Down with God! How the Soviet Union took on religion – in pictures
Marx said religion was the opium of the people – and in the Soviet
Union, atheism became government policy, enforced by the state and
encouraged by anti-religious posters and magazines. These have been
collected in Roland Elliott Brown’s new book from Fuel called Godless Utopia: Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda
- Godless at the Machine magazine, 1923
Godless at the Machine was one of two anti-religious propaganda magazines
distributed by the Soviet state, which included satirical images and articles
taking aim at the faithful. This image, called Red Flood, depicts the holy
family assailed by the might of the state
· Godless at the Machine magazine,
1924
Titled The Imperishable Ones, this image shows God saying: ‘You’ve let me
down, my minions. I’m ashamed to be seen on Earth now!’ to a group of skeletons
dressed in religious garb
· Undated poster
The words on this anti-religious propaganda poster, which would have been
posted on walls around the USSR, read: ‘A prison for heart and mind’
· Poster, 1975
The most prominent cosmonaut atheist was Gherman Titov, whose flight in
August 1961 followed Yuri Gagarin’s that April. In 1962, he told an audience at
the Seattle world’s fair that he had seen no gods or angels in space, and that
he believed in mankind’s strength and reason. This poster – titled There Is No
God! –commemorates him
· Cover of the poster collection In
True Light, 1962
The cover of this collection of anti-religious posters shown in a Leningrad
exhibition includes a fighting pencil and the light beam of truth exposing a
babushka holding a bottle of holy water, a praying man with the Jehovah’s Witness
magazine The Watchtower, a vodka-sipping priest, a man on his knees with a
bottle of ‘holy tincture’ and a bottle of cognac
· Godless magazine, 1934
Titled The True Face of the Catholic Church, this depicts a skeletal
spider-pope overseeing the burning of books by Marx, Lenin and Darwin
· Poster, 1930
This image depicts a priest climbing on a slumbering drunk in order to saw
an electricity pylon with a crucifix. The slogan says: ‘Everybody understands
that where work is being done – the priest and the drunk are both doing harm’
· Poster, 1977
In this poster, the radio is broadcasting Ave, Maria, Slander of the USSR,
Anti-Sovietism and Our Father – conflating religion with political attack. The
caption reads: ‘Another gullible sectarian is glad to hear prayers from “over
there”. They are, as a rule, stained with outright anti-Sovietism!’
· Poster, 1981
The cover of a 1981 poster collection called Light Against Darkness shows a
boy trying to wrest himself away from a babushka pulling him to a shadowy
church
· Kingdom of Jehovah Poster from the
collection In True Light, 1962
The Soviets regarded Jehovah’s Witnesses as subversive agents. Newspaper
Izvestia described them as an ‘international political organisation … deployed
against communism … the sect of the Jehovists … carries out espionage
activities on the directives of the USA.’ This poster depicts a witness with
spying equipment in his eyes and ears, and whose caption reads: ‘Don’t believe
in his meekness, he doesn’t care about the soul. Such a witness of Jehovah is a
traitor to the motherland, a spy!’
· Poster from the collection In True
Light, 1962
Titled In ‘Holy’ Blinkers, this poster depicts two crafty figures leading
an innocent third, using their Bible to prevent him looking right or left. As
Izvestia put it: ‘The Soviet people are, with all determination, exposing the
anti-people nature of the sectarians, no matter what god they may hide behind.
For reasons of their own, sectarian preachers and their acolytes, cowering in
remote and fetid holes, morally and physically deform people, tear them away
from working and social life, and corrupt the youth’
· Godless magazine, 1940
This image contrasts ‘God’s slaves’ on their knees and in the dark with the
Soviet ‘masters of life’
· Cultural Goods Poster, 1984
This poster depicts Jesus as a capitalist hawking his wares. The caption
reads, ‘Under the shop window this weasel has set himself up nicely. There’s a
foolish fashion that means they’ll snap his junk right up’
· Women’s Emancipation Poster, 1977
It wasn’t only Christianity the Soviets attacked. This poster takes aim at
Islam, depicting a Muslim man and his donkey riding on the back of a
downtrodden woman. The caption reads: ‘The essence of his character is clear:
it operates on two levels. Up above, he’s showing off his paper, down below,
he’s true to Muhammad’
· Planetarium Poster, undated
Here, the creepy man’s shadow becomes a cross with ‘religion’ written
across it. In his pocket is a Bible. The caption reads: ‘Step across the
ominous shadow and join the crowd in the joyful bustle of the day!’
* The Guardian, Down with God! How the Soviet Union took on religion – in pictures, Wed 23 Oct 2019 07.00 BST.
* Protagon.gr, Σοβιετικές αφίσες: υπάρχει Θεός και είναι το Κόμμα, 4 Νοεμβρίου 2019.
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