M. A. Fedorova. On the Believers of the Sverdlovsk Region: Report of the Commissioner for Religious Cult Affairs under the USSR Government (1954)

· Persecution, Documents, Russia, Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers

This publication presents a document on the activities of the Commissioner for the Sverdlovsk Region of the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The document was declassified in the last decade. The Council for Religious Cults was established under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1944.[1] Through the Council and its commissioners operating locally (under the executive committees of local Soviets), the USSR government maintained liaison with religious organizations and exercised state oversight of their activities. The creation of a body that facilitated the coordination and resolution of religion-related issues made it possible to regulate relations between religious organizations and the state and to control believers effectively during this period, when a relentless struggle against religion had ceased to be a pressing concern.[2]

Op.: Document. Archive. History. Contemporary Times: Collected Scholarly Works. Issue 5. Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press, 2005. 438 pp. (https://hist.usu.ru/dais/volumes.htm)

The commissioner’s apparatus carried out in-depth study of the religious situation, the forms and methods of religious influence on the population, exercised control over compliance with legislation on cults, and kept records of religious associations identified in the region. The commissioner’s apparatus built its work in close cooperation with the regional executive committee and the district and city executive committees on the ground. Recommendations aimed at normalizing the religious situation and streamlining relations with clergy and believers were sent to regional and city party and Soviet organizations. Commissioners were also responsible for registering clergy.

The sources for the reports of the Commissioners for the Sverdlovsk Region of the Council for Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers included personal observations; conversations with clergy, believers, and leaders of Soviet and party bodies; petitions from believers to open houses of worship; and documents from Soviet and party bodies.

During the period 1943–1953, a shift in the Soviet state’s policy toward religion was observed. The new course pursued by J. V. Stalin meant that relations between the state and religious organizations ceased to be characterized by irreconcilable conflict, bitter confrontation, and persecution of the clergy. However, the requirement of the party program, which stated that the VKP(b) “strives … to liberate the working masses from religious prejudices … by organizing the broadest … anti-religious propaganda,” was not repealed. The improvement in relations with religious organizations provoked silent disapproval among many party and Komsomol cadres and ideological workers. To them, such a policy seemed a betrayal of the precepts of the founders of Marxism-Leninism. The change of leadership in the country in 1953 led to a sharp reversal of policy toward religion. The new party leader, N. S. Khrushchev, renewed an active struggle against “religious survivals” and religious organizations. He initiated the adoption in 1954 of the CPSU Central Committee resolutions “On Major Shortcomings in Scientific-Atheistic Propaganda and Measures to Improve It” of July 7, 1954, and “On Errors in the Conduct of Scientific-Atheistic Propaganda among the Population” of November 10, 1954.[3]

The document being published was created during the turning point in relations between the state and religious organizations. At the Sverdlovsk Region level, the shift in the country’s leadership policy toward religion coincided with the appointment of V. I. Rupasov as Commissioner for Religious Cults for the region, replacing F. A. Berezin. Rupasov is the author of this document.

Vladimir Ivanovich Rupasov was born in 1893 in the city of Vyatka to a bricklayer’s family. After graduating from the Vyatka Realschule in 1914, he was drafted into the armed forces that same year, beginning his military career as a private in a reserve battalion in Vyatka. A few months later, having a secondary education, he was sent to study at the Kazan Military School for Ensigns. Upon completing the school, V. I. Rupasov served as an assistant company commander in a reserve battalion in Perm. At the end of 1915 he was sent to the Western Front, where he was wounded; after recovery, he served as treasurer in the Perm Directorate of Horse Remounts. In early 1918 Rupasov was demobilized and moved from Perm to the town of Osa in Perm Governorate. There he worked for some time as head of a prisoner-of-war camp of the military department of the Osa Uyezd. In March 1918 he returned to Perm, where he took a job as secretary of the Red Cross Directorate of the Ural Military District. Following the city’s surrender to the enemy, V. I. Rupasov was evacuated in December 1918 together with the Directorate to Vyatka. From December 1918 to May 1919 he worked as head of the health department of the Osa Uyezd Executive Committee. From 1919 to 1924 Rupasov served in the Red Army: in 1919–1921 as regimental adjutant for operations on the Western Front, and in 1921–1924 as military commissar and assistant military commissar in the towns of Osa, Okhansk, Perm, and Kungur. In 1924 he was elected executive secretary of the Kungur Okrug Executive Committee, a post he held until 1927. From 1927 to 1928 V. I. Rupasov worked as senior instructor of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Executive Committee; from 1928 to 1930 as instructor of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee of the VKP(b); from 1930 to 1932 as senior inspector of the Ural Oblast Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate; and from 1932 to 1934 as head of the control sector of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Land Administration. From February 1933 to June 1934 he worked as an inspector for sales and supply in the office of the plenipotentiary for Sverdlovsk Oblast of the People’s Commissariat of State Farms. Then from July 1934, for seven years, he worked in the Executive Committee of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Soviet as instructor, deputy head, and head of the Organizational-Instructional Department. From June 1941 for one year he served as military commissar of Evacuation Hospital No. 427 of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Defense, and for the next three years as executive secretary of the party commission of the Kiev Military Medical School and the Sverdlovsk Infantry School. From 1945 to 1953 Rupasov held the post of head of the Organizational-Instructional Department of the Executive Committee of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Soviet. In March 1953 he was relieved of these duties due to illness. It is noteworthy that V. I. Rupasov succeeded F. A. Berezin as head of the Organizational-Instructional Department; Berezin had been confirmed by a decision of the bureau of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee of the VKP(b) on January 19, 1945, as the commissioner of the Council for Religious Cult Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers. Nine years later Rupasov also succeeded Berezin as commissioner[4]. Thus V. I. Rupasov had extensive experience working in military institutions and Soviet bodies.

The document published here indicates that he only assumed the post in March 1954, and therefore this document reflects the period of his familiarization with his duties as commissioner.

In the report published here, the author distinguishes between registered and unregistered religious organizations. Matters of registration and deregistration, as well as the opening and closing of houses of worship, were to be resolved by local authorities in coordination (by agreement) with the Council for Religious Cult Affairs[5]. According to legislation on religious cults, registered religious organizations were granted the right, with permission from state bodies, “to build, rent, or purchase premises, to publish religious literature: the Bible, the Koran, prayer books, magazines, church calendars, etc.”[6], and to conduct worship services. Unregistered religious organizations were not permitted to gather for worship. The report shows that religious organizations sought to obtain registration and a building where they could conduct services, although local Soviet bodies tried to find grounds to refuse these requests. The author of this document (who had only just taken up his duties as commissioner) devotes more attention to unregistered religious organizations than to registered ones. This is apparently due to the fact that unregistered religious organizations were harder to control, so the commissioner decided to begin his work by familiarizing himself precisely with them. The report contains information on the following religious confessions: Old Believers (of the Belokrinitsky and Bespopovtsy accords), Protestants (Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans, Mennonites), Muslims, and Judaists.

The document published here serves as an illustration of the relationship between religious organizations and the state in 1954.

The collection of documents of the commissioners for Sverdlovsk Oblast of the Council for Religious Cult Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers, of which the published document is a part, is held in the fond of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee of the CPSU at the Documentation Center of Public Organizations of Sverdlovsk Oblast. The text of the document is reproduced according to current orthographic rules while preserving the stylistic features of the original.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR SVERDLOVSK OBLAST V. RUPASOV TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL FOR RELIGIOUS CULT AFFAIRS UNDER THE USSR COUNCIL OF MINISTERS I. V. POLYANSKY AND THE SECRETARY OF THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU V. A. KUROYEDOV ON THE ACTIVITIES OF NON-ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE OBLAST

July 1, 1954
Sverdlovsk, Lenin Ave. 32
Secret
Section I

The work plan of the Council’s commissioner for the first half of 1954 has been basically fulfilled, with the exception of three matters related to the commissioner’s trips to study the activities of functioning religious societies: the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky consensus in the village of Pristan, Artinsky District; Muslims of the village of Novy Bugalysh, Sazhinsky District; and Old Believers of the priestless consensus in the village of Bolshaya Laya, the suburban zone of the city of Nizhny Tagil.

The incomplete fulfillment of the work plan is explained by the fact that I, as the Council’s commissioner, began working in March of this year, and as a new employee I had to spend a lot of time familiarizing myself with all the materials transferred to me from the former Council commissioner, Comrade Berezin. In addition, the situation compelled me to carry out work that was not provided for in the plan:

a) Studying the activities of the unregistered group of Old Believers of the priestless consensus in the settlement of Shartash, city of Sverdlovsk, and presenting my proposals to the Sverdlovsk City Committee of the CPSU and the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee.

b) Studying the composition and activities of the unregistered group of believers of the Evangelical Christian Baptists in the city of Krasnoturinsk in connection with the proposal of the Council for Religious Cult Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated May 8 of this year, No. 7-30, by means of a trip by the Council’s commissioner to the location.

c) Studying the activities of unregistered groups of Evangelical Christian Baptist believers in the city of Karpinsk in connection with incoming signals, by means of a trip by the commissioner to the location.

Matters not carried out in the first half of the year have been included in the work plan for the second half of 1954.

I presented the following matters to the leading party and Soviet bodies during the past half-year:

a) I informed the Sverdlovsk City Committee of the CPSU and the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee about the existence of an unregistered group of Old Believers of the priestless consensus in the settlement of Shartash, city of Sverdlovsk, and about its holding of prayer meetings in a closed chapel and a watchman’s hut at the Old Believer cemetery.

On April 16, 1954, I asked the city executive committee to issue an order to close the chapel and to evict from the watchman’s hut[7] the nuns who had turned it into a prayer building, and I asked the city committee of the CPSU to instruct the Kirov District Committee to carry out the necessary political work among the population. Since then more than two months have passed, but the city executive committee has not taken the necessary actions.

b) On May 22, as a result of my inspection of the activities of registered religious societies of Old Believers of the priestless consensus and of unregistered groups of believers of the same consensus in Nevyansk District, I raised with the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU and the chairman of the regional executive committee the following matters: strengthening political and cultural work among the district’s population; enhancing the role of party and Komsomol organizations on religious issues and increasing their vigilance against possible anti-Soviet manifestations on the part of religious cult ministers; expanding the network of cultural and educational institutions in this district and improving their work; and also using vacant prayer buildings (chapels) for cultural institutions. The measures taken in response to these matters are not yet known to me.

c) On May 25, in connection with the approach of the Uraza-Bayram holiday, I raised with the chairman of the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee the issue of the need to prevent a gathering of Muslim believers on June 2 at the city Muslim cemetery for performing prayers by warning the leaders of the unregistered group of believers about this. However, no measures were taken, and on that day there were at least 1,000 believers at the cemetery.

During the first half of the year, I received visits from religious cult ministers of all registered religious societies located within the oblast’s territory, as well as the chairmen of the executive bodies of two religious societies. This allowed me to some extent to familiarize myself with the composition and activities of the registered religious societies, to update and put in order the registration files for each religious society. Over the half-year, the rabbi of the Sverdlovsk Synagogue visited me 8 times, mentors of Old Believer chapels – 6 times, and the mullah of the Novobugalysh Mosque – 2 times.

In May, I travelled to Nevyansk District, where I met with religious cult ministers of two Old Believer religious societies of the priestless consensus, held discussions with the active members of unregistered groups of Old Believers of the same denomination. In June, I travelled to the city of Krasnoturinsk, the district settlement of Volchanka, and the city of Karpinsk, where I familiarized myself with the composition and activities of unregistered groups of Evangelical Christian Baptist believers, and held discussions with the active members of these groups.

Section II

During the first half of the year, several facts of violations of the legislation related to religious cults were uncovered. These violations of legislation were committed by unregistered groups of believers, and the local Soviet bodies (district and city executive committees, settlement and village Soviets) did not react to such violations at the time.

In my memorandums, I gave a detailed account of the facts of violations of legislation and the measures I recommended for their elimination. In this report, I will merely recall these facts:

On April 16, 1954, I reported violations of Soviet legislation by an unregistered group of Old Believers of the priestless consensus in the settlement of Shartash, city of Sverdlovsk, who had adapted the watchman’s hut at the Old Believer cemetery as a prayer building, and in the summer used the closed chapel, systematically holding prayer meetings in them.
On May 22, 1954, I reported on the activities of unregistered groups of Old Believers of the priestless consensus in the populated localities of Verkhniye and Nizhniye Tavolgi, Nevyansk District, who held prayer meetings and religious rites in the homes of believers.
The Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee was repeatedly informed (most recently on May 25, 1954) of the active work of an unregistered group of Muslim believers in the city of Sverdlovsk, which holds prayer meetings every Friday in a cave-like structure on the Muslim cemetery, and which on June 2, 1954 (the day of Uraza-Bayram) organized a mass gathering of Muslim believers outdoors on the territory of the cemetery.

Section III

The clergy and believers posed the following questions to the Council’s representative:

The rabbi of the Sverdlovsk synagogue raised the issue of producing matzah at city enterprises that bake bread products. I told the rabbi that the religious society itself should petition the local authorities for the production of matzah, and I explained to the head of the city trade department that matzah is a necessary food product and cannot be classified as an object of worship. The synagogue’s request for baking matzah was denied by the city trade department on the grounds that there are no available ovens at the bread factories.
The preceptor of the Nevyansk Old Believer chapel asked me to intervene with the district council executive committee regarding the completion of the fence around the cemetery, on the grounds of which the chapel stands, and the construction of an entrance booth. Having visited the site (in May 1954), I resolved both questions positively with the district executive committee.
The chairman of the executive body of the religious society of Priestless Old Believers in the town of Nevyansk asked my permission to conduct services at the graves of schema-monks located near the town of Kirovgrad. After consulting with the Council for Religious Cult Affairs, I denied this request.
The mullah of the Novobugalysh Mosque raised before me the issue of intervening with the Sazhino District Executive Committee regarding the construction of a fence around the Muslim cemetery and of curtailing the activities of an unregistered (itinerant) mullah living in the village of Tatarskaya Yemanzelga. On both matters, I contacted the executive committee of the Sazhino District Council; I have not yet received a reply on the measures taken.

In addition, some believers approached me with questions about the procedure for opening houses of worship, the possibility of summoning a minister of religion to perform a rite outside the area served by the religious society, and a number of other minor questions, to which they received the necessary answers.

Section IV

In the Sverdlovsk region, there are 6 registered religious societies: 1 of the Judaic faith, 3 of the Priestless Old Believer Church, 1 of the Belokrinitsky Concord Old Believer Church, and 1 of the Muslim faith.

I am not yet able to provide a full analysis of the condition and practical activities of each religious society, as I have not yet had time to personally familiarize myself with all of them by traveling to the localities (here and further in the text highlighted by the author; italics ours. – M. F.)

Religious society of the Judaic cult – the city of Sverdlovsk.

The religious society numbers up to 500 members, a figure that has remained stable over the past 3 years. Compared with other societies, this religious society is quite strong. Much of the credit for this goes to Rabbi Openstein, who has served as a rabbi for over 40 years, has a higher theological education, and is a person of strong will.

Attendance at the synagogue by believers has changed little since 1952. Thus, figures remain stable for such holidays as Selichot (50–60 people), Rosh Hashanah (400 people), Yom Kippur (500 people), Sukkot (200–300 people), and Hanukkah (40 people); on Saturdays (60–70 people) and daily 15–25 people. Only during Passover did synagogue attendance by believers in 1953 and 1954 be higher (300–350 people) than in 1952 (230 people).

The performance of rites in 1953 included: circumcisions – 6, marriages – 3, memorial services – 5, poultry slaughter – 300 cases, while in the first half of 1954 the corresponding figures were: 3, 6, 2, and 100 cases.

In 1953, the religious society received an income of 46,701 rubles and incurred expenses of 34,433 rubles. In the first half of 1954, income amounted to 12,856 rubles and expenses to 15,837 rubles. The decrease in income is explained by the fact that there are fewer holidays in the first half of 1954 than there will be in the second half.

The rabbi regularly visits me at my office (8 times in the first half of the year), informs me about the condition and activities of the religious society, and receives necessary guidance from me. I visited the synagogue once, before the holiday of Passover.

Religious society of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky Concord in the village of Pristan, Arti District.

The membership of the religious society is stable, and over the past 5–6 years it has consisted of up to 500 persons. The minister of religion, Archpriest R. S. Toporkov, has been the rector of the church since 1944.

Attendance by believers at the church is quite considerable: on Easter – up to 400 people, on Christmas and Epiphany – up to 350 people, on Sundays – 40–50 people. Attendance figures have been stable since 1948. Among those attending church on major holidays, young people account for approximately 10%.

Noteworthy is a certain increase in the number of rites performed: in 1952, 75 baptisms were performed; in 1953 – 84 (38 in the first half of the year and 46 in the second half). There were 19 weddings in 1953, and in the first 2 months of 1954 there were 18 cases. The number of memorial services and anointings performed in 1953 (46) slightly increased compared to 1952 (35).

In the village of Pristan, where the Old Believer church is located, the majority of the population are Old Believers. Thus, out of 257 households, 180 households belong to Old Believer believers.

Religious societies of Priestless Old Believers in Nevyansk District (the town of Nevyansk and the village of Byngi).

I reported in detail on the condition and activities of these religious societies in a memorandum addressed to the chairman of the Council for Religious Cult Affairs and the secretary of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee of the CPSU on May 22, 1954 (No. 12-s).

I will report on the composition and activities of the religious society of Old Believers of the Priestless Accord in the village of Bolshoy Lay, suburban zone of the city of Nizhny Tagil, and the religious society of the Muslim faith in the village of Nov[y] Bugalysh, Sazhinsky District, in the information report for the second half of 1954, after my on-site inspection.

Section V

Approximately 40–45 unregistered groups of believers have been identified in the region. The unregistered groups of believers include: a) those that submitted petitions during the period 1946–1952 for the opening of prayer buildings or for the registration of religious societies and were denied; b) those identified by local Soviet authorities that periodically hold religious prayers.

By individual cults, the unregistered groups of believers are subdivided into: Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky Accord – 2, Old Believers of the Priestless Accord – 26, Muslims – 9, E[vangelical] Ch[ristian-] B[aptists] – 5, Seventh-day Adventists – 1, Lutherans – 1, Mennonites – 1.

The Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky Accord are located mainly in the territory of Shalinsky District; their numbers are small.

The Priestless Old Believers live in the mining region of the Middle Urals: Nevyansky, Visimsky, Petrokamensky, Shalinsky, and Bilimbaevsky Districts, and in the suburban zones of the cities of Nizhny Tagil, Kirovgrad, Berezovsky, Polevskoy, and Sverdlovsk. The numbers of these groups are more significant, especially in Visimsky, Nevyansky, and Shalinsky Districts.

Muslim groups of believers are located in Sazhinsky, Manchazhsky, Krasnoufimsky, Nizhneserginsky Districts, and in the cities of Sverdlovsk, Krasnoufimsk, Serov, and Karpinsk. These groups are small in number.

Evangelical Christian Baptists (ECB) are present in more significant groups in the north of the region (in the cities of Karpinsk and Krasnoturinsk); they consist mainly of exiled Germans.

The following groups of believers, which I have personally verified, are showing the greatest activity:

The Muslim believers group in the city of Sverdlovsk.

For a number of years this group has been very energetically seeking the provision of a prayer building. Initially it raised the question of returning its former mosque, but the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee rejected this petition on the grounds that the building of that mosque had long been occupied by a children’s institution. Then it began to explore the possibility of renting premises or building a new mosque. In this it again met with failure: the premises proposed for rent were rejected by a commission of the City Council, and the City Executive Committee refused the purchase of a wooden frame for the construction of a mosque. At present it does not lose hope of building a new mosque and is petitioning for the allocation of a site and seeking funds for the purchase of construction materials.

Despite my warnings, and earlier warnings by Comrade Berezin (the f[ormer] commissioner), about the impermissibility of holding prayer meetings outside a prayer building, the initiators of this group of believers well repaired a cavern on the Muslim cemetery and use it every Friday for prayer meetings. The space can accommodate more than 50 people and is willingly attended by believers. Especially crowded was the Muslim cemetery on June 2, 1954, on the day of Eid al-Fitr. Believers began to gather for prayer from the morning, and by 10 o’clock (the start of the prayer) there were at least 1,000 people, including youth.

The group of Old Believers of the Priestless Accord in the settlement of Shartash, city of Sverdlovsk.

A report on this was made by me in a memorandum of April 16, 1954, and in the present report (Sections I and II).

Groups of Old Believers of the Priestless Accord in the Nevyansky District.

A report on this was made by me in a memorandum of May 22, 1954.

Groups of Evangelical Christian Baptists in the city of Krasnoturinsk, the r[ayon] s[ettlement] of Volchanka, and the city of Karpinsk.

The group of E[vangelical] Ch[ristian-] B[aptists] in the city of Krasnoturinsk has up to 100 members, among them 22 Russians, the rest being Germans exiled to Krasnoturinsk from various parts of the Soviet Union in 1941–1942. Until 1951 this group showed great activity, held prayer meetings and baptisms of adult believers. After the arrest of the group leaders and their conviction for counter-revolutionary activities, the believers’ activity diminished; they sometimes gather in small groups in private apartments, and do not conduct baptisms. At present this group of believers is seeking a prayer building and registration of a religious society.

The group includes only 8 local residents; by age they are middle-aged and elderly, there are no youth under 20, and 10–15 people aged 20 to 30. The group leaders are: F. F. Obnyatov (Russian, native of Kursk Oblast), Bavin, and Penner, all exiled Germans.

The group of E[vangelical] Ch[ristian-] B[aptists] in the r[ayon] s[ettlement] of Volchanka consists of 21 people, all of them Germans. The believers of the group sometimes gather at the apartment of their leader Yu. P. Gomer. This group is now petitioning for the opening of a prayer building. Gomer is giving up his own house of up to 48 sq[uare] meters for the prayer building.

The Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in December 1949 denied the request of the group of E[vangelical] Ch[ristian-] B[aptists] in Karpinsk to open a prayer house. At present this group is not active; some of its members have joined the existing Mennonite group and from time to time gather in groups of 5–10 people for prayer in private apartments. One of the leaders of the E[vangelical] Ch[ristian-] B[aptists] group, I. V. Shtein, moved from Karpinsk to Omsk; the second, E. Ya. Fisher, lives in Karpinsk but has withdrawn from leading the group, prays at home, and has no connection with the Mennonites.

Section VI

Two complaints and statements from believers were received in the reporting half-year, both verbal.

The first complaint was from Sayfutdinov and Ziganshin, regarding the refusal of the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee to permit the construction of a mosque in the city of Sverdlovsk. I explained the procedure for initiating a request for the construction of a new mosque and recommended that they address this issue to the City Soviet Executive Committee.

The second was an oral statement by G. A. Kozlov, representative of a group of Old Believer bespopovtsy (priestless) believers from the settlement of Shartash, Sverdlovsk, regarding the holding of prayer meetings in a closed chapel at the Old Believer cemetery in the settlement of Shartash.

I explained to him the procedure for opening places of worship and warned him that opening the chapel without authorization is forbidden, as this constitutes a violation of Soviet legislation on religious cults.

The work of the Council’s plenipotentiary would be more successful if the executive committees of district and city Soviets dealt to some extent with religious matters and monitored compliance with legislation by registered religious societies and unregistered groups of believers.

As an example, I will cite the Molotov District Executive Committee of the city of Sverdlovsk.

In May 1954, I approached Comrade Surganov, Chairman of the Molotov District Executive Committee, requesting that he assign someone from the district executive committee staff to verify whether a cavern at the Muslim cemetery was being used for prayer gatherings and, if so, to prohibit this. The Muslim cemetery is located within the territory of the Molotov District. He replied that this was not part of the district executive committee’s duties and was solely a matter for the Council’s plenipotentiary and the state security agencies.

It would be desirable for a legislative act to define the responsibilities of local authorities with regard to religious matters.

Plenipotentiary of the Council for Religious Cults under the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee V. Rupasov

Note. Sverdl[ovsk] Regional Committee of the CPSU. Secret, Incoming No. 1254. July 2, 1954. To be returned to the special section.

TsDOOSO. F. 4. Op. 53. D. 111. Ll. 56–65. Copy. 2 copies. Typewritten.

[1] See: Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1974. Vol. 24, Book 1, p. 18.

[2] See: Kuroedov V. A. Religion and the Church in the Soviet State. Moscow, 1982, p. 103; Alekseev V. Before the ‘Thaw’: On Religious Policy in the USSR in the Late 1940s–Early 1950s // Glasnost. 1991. Dec. 26. P. 7.

[3] See: Alekseev V. Before the ‘Thaw’, p. 7; The Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences, and Plenums of the Central Committee. Vol. 6 (1941–1954). Moscow, 1970, pp. 502–507, 516–520.

[4] See: TsDOOSO. F. 4. Op. 20. D. 3829; Op. 24. D. 1951; Op. 62. D. 1559; F. 161. Op. 9. D. 2216. Ll. 199–200v., 209–210v.

[5] See: Kuroedov V. A. Religion and the Church in the Soviet State, p. 123; Speransky A. V. The Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War: A Revival of Spirituality // Fifth Tatishchev Readings: Abstracts of Papers and Communications, Yekaterinburg, April 22–23, 2004. Yekaterinburg, 2004, p. 20; TsDOOSO. F. 4. Op. 53. D. 111. L. 62.

[6] See: Kuroedov V. A. Religion and the Church in the Soviet State, pp. 103–104.

[7] The words about the closing of the chapel and the eviction from the gatehouse are underlined in blue pencil, apparently by A. V. Zimin, deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, as established from an accompanying document bearing A. V. Zimin’s signature in the same blue pencil (see: F. 4. Op. 53. D. 111. L. 55a).

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