Abstract

This is the first book devoted to exploring religious life and antireligious coercion in the Soviet penal system. The Soviet Union incarcerated tens of millions of people from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the USSR in 1991, many of whom retained a belief in God despite efforts to purge religion from the public sphere. Focusing specifically on imprisoned Christians, this book argues that faith played an integral role in the lives of many inmates, who prayed, read scripture, sang hymns, communed with fellow believers, observed sacred rites, and even proselytized. Many credited their survival to faith as it provided hope and a sense of righteous suffering. Camp authorities and prison guards, meanwhile, were tasked with converting inmates to Marxist ideology, which viewed religion as superstition and a tool of oppression wielded by the traditional ruling classes. In the chaotic environment of the Gulag, however, actual repression against religious observance varied widely. Some Christians were harshly punished, even killed, for their professions of faith, but others at times were able to worship God in peace. The story of religion in the Soviet Gulag, ultimately, is one of contradiction, worship, oppression, and inspiration.