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p Associated with Lenin’s name, the Decree did not simply proclaim but also provided for real, rather than formal, disestablishment of church and separation of school from church. It set forth principles of relations between the state and religious associations and became the basis for implementation in practice of the Communist Party’s programme propositions concerning freedom of conscience.

p The Decree played a vital role in strengthening the young Soviet state. A component part of socialist statutes, it formalised the Marxist-Leninist attitude to religion, the church, and believers and provided a classic example of how the relationship between a socialist state and the church could be resolved. The Decree not only gave believers the freedom to worship without hindrance but also provided legislation on the material, political and legal guarantees for this right to be exercised in practice.

p The measures taken by the Communist Party and Soviet government, supported as they were by workers and peasants, had to be enforced during the first post-revolutionary years in the 48 atmosphere of bitter class struggle. The freedoms in religious matters proclaimed and guaranteed by the Decree were slanderously portrayed by defenders of the old regime as “persecution of the church”. The reactionary clergy openly attacked the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church".

p When the Decree was published, the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a special appeal to believers and called on all the churches to organise public prayers and religious processions to resist enforcement of the Decree. The priests were especially indignant at losing their property rights. The text of a prayer with a provocative appeal to save the Russian Orthodox Church attached to a resolution of the Council on the Decree for the disestablishment of the church was sent by Patriarch Tikhon to all the parishes. The resolution slanderously portrayed the Decree as an action for persecution of the church.

p Having lost their former privileges, the clergy of all religions in conjunction with the overthrown exploitative classes fought against workers’ and peasants’ power and came out in favour of restoring the bourgeois and landowners’ rule. As for cries about “persecution for faith”, they were designed to disguise the aims of the counter-revolutionaries.

p The efforts made by the reactionary clergy to prevent the Decree from being enforced were unsuccessful. The bulk of the believers distrusted the provocative appeals of the churchmen, though the latter managed to persuade small groups of merchants, former military officers and monks from closed monasteries to participate in the processions.

p The Decree was approved by ordinary believers—the result of an unprecedented growth of the working people’s political involvement and their wealth of experience of the revolutions and the Civil War. As the Soviet system strengthened, the working people increasingly saw for themselves that an overwhelming majority of the clergy was openly fighting against Soviet power to restore the rule of the bourgeoisie and landowners, return the lands, factories, plants and capitals expropriated from them, and to re-establish the church’s former privileges. Those of the working people who were still believers (and they were in majority during the first years of Soviet power) saw that Soviet 49 power left all the places of worship intact, did not ban traditional church seivices, celebration of rituals, or religious ceremonies, and cut short any attempt to encroach upon the believers’ rights.

p The Decree’s provisions concerning the forfeiture of the church rights to own property and act as a juridical person were of special significance. Such severe disablements had to be imposed in the first post-revolutionary years; these measures were forced on the young Soviet state by the counter-revolutionary activities of the clergy, which did not accept the loss of former privileges and often used churches and church property as forums against Soviet power.

p As the clergy adopted a loyal attitude towards the Soviet system, these restrictions were considerably eased or lifted altogether. Thus, in 1945, religious associations were permitted to purchase houses for purposes of worship and as residences for the clergy. They were also allowed to buy motor vehicles. This right is formalised in the existing legislation on religious worship.

p The entire Lenin’s Decree, as well as subsequent laws on religious worship, were permeated with respect for those believers who had not yet freed themselves from religious prejudices. The edge of the Decree is not directed against faith and religion but against the use of religion for counter-revolutionary purposes, and the former alliance between the exploitative state and the church.

p Lenin’s Decree and other statutes of the Soviet state abolished the age-old privileges of the church and thus ended the alliance between the church and the state. For the first time in history, the working people were liberated from religious chains and legal guarantees for bringing about freedom of conscience were established.

p In addition to dealing with Soviet citizen’s freedom of conscience, the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church" also determined the relationship between school and church. “School shall be separated from church,” the Decree said. “The teaching of religious doctrines in all the state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general subjects are taught shall not be permitted. Citizens may teach and be taught religion in private.”

p The Decree put an end to the church’s former interference in 50 public education and to forcing students to study religion against their will. For the first time in history the principle of secularised school triumphed. This principle was set forth and thoroughly substantiated by Lenin together with other major revolutionary problems.

p The Programme demand of the Communist Party for secularised school began to be carried out soon after the victory of the October Revolution. As early as the end of December 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars made public its decision entitled “On the Transfer of Education and Instruction from the Department on Religions to the Authority of the People’s Commissariat for Education”. The separation of school from church was legalised by the decree of January 23, 1918. Reorganisation of public education to cleanse it of religious and clerical elements, as Marx pointed out, is the first step toward “mental emancipation of the people".  [50•1 

p By separating school from church, the Soviet state deprived all the church organisations of the right to use schools to propagate religious ideas and cut short the churchmen’s efforts to dominate the young people’s minds. The Decree proclaimed that the church could not interfere with education. The socialist state took the responsibility for children’s education entirely upon itself.

p The separation of school from church and the ban on organised religious instruction of children reduced dramatically the influence of religious organisations on the younger generation, thus creating conditions for educating young people in a scientific and materialist spirit. Reactionary churchmen spared no efforts to prevent Lenin’s Decree from being enforced. They threatened believers with torment in the next world if they stopped religious education of their children. In violation of the Decree, schools and groups for the study of religion were set up without permission by religious societies. These attempts of churchmen were not supported by ordinary believers who became increasingly convinced of the advantages of secularised schools and understood the need for scientific education.

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p The Communist Party proceeded from propositions of the Programme adopted at its 8th Congress when it enforced the separation of school from church. The Programme said: “In the area of public education, the RCP undertakes to carry through what has been begun since the October Revolution of 1917 to transform school from an instrument of bourgeois rule into an instrument for total elimination of class division of society, into an instrument for communist regeneration of society.” This class approach to public educational policy helped to avoid a mistaken interpretation of the principle of the separation of school from church in the early years of Soviet power. Some people came to regard the separation of school from church as a shift to non-religious education which ruled out both religious and anti-religious propaganda at school; they thought that schools should remain neutral on religion and the church. A. V. Lunacharsky and N. K. Krupskaya, who headed the People’s Commissariat for Education, spoke resolutely against this mistaken interpretation of the principle of separation of school from church, and stressed that in the Soviet state public education must use all means at its disposal to dispel religious superstitions in people’s minds and replace them with the light of science.

p Explaining the democratic demands that school should be separated from church, N. K. Krupskaya wrote that children had to be protected against the influence of the church, against instilling notions in them, that were contrary to science, against propagation of an idea by churchmen that justice and better life cannot be attained on earth. And there the role of school and teachers was decisive.

p Proceeding from Lenin’s Decree, the State Commission on Education passed a resolution “On Secular School" on February 18, 1918. It recognised as inadmissible any religious instruction in state, as well as private educational establishments. Religious rituals in the schools were banned.

p Mullahs, rabbis, Catholic priests and other religious preachers had had a great influence on school education in the central regions of Russia and in national republics before the October Socialist Revolution and, therefore, the Decree removed the clergy of all denominations from education. The teaching of religion al all state and private institutions was forbidden. This 52 requirement was made more specific in some other documents. Thus, the Regulations Concerning the Unified Labour School of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, approved by the ARGEG in September 1918, and the resolution “On Schools of Ethnic Minorities" passed by the People’s Commissariat for Education said that national schools belonged to the state and inasmuch as they were covered by all the regulations concerning the unified labour school, the clergy which had greatly influenced the national schools in the past, should be completely removed from the education of children there. It meant that all formerly oppressed ethnic groups now had the opportunity to teach their children in their native languages at secular schools completely free from clerical influence.

p The idea of inadmissibility of administrative, financial, ideological or any other interference of the church in the education of the young runs through Lenin’s Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church”. This basic proposition is still in effect in the existing Regulations of Secondary General Education Schools, approved by the USSR Council of Ministers on September 8, 1970. Clause 3 of the Regulations says: “Instruction and education at Soviet schools rules out any religious influence”. The parents who believe in God, may teach their children religion with mutual consent but on an indispensable condition that this instruction is not in the form of group lessons and it should be conducted strictly individually.

p Extremist religious fanatics even nowadays try to distort the law on the inadmissibility of organised religious instruction of minors. Such devices are used, for example, by adherents of the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, by Catholic priests and by some Adventist preachers. They misrepresent the real facts, suggesting to their co-religionists that Soviet laws on public worship do not forbid the formation of groups for children’s religious instruction, and that the believers, therefore, have the right to invite priests to their homes to teach religion. The Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church”, however, says clearly that “the teaching of religious doctrines in all the state and public, as well as private educational institutions . . . shall not be permitted. Citizens may teach and be taught religion in private.”

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p The inadmissibility of forcing minors to study religion not only follows from the principle of freedom of conscience but also reflects the humane and profoundly democratic character of socialist society. Any coercion under any pretext whatsoever is a criminal offence in the USSR. This also applies to the relationship between parents and children. Article 19 of the Fundamentals of Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics on Marriage and the Family states that any abuse of parental rights and cruel treatment of children shall not be allowed. If children do not want to be taught religion, no one, even their own parents, can force them to do so. Otherwise, minors may protest, which would be quite legal and proper. Thus, the Council for Religious Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers once received a letter from a schoolgirl who lived in Kharkov. ”I appeal to you for aid: help me to finish school,” the girl wrote. “My parents—Seventh-Day Adventists—make me go to prayers with them and do not let me attend school on the days of prayer-meetings. And those meetings are almost always held three times a week. I do not have time to do my homework but I want so to study like all the rest. Please, help. . . .” This was a case of abuse of parental rights and infringement upon the child’s interests and it was to be corrected immediately. The Fundamentals of Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics on Marriage and the Family says: “Parental rights cannot be exercised against the interests of children.” The interests of children mean first of all the interests of their proper upbringing. Under the law, parents who fail to carry out their duty to educate their children may be punished.

p Certain extremist churchmen and sectarians grossly violate the legislation on religious worship and, to delude believers, they spread stories that the USSR violates the Convention Against Discrimination in Education adopted by the United Nations. Because the Convention was ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ol the USSR on July 2, 1962 the Soviet government is unfairly accused of not discharging its obligations. But one has only to read this document attentively for such conjectures to be shown as groundless. Article 5 of the Convention says that “it is essential to respect the liberty of parents and, where applicable, of legal guardians, firstly to choose . . . the religious 54 and moral education of children in conformity with their own convictions. . . .” The document goes on to say that religious instruction should not be imposed upon any individual, or group if it is against their convictions. Soviet legislation does not prevent parents from educating their children in a religious spirit, but requires that it should be done only within the family and only by the parents themselves. The laws on worship do not prohibit children to go to church together with their parents, to attend divine services or religious ceremonies. What is prohibited is organising schools and groups to teach children religion and forcing children and teenagers to attend prayer-meetings and perform religious rites. It is not allowed to organise special prayer-meetings for children and youth.

p With permission from the Council for Religious Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers, religious centres may set up theological educational institutions where young people of age may receive religious instruction. Consequently, there are no contradictions between the requirements of Soviet legislation on religious worship and the provisions of the Convention Against Discrimination in Education. They have been invented by bourgeois religious leaders and extremist churchmen and sectarians in order to deceive the faithful and encourage them to violate Soviet laws on religion and the church. The UN Convention does not say that churchmen and sectarians have the right to set up religious schools to teach children and teenagers in the USSR, but that each country’s laws on religion should be observed.

p Under Soviet law, parents and persons acting in loco parentis are responsible for their children’s upbringing. Parental authority is supported and protected. School, the Pioneer and Komsomol organisations foster respect for children’s elders. In conformity with the existing laws, parents have the right to place children in pre-school child-care institutions and general schools, as well as vocational schools or specialised secondary schools. They may take part in the discussion of problems relating to the teaching of their children, in ’extra-mural, out-of-schol and health activities at the institutions which their children attend. But in cases when parents abuse their rights by their actions, the state bodies and the public cannot remain indifferent. The laws of the socialist state defend parental rights as well as children’s interests.

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p The separation of school from church is an expression and guarantee of real freedoms given to citizens in matters of belief and unbelief. It is also intended to protect children’s rights. N. K. Krupskaya wrote that a great deal was often said about parental rights and very little about children’s rights. It is generally accepted that the law should protect the defenceless child in the first place.

p The USSR legislation on public education formulates the responsibilities of parents and persons acting in loco parentis. Under the law, parents are required to bring up children to be moral and careful with socialist property, to instil good work habits and prepare them for socially useful activity. The law requires of parents and guardians to send children to school as soon as they reach school age, to ensure their regular attendance, and to prevent unexcused absences. Article 57 of the Fundamentals of Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics on Education says: “The upbringing in the family shall be organically combined with the educational work done by educational establishments, pre-school and out-of-school institutions and social organisations.”

p Having given citizens freedom of choice in their personal belief and unbelief, the young Soviet state went beyond a simple declaration on freedom of conscience. Lenin’s Decree stresses guarantees for freedom of conscience; it stresses that within the borders of the Soviet Republic “it is prohibited to pass any local laws or resolutions which would constrain or restrict the freedom of conscience or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of religious denomination of citizens".

p The prohibition to pass any local laws or resolutions concerning religion is still effective today. The central and local authorities see to it that citizens’ unrestricted freedom to believe or not believe in God is strictly observed.

p Lenin’s Decree was the first in history to create political and legal conditions for the freedom to be atheist, to guarantee rights and democratic freedoms to people who do not believe in God and to provide an opportunity to conduct scientific and atheist propaganda, while maintaining a respectful attitude toward the beliefs of religious people.

p The provisions of Lenin’s Decree were reproduced in decrees 56 passed by other Soviet republics, with allowances for local conditions.

p The principles underlying unrestricted freedom of conscience were formalised in the 1918 RSFSR Constitution and in the constitutions of the other Union republics, as well as later in the USSR Constitution.

p But even the best decree could not make immediate changes in deep-rooted traditions, customs and rituals, in the church’s age-old domination. There was a long way to go before the great democratic principles set forth in Lenin’s Decree could be carried out. The Leninist policy toward religion and the church had to be implemented in practice everywhere and subordinated to the task of building a new society. The authorities had to have a correct understanding of this policy and to be taught to apply its principles in everyday life.

p The profound meaning of Lenin’s Decree and the essence of the policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet government were widely discussed, both verbally and in print.

p Five days after publication of the Decree, the newspaper Izvestia Sovetov Rabochikh, Soldatskikh i Krestianskikh Deputatov Goroda Moskvy i Moskovskoi Oblasti (News of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies of the City of Moscow and Moscow Region) printed an appeal “To All Citizens”, in which the Soviet government explained the real meaning of its policy toward religion and the church. “While recognising complete freedom of religion,” the Appeal said, “we do not wish the church to be a tool of state power, to be its servant. Let any believer, any community, any union of believers—let them profess any religion they want. The state cannot interfere and prescribe this or that faith.”

p Because of protests by hostile elements that the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church" was the beginning of an open crackdown on the church and believers, Izvestia published an article entitled “Does Our Revolution Persecute Religious Faith?" on February 20, 1918. It exposed the false thesis of the overthrown exploitative classes and anti-Soviet clergy about “persecution for faith" and, citing many examples, gave the lie to the fabrications of the counter-revolutionaries.

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p ”. . .There is not a grain of truth in all this,” the article said. “The revolution pursues neither religion nor faith; it cannot do this because our demand is complete religious freedom and complete freedom of conscience. The socialist revolution of workers and peasants is fighting only for the church, religion and the clergy to cease to be an instrument of state power, of enslavement and exploitation of the indigent and poor by the proprietary classes, by the rich and exploiters.” The article pointed out that the malicious falsehoods about religious persecution were needed by those who had lived off the people for centuries and now that they had been deprived of millions of dessiatines of land acquired by robbery and of their vast estates, the titled landowners and landowners in cassocks alike try to incite believers against Soviet power, and had declared war on the people’s government in their desire to return their lost riches.

p The Central Party Committee and the Soviet government closely supervised enforcement of the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church”. On April 9, 1918 the Council of People’s Commissars instructed the People’s Commissariat for Justice to form a Commission “to draw up urgent instructions on how the decree on the disestablishment of the church should be enforced”. These instructions were soon prepared and published by Izvestia. On May 8, 1918 the People’s Commissar of Justice, P. Stucka, reported to the Council of People’s Commissars on the progress of the enforcement. The meeting decided to set up a special (VIII) department under the People’s Commissariat for Justice to implement the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church”. The department directed local authorities’ practical implementation of measures related to the Decree. It devised and published instructions and explanations, and answered queries from state institutions and individuals on the principles of Soviet legislation on worship.

p Lenin attached utmost importance to the correct implementation of the Party and Soviet government’s policy toward religion. He repeatedly touched upon these problems in his reports and speeches to workers and peasants, in his conversations with representatives of the working people. Thus, speaking at a meeting in Presnya District (Moscow) on July 26, 1918, Lenin gave 58 spccial attention to explaining the Soviet state’s religious policy. “Religion was a private concern. Everyone could believe in what he wants or believe in nothing. The Soviet Republic united the working people of all nations. . . . The Soviet Republic knew no religious distinctions. It stood above all religion and strove to separate religion from the Soviet state."  [58•1 

p In its attitude to grass-roots believers, the Communist Party has always been guided by the principle of freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church" and by the Soviet Constitution. In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, a petition addressed to Lenin was received from the people of Yaganov volost in Cherepovets uyezd. They asked for permission to complete construction of a church begun l)efore the Revolution. Lenin wrote a note to V. Bakhvalov, a representative from Yaganov, who had brought the petition to Moscow : “ Completion of the church is permitted, of course; please call on the People’s Commissar of Justice, comrade Kursky, whom I have telephoned, for instructions."  [58•2 

p The leader of the Bolshevik Party set an example of uncompromising attitude toward any religion; he held that “the idea of God always put to sleep and blunted the ’social feelings’, replacing the living by the dead, being always the idea of slavery (the worst, hopeless slavery)".  [58•3  As Lenin saw it, any religion is “one of the most odious things on earth".  [58•4  He regarded religion as a kind of spiritual oppression and considered the economic dependence of destitute masses to be the main reason for its influence. “Religion,” Lenin pointed out, “is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, overburdened by their perpetual work for 59 others, by want and isolation."  [59•1  Lenin related emancipation from this type of spiritual oppression to abolition of exploitative society. He called upon the working people to take the side of socialism and to rally together “to fight in the present for a better life on earth”, “to win a better life for himself [the modern class-conscious worker—Ed.] here on earth”, and to conduct “a broad and open struggle for the elimination of economic slavery, the true source of the religious humbugging of mankind".  [59•2 

p The main instrument in the struggle against religious prejudices, in Lenin’s opinion, is involving the masses in active socialist construction and raising the culture and welfare of workers and peasants. He recommended the Communists conduct patient explanatory work with believers, and he himself set an example of tact and conviction in spreading a scientific world-outlook among believers. The following fact is typical in this respect. Soon after the Decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church" was published, Lenin met with peasant delegates from the interior regions of Russia, At the end of the conversation, after the main issues had been cleared up, the peasants were about to leave but stopped in the doorway. Lenin saw that the visitors seemed to be undecided, that there was a problem still left unsolved. He addressed the peasants.

p “What’s the matter, comrades?" Lenin asked. “Speak up, don’t hesitate.”

p “Well, we wanted to ask . . . but only don’t take it amiss!”, one of the delegates faltered. “We see, you arc a good man. . . you stand up for us so. ... Why, you are our friend all over! But only they say that you don’t believe in God and never pray. Is that true?”

p Lenin replied smiling:

p “I’m ashamed to say that I don’t believe in God and don’t waste my time on prayers. And, what’s more. I advise you not to do it either. Sit down and I’ll explain why it is so.”

p Lenin made the delegates sit clown again, locked the doors 60 so as not to be disturbed in the conversation, sat closer to the peasants and started to speak. In an hour and a half at least, the men came out of Lenin’s office. They looked like different people! Their faces shone with new ideas, surprise and awe.

p “Yes, we were fooled with God all right!" one of them said. “But now we’ve seen the light.”

p Lenin noted that the working masses of Russia had gone through a great school of political education in a short time during the years of the Revolution and Civil War. In August 1921 he wrote proudly: “No country in the world has done as much to liberate the masses from the influence of priests and landowners as the R.S.F.S.R. has done, and is doing."  [60•1  He felt that their consciousness had radically changed in relation to religion under the impact of the Revolution. But these changes in working people’s consciousness were not taken into consideration as much as they should have by those responsible for agitation and propaganda. Lenin was especially concerned about shortcomings in the organisation of atheist propaganda. He saw signs of simplification and vulgarisation in the arrangement of this important area of ideological work. Hence, it did not meet in full the workers’ and peasants’ requirements which had grown immensely since the Revolution.

p Lenin’s article “On the Significance of Militant Materialism" played a large role in organising atheist education. It criticised Party and state bodies for faults in atheist work and outlined ways to improve this work. Lenin demonstrated in detail that atheist propaganda can be expected to be successful only when it rests on a strong philosophical foundation. Lenin urged the Communists to master the ait of conducting scientific and atheist propaganda, and to develop the ability to explain the source of the masses’ religious faith from the materialist view. “The combating of religion cannot be confined to abstract ideological preaching, and it must not be reduced to such preaching. It must be linked up with the concrete practice of the class movement, which aims at eliminating the social roots of religion."  [60•2 

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p Lenin stressed that Marxist philosophical materialism is militant by its very nature, demanding that all modern “graduated flunkeys of clericalism" and its “learned” defenders should be exposed. He called for atheist propaganda among the masses to be expanded through various forms of scientific-educational work, for the social and epistemological roots of religion to be exposed more deeply and for a scientific, materialist world-outlook to be persistently instilled in the masses. Lenin set Communists the task of tirelessly exposing idealism and clericalism and to ensure a scientific approach to organisation of atheist propaganda. He said that science was to help the masses in creating the new social system. “No forces of darkness can withstand an alliance of the scientists, the proletariat and the technologists."  [61•1 

p Lenin thought it very important to be able to develop a conscious attitude to religion in the most backward masses and a conscious criticism of it. And the conscious criticism of religion is, first of all, a materialist explanation of natural and social phenomena. He attached a great importance to disseminating natural scientific knowledge among the masses and highly valued the atheist writings of the eighteenth-century materialist philosophers. His basic requirement for anti-religious propaganda was that the connection between religion and the exploiting classes should be exposed more boldly and persistently. “It is particularly important to utilise books and pamphlets which contain many concrete facts and comparisons showing how the class interests and class organisations of the modern bourgeoisie are connected with the organisations of religious institutions and religious propaganda."  [61•2 

p Lenin’s works and ideas explaining Party policy toward religion and believers and the objectives of atheist education, developed creatively in decisions of the CPSU, are great ideological weapons in the struggle for communism. They teach how to combine the struggle against religious ideology with strengthening the unity of believers and non-believers, to overcome 62 religious prejudices in the process of solving the problems ol communist construction and to disseminate scientific knowledge among working people.

p Following Lenin’s behests, the CPSU resolutely opposes both a conciliatory attitude to religion and any efforts to overcome religious faiths with administrative bans.

p Democracy in the Soviet way of life, real guarantees of the freedom of conscience, and economic and cultural achievements made a great impact on the political orientation of the church leaders. When the majority of believers and clergymen developed a sense of loyalty to the Soviet system, more specific Soviet legislation on worship was called for. Based on Lenin’s Decree, laws and enactments were passed by all the Union republics on procedures for implementation of the decree “On the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church”, instructions issued by the State Commission for Education, by the People’s Commissariat for Justice, and other normative acts designed to ensure freedom of conscience were approved.

p The Enactment On Religious Associations passed on April 8, 1929 by the ARCEC and the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR was one of the most important documents making a reality of Lenin’s decree. It specified the demands and guarantees for observing the principle of freedom of conscience, and set special legal standards to protect religious associations of believers and ministers of religion from infringement of their lawful rights. Just as the Decree had done, the Enactment formulated the basic demands and guarantees for the separation of church from state and school from church to be realised. They covered all “churches, religious groups, religious trends and other cult associations of all denominations”. These demands were intended to apply equally to all religions and religious trends, and this idea runs through the document. Believers of all denominations were granted total freedom to celebrate their rites provided the nature of faith and the celebration of rituals did not harm their health, nor offend their dignity, and the activities of the religious associations in question were within Soviet laws.

Lenin’s principles made into law by the Enactment of the 63 ARCEC and the RSFSR Council of People’s Commissars of April 8, 1929 have been and still arc un.shakeable. The legal standards formulated by the document are still in effect today. However, substantial changes have occurred in the structure and names of the state bodies mentioned in the Enactment since its adoption and, therefore, certain alterations and corrections were called for. On June 23, 1975 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR issued a decree “On Introduction of Changes and Additions into the Enactment of the ARCEC and the RSFSR Council of People’s Commissars of April 8, 1929 ’On Religious Associations’ ”. The idea of these changes was to put in order, codify and systematise the legal standards regulating the activities of religious associations. Similar measures were adopted by all the Union republics. They do not provide for any new legal standards.