manifesto and Capital alongside the critics below. ^[3]

Christians have long read such persecution in the light of Christ's words, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20), and of the ancient conviction that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. In 2000 the Russian Orthodox Church canonized 1,765 named new martyrs and confessors of the Soviet era, a reminder that the faith outlasted the regimes that tried to abolish it. ^[6]

Sources

1. Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Introduction (1844). Marxists Internet Archive. Link
2. V. I. Lenin, "The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion" (1909). Marxists Internet Archive. Link
3. Revelations from the Russian Archives: Anti-religious Campaigns. Library of Congress. Link
4. Revelations from the Russian Archives: Translation of letter from Lenin to Molotov and the Politburo, March 19, 1922. Library of Congress. Link
5. Daniel Peris, "League of the Militant Godless," Encyclopedia of Russian History (2004). Encyclopedia.com. Link
6. Mikus Solovejs, "Canonisation of New Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th Century in the Russian Orthodox Church," European Journal of Mental Health 8 (2013): 46–59. Semmelweis University. Link
7. Albania: A Country Study, "Hoxha's Antireligious Campaign" (Library of Congress Federal Research Division, 1992). countrystudies.us. Link
8. "Government policy toward religion in the People's Republic of China: a brief history" (August 30, 2023). Pew Research Center. Link