Folosirea serviciilor speciale în lupta cu religia
Use of special services in the fight against religion

Summary/Abstract: The relationships between the state and the Church have a long history, and in the Soviet period it is even a tragic one. The policy of the Bolsheviks in accordance with the theoretical postulates of V.I. Lenin was a pronounced antireligious one. The entire state apparatus, including the public security organs, the “armed detachment of the party” had to wage an implacable struggle against religion. For many years, the forms and methods of this struggle were hidden. The explanation was simple; the operational activities of the state security bodies cannot be the object of public scientific research. The situation changed somewhat in the 1990s. There is no doubt that religion has always been the connecting link of society. Therefore, religion was a powerful ideological weapon of any state. This factor was taken into account in totalitarian states. As history shows, the government of such a state was obliged either to put religion at the service of the state or to dissolve religious associations that represented the opposition. The Soviet state used various means to combat religion. Special bodies played an important role in this struggle. By organizing a network of operative agents, the state knew the realities within religious organizations, through the agents infiltrated in the structures of the leadership of religious cults, the state influenced the policy of cadres, leading people obedient to the state and the party to power. To weaken the “enemy”, the special services organized various schisms both within the Orthodox Church (Synodals, Renovationists, etc.) and in other denominations (Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists, etc.). For these purposes, too, the Soviet secret services organized the discrediting of religious activists, or cult leaders who enjoyed great authority among the believers. The state through the special services interfered in the internal affairs of the cults. The secret services often used the screen of religious organizations to carry out certain operations, especially abroad. The Soviet special services were an effective tool of the Soviet state in the fight against various forms of manifestation of religious freedoms.

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