Anti-religious propaganda in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s: Academic discourse and conceptual-theoretical foundations of the development of anti-religious cinematography
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2025-2-132-149
Abstract
The article examines the problem of scientific foundations for the anti-religious propaganda in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s in the context of the development of religious studies. The materials of the journal “Anti-Religious” analyzed by the authors indicate that during the “cultural revolution” research work on the study of religion was accompanied by the collection and creation of visual documents on the ethno-confessional composition of the USSR. Soviet religious scholars and ethnographers created religious maps as well as a corpus of unique photo and film documents on religious groups, anti-religious poster art, theater, exhibition and museum work related to issues of atheism. Materials of a religious studies, collected and created by scientists, and ideas developed by anti-religious propagandists in the 1920s and 1930s, made it possible, among other things, to formulate the concept of anti-religious cinema as a specific genre of Soviet propaganda films. Particular attention is paid to the ideas of anti-religious cinematography, which were formulated in the 1930s by the anti-religious propagandist V.V. Stepanov (1898–1938). For the first time in Russian science, his basic principles of visualization of religious groups in the work “Cinema and antireligious propaganda” (1928) are outlined.
Keywords
anthropology of religion,
Soviet ideology,
anti-religious propaganda in the USSR,
visualization of religions,
anti-religious cinematography,
V.V. Stepanov
Supporting agencies: This study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation within the framework of project No. 25-28-00277 “ ‘Visual Atlas of Faiths’: (Anti)religious propaganda in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s” (2025–2026).
About the Authors
E. V. Golovneva
Saint Petersburg State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena V. Golovneva, Dr. of Sci. (Philosophy), professor
1/3, Smolny St., Saint Petersburg, 191124
I. A. Golovnev
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ivan A. Golovnev, Dr. of Sci. (History)
3, Universitetskaya Emb., Saint Petersburg, 199034
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Review
For citations:
Golovneva E.V., Golovnev I.A. Anti-religious propaganda in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s: Academic discourse and conceptual-theoretical foundations of the development of anti-religious cinematography. Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion. 2025;(2):132-148. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2025-2-132-149
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