Soviet Schools and the Religiosity of the old Believers’ Children in Eastern Latvia
Soviet Schools and the Religiosity of the old Believers’ Children in Eastern Latvia

Summary/Abstract: The article is focused on the analysis of the role of school education in secularising the Old Believer community in Latvia. By analysing the educational experience before the Soviet period and on the basis of oral testimonies, recorded from senior Old Believers in eastern Latvia from 2003 to 2021, the experience of Soviet school education and its impact on the preservation of religious practice is studied. In the Soviet period, school teachers became an instrument for wide dissemination of the Soviet worldview and the education of new Soviet citizens. According to various case studies, we can conclude that parents played a significant role in the interaction of their children with school teachers and often made the final decision on whether to force or not to maintain religious practice. Religious families, especially in the countryside, guaranteed private religiosity, despite the propaganda of atheism as part of communist society.

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