Atheism as in intellectual project in Soviet Lithuania: assumptions, objections, and transformations

ENThe goal of this chapter is to look at secularization and de-secularization as an intellectual, philosophical, and ideological endeavor in order to rethink the relationship between religion and social institutions, and try to understand how these changes can be rationalized and legitimated. The main subject of this chapter is the Soviet understanding of religion. The focus of analysis is on the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LiSSR) and the Catholic Church in Lithuania. While interpreting official Soviet ideological writings and the Catholic samizdat, the chapter seeks to understand the transformation of discourse regarding the relations between the state and religion in the late Soviet period. The Soviet ideology saw religion as an ancient prejudice based on class-consciousness. It was depicted as idealistic, and thus non-materialistic and non-scientific, seeking otherworldly goals, and thus rejecting the goals officially pursued by the Soviet Union. This position not only artificially made religion a political agent, but also legitimized Soviet policy against religion and neglected the division of the state and Church by making the Church subordinated to the state. In the late Soviet Union, attempts to change this discourse did not result from a rejection of materialism and utopianism. Mitigation of atheistic policy meant the de-politicization of the Church and tolerating idealistic worldviews as long as they did not confront state politics. Religion was seen as a tool for implementing social tasks.