Open Collections

Droe, Anj

Database of Religious History (DRH)

Viriatino is a small village in the Tambov Oblast of what is now Russia. This entry focuses on Viriatino in the 1950s, at which time Russia was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Secularization of the primarily Russian Orthodox Christian population in Viriatino first began following the First Russian Revolution in 1905 and accelerated after the Russian Revolution in 1917, at which time the Church was officially separated from the State and religious education was banned (Benet, 1970:289). The church in Viriatino was closed in 1933, and by the 1950s, many of the traditional religious beliefs and practices had been abandoned. Aspects of religion that were retained through state-sponsored secularization mainly related to marriage or treatment of the dead. Certain important holidays were also celebrated, but with fewer and less strict religious practices than had been observed in the past (such as required prayers or fasting). Some practices were still observed, but had lost much of their religious significance, such as baptism or the keeping of icons (paintings of religious figures) in a corner of the house. Because Church and State were explicitly separate, this entry does not consider the religion and the society to be coterminous.

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eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0423129

Non UBC

Unreviewed

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