"Write it Down in the Book, I'm Not Afraid": the Rite of Orthodox Baptism and Soviet Culture in the 1940s – 1980s.

The relevance of the research topic is due to the importance of historiographical understanding of the traditional confessional practice’s evolution in the Soviet era, as well as the need to integrate the past of Orthodox culture into the general context of the social and cultural history of the USSR.
The purpose of the research is characteristics of the place and role of the baptism rite in the cultural history of the traditionally Orthodox regions of the USSR in the 1940s – 1980s.
Objectives: to study the scale of Orthodox baptism in the USSR of the specified period; to analyze the peculiarities of mass perception of this practice; to clarify the ways of correlation of Orthodox and Soviet values by citizens who took part in the rite of baptism.
Methodology. In the course of the research of the problems posed in the paper traditional methods of archival work were used as well as methods of oral history – questioning, interviewing. Historical-statistical, comparativehistorical and historical-retrospective methods were used to systematize the data.
Results. The authors analyze the statistics of Orthodox baptism in the post-war period of the history of the USSR and show that anti-religious propaganda had a rather weak effect on its scale. The results of Soviet sociologists’ research and data from modern interviews of elderly believers about the motives of baptism in the Soviet period are compared, the question of the participation of Communists and Komsomol members in this rite is considered, and the phenomenon of combining baptisms with Soviet holidays is characterized.
Conclusions. The paper concludes that the baptism of children remained the cultural norm for the vast majority of the population of the traditionally Orthodox regions of the USSR throughout the post-war period. Representatives of the older generation perceived it as an important religious act, young parents – mainly as a tribute to tradition and older relatives. At the same time, the rite of baptism was not opposed by mass psychology to Soviet values, which created prerequisites for the participation of members of the Communist Party in it.

1. Kail' M.V. Pravoslavie v Rossii 1914–1964 godov: opyt izucheniya i obshchestvennaya pamyat' v diskurse repressij i poiske al'ternativnyh poznavatel'nyh podhodov [Orthodoxy in Russia 1914–1964: The Experience of Studying and Public Memory in the Discourse of Repression and the Search for Alternative Cognitive approaches]. Novyj istoricheskij vestnik = New Historical Bulletin, 2021, no. 3 (69), pp. 74–86.

2. GARF (Gosudarstvennyj arhiv Rossijskoj Federacii) [State Archive of the Russian Federation], f. 6991, op. 5, d. 152.

3. Pospelovskij D. V. Russkaya Pravoslavnaya cerkov' v XX veke [The Russian Orthodox Church in the XX century]. Moscow, Respublika Publ., 1995. 511 p.

4. Odincov M. I. Russkaya pravoslavnaya cerkov' v XX veke: istoriya, vzaimootnosheniya s gosudarstvom i obshchestvom [The Russian Orthodox Church in the XX century: History, relations with the state and society]. Moscow, CINO, 2002. 310 p.

5. Shkarovskij M. V. Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Cerkov' v XX veke [The Russian Orthodox Church in the XX century]. Moscow, Veche Publ., 2010. 478 p.

6. Rar G. Plenennaya Cerkov': ocherk razvitiya vzaimootnoshenij mezhdu Cerkov'yu i vlast'yu v SSSR [The Captive Church: An Essay on the Development of Relations between the Church and the Authorities in the USSR]. Frankfurt am Main, Posev, 1954. 275 p.

7. Stone A. "Overcoming Peasant Backwardness": The Khrushchev Antireligious Campaign and the Rural Soviet Union. Russian Review, 2008, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 296–320.

8. Naumescu V. Modes of religiosity in Eastern Christianity: religious processes and social change in Ukraine. Berlin, Lit Verlag, 2008. 255 p.

9. Shlihta N. V. "Ot tradicii k sovremennosti": pravoslavnaya obryadnost' i prazdniki v usloviyah antireligioznoj bor'by (na materialah USSR, 1950-e – 1960-e gg.) ["From Tradition to Modernity": Orthodox Rites and celebrations in the conditions of anti-religious struggle (based on the materials of the Ukrainian SSR, 1950s – 1960s)]. Gosudarstvo, religiya, Cerkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom = State, religion, Church in Russia and abroad, 2012, no. 3-4 (30), pp. 380–407.

10. Zhuk S. Religioznye praktiki, povsednevnaya religioznost' i zapadnaya massovaya kul'tura v zakrytom gorode Dnepropetrovske v poslestalinskoe vremya (1960 – 1984) [Religious practices, everyday religiosity and Western mass culture in the closed city of Dnepropetrovsk in the post-Stalin period (1960 – 1984)]. Gosudarstvo, religiya, Cerkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom = State, religion, Church in Russia and abroad, 2012, no. 3–4 (30), pp. 349–379.

11. Takahasi S. Dva tipa religioznosti vremen pozdnego socializma: pravoslavnye veruyushchie Vladimirskoj oblasti [Two types of religiosity from the time of late Socialism: Orthodox believers of the Vladimir region]. Gosudarstvo, religiya, Cerkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom = State, religion, Church in Russia and abroad, 2012, no. 3–4 (30), pp. 328–348.

12. Popova K. Y. Religioznaya obryadnost' pravoslavnogo naseleniya YUzhnogo Urala v 1960–1980-e gg. [Religious rites of the Orthodox population of the Southern Urals in the 1960s – 1980s.]. Vestnik Orenburgskoj duhovnoj seminarii = Bulletin of the Orenburg Theological Seminary, 2015, vyp. 2 (4), pp. 380–388.

13. GARF, f. 6991, op. 1, d. 63.

14. GAKO (Gosudarstvennyj arhiv Kurskoj oblasti) [State Archive of the Kursk Region], f. 5027, op. 1, d. 20.

15. GAKO, f. 5027, op. 5, d. 3.

16. GARF, f. 6991, op. 1, d. 1747.

17. GARF, f. 6991, op. 2, d. 572.

18. GARF, f. 6991, op. 2, d. 574.

19. GARF, f. 6991, op. 2, d. 575.

20. GARF, f. 6991, op. 6, d. 155.

21. GARF, f. 6991, op. 6, d. 154.

22. GARF, f. 6991, op. 5, d. 1305.

23. GARF, f. 6991, op. 5, d. 2532.

24. GARF, f. 6991, op. 5, d. 638.

25. Partii, dvizheniya, soyuzy Rossii s religioznymi prioritetami. Dokumenty i tezisy [Parties, movements, unions of Russia with religious priorities. Documents and abstracts]. Moscow, 1993. 272 p.

26. Kobeckij V. D. Obryad kreshcheniya kak proyavlenie religioznosti [The rite of baptism as a manifestation of religiosity]. Konkretno-sociologicheskoe izuchenie sostoyaniya religioznosti i opyta ateisticheskogo vospitaniya = A concrete sociological study of the state of religiosity and the experience of atheistic education. Moscow, MGU Publ., 1969, pp. 161–173.

27. Serebryakov Y. G. Religioznost' sel'skogo naseleniya i zadachi ateisticheskoj propagandy [The religiosity of the rural population and the tasks of atheistic propaganda]. Cheboksary, CHKI Publ., 1972. 39 p.

28. GAKO, f. 5027, op. 5, d. 13.

29. Firsov B.M. Raznomyslie v SSSR, 1940–1960-e gody: Istoriya, teoriya, praktiki [Dissent in the USSR, 1940s‒1960s: History, Theory, Practice]. St. Petersburg, Evropejskij Dom Publ., 2008. 544 p.

30. Yurchak A. Eto bylo navsegda, poka ne konchilos'. Poslednee sovetskoe pokolenie [It was forever, until it was over. The last Soviet generation]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014. 661 p.

31. Shlihta N. V. "Pravoslavnyj" i "sovetskij": k voprosu ob identichnosti veruyushchih sovetskih grazhdan (1940-e – nachalo 1970-h gg.) ["Orthodox" and "Soviet": on the question of the identity of believers of Soviet citizens (1940s-early 1970s)’]. Antropologicheskij forum = Anthropological Forum, 2012, no. 23, pp. 82‒107.

32. Young G. Power and the Sacred in Revolutionary Russia: Religious Activists in the Village. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. 307 p.