Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States [Paperback]

Making use of newly-available archival material, this book provides the first systematic and accessible overview of church-state relations in the Soviet Union. John Anderson explores the shaping of Soviet religious policy from the death of Stalin until the collapse of communism, and considers the problems in this area facing the newly-independent states of the former Soviet Union. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, religious history, and the politics of church-state relations.Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Khrushchev: towards a new assault; 3. Khrushchev: theory into practice; 4. Brezhnev: facing up to new challenges; 5. Brezhnev and after: combatting religion; 6. Gorbachev and the liberalisation of religious policy; 7. Religion, state and politics into the 1990s; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index. John Anderson's book fills a void....This is a first-rate piece of scholarship and establishes Anderson as one of the foremost scholars in the area of religion and politics in Russia. American Historical Review ...a solid analysis of one dimension of the Soviet policymaking process in the post-Stalin period. Anderson judiciously employs archival documents and balances them with public discourse through the press and official publications to show that there were indeed discernible contours of policy strategies enunciated through the different channels of the party and state apparatus....[A]n important contribution to the growing body of literature on state-society relations in the post-Stalin period. Peter Konecny, Canadian Journal of History [Anderson] has...presented a detailed and well-considered analysis of Soviet Religious policy from Khrushchev to Gorbachev. Serhii Plokhy, Journal of Ukrainian Studies