Soviet poster : Christmas

Coming to power in 1917, the Bolsheviks declared religion "an opium for the people." The persecution of the church for many years became an integral part of the internal policy of the country of the Soviets. Already in January 1918, the decree "On Separation of Church and State" was published, and the subsequent instructions deprived all religious organizations of legal rights and declared their property a national property.
These acts laid the foundation for mass looting and destruction of churches, repression of clergymen and persecution of believers for religious beliefs.
And Bukharin's appeal to "Take religion with bayonets", enthusiastically picked up by militant atheists, finally unleashed the hands of the OGPU-NKVD-MGB. Having adopted Marx's postulate that "religion will disappear to the extent that socialism will develop," militant atheists have begun to bring their "bright future" closer.
According to the repressive organs, in 1923-1924. 2469 priests were arrested, and in 1931-1932, their number has already reached 19,812. The fighters for the purity of ideology made no difference: all suffered - Orthodox and Catholics, Lutherans and Protestants, Baptists and Mennonites, followers of Islam and Buddhists.
The tragedy of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in Russia began during the Civil War. Both the white and the red took the priests hostage, accusing them of espionage. Dozens of hierarchs were then shot without trial and investigation. With the establishment of the Soviet government, the executions that have not taken place have ceased, in the struggle against religion, the state created the appearance of legality. In the group investigative affairs of the clergy there are all the attributes of jurisprudence - orders and arrest warrants, testimony of witnesses and accused, descriptions of physical evidence, indictments and sentences, medical certificates and acts of executions, etc.
It should be noted that from the Orthodox clergy only the clergymen who were arrested and convicted for the affairs of the True Orthodox Church, who since the beginning of the 1920s refused to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, and who in the beginning of 1928 switched to an active opposition to the regime of the Bolsheviks, are included in the lists given. In the submitted information on the Orthodox and Catholic clergy only the names of those who were shot or died in prisons, camps and exile are given.