p When the autocracy was overthrown and the Provisional Government set up, the Orthodox priests as well as the clergy of other religions began to serve their new master zealously. The prayers “for the blessed Emperor" were replaced by prayers “for the blessed Provisional Government”. The clergy assured the Provisional Government from the start that they would be its “natural associate and accomplice”. Thus, an epistle of the Russian Orthodox Synod said: “God’s will has been done. Russia has taken the path of a new state life. . .. The Holy Synod is praying to the Lord Almighty with fervour, may He bless the labours and undertakings of the Provisional Government.” On March 6, 1917, the Synod ordered that the manifestoes on abdications of Nikolai Romanov and Mikhail Romanov should be read in all the churches and “the prayer should be pronounced for the prolongation of days of the God-protected Russian power and of its Provisional Government" and that the prayer for the dead of the Imperial House should be ceased as of March 7.

p Although, as Lenin noted, freedom of conscience and separation of church from state and school from church are measures for the bourgeois-democratic revolution to take, the bourgeoisie never carried out completely anywhere this demand that it had set forth itself. As early as the first days after the fall of tsarism, the Bolsheviks sought to obtain separation of church from state and school from church and were against the alliance between the Provisional Government and the church. “In its manifesto,” Lenin wrote, “the new government promises every kind of freedom, but has failed in its direct and unconditional duty immediately ... to introduce not only freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion, immediately separate the school from the church and free it of control by government officials, etc."  [28•1 

p The Russian bourgeoisie, when in power, did not even contemplate abolition of the age-old privileges of the Orthodox Church. On the contrary, it did its best to strengthen the authority of religious institutions. The Provisional Government left intact all the church departments that had existed under tsarist regime and preserved all the privileges of the clergy. Having adopted the decree “On Freedom of Conscience" in the form of a general declaration of July 14, 1917, the Provisional Government retained the right of state bodies to control religion of minors, and to formalise legally the refusal of a citizen to profess any religion or conversion from one religion to another, considered Orthodox faith to be the only true religion, continued to regard priests as government officials; it was in charge of their appointments and promotions, awarded them orders and medals and paid pensions from the state treasury.

p The old church machinery was left completely intact. Moreover, additional measures were taken to strengthen the position of the church and to make it more active in the struggle against the forthcoming revolution. The Provisional Government did not contemplate the separation of church from state and school from church and, moreover, transformed the Synod into the Religion Ministry and expanded the sphere of interference of state bodies into the affairs of religious organisations. The Provisional Government looked to religion and the church for support. Just as the autocracy, it valued highly this well-tried and reliable instrument for spiritual oppression of the working people. The economic, political, legal and other foundations of religion remained unchanged under the Provisional Government. The problems of freedom of conscience, as well as other problems vital for the working masses, such as peace, land and transfer of power to the Soviets, were also left unresolved.

p Having declared the limited freedom of conscience, the Provisional Government never brought itself to separate church from state and school from church even formally. These matters were settled only by the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

p The Bolshevik activities in exposing the reactionary church and Lenin’s articles published in the press on the Party’s policy toward religion helped to educate the masses in a revolutionary 30 spirit and rally them together to fight for democratisation of the social system and for socialism.

p Lenin has armed the Party with Marxist strategy and tactics in regard to religion and the church, and outlined ways of overcoming religious ideology, linking these activities with further revolutionary development. Lenin elaborated the proletarian conception of freedom of conscience, practical questions of the Communist Party’s attitude to religion and believers and thus helped in no small degree to form the political army of the revolution and to rally workers and peasants around the Leninist party.

p The pre-October activities of the Communist Party with regard to religion and the church were directed entirely to the exposure of their reactionary and anti-scientific meaning and connections with the interests of the exploitative classes. While leading the masses in an assault on the old exploitative society, the Leninist party also had, in addition to a clear-cut programme of radical social and economic reforms, a clear perspective for the attitude of the proletarian state toward religion, church and believers.

p The victory of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia ushered in a new era in world history. It radically changed the positions of all the classes and strata of the population. The proletariat became the ruling class. The Communist Party turned into the ruling party of the world’s first socialist state.

The overthrow of the exploitative classes and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat created conditions for complete freedom in religious belief or unbelief in the Soviet Union. All the laws that had restricted people’s rights in religious convictions were abolished in the very first days of Soviet power and entirely new laws on religion and the church were formulated on the basis of Lenin’s theories. The new Soviet state adopted a decree entitled “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church" drafted with Lenin’s direct participation.