The Secret Police and the Religious Underground in Communist and Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Description

This book addresses the complex intersection of secret police operations and the formation of the religious underground in communist-era Eastern Europe. It discusses how religious groups were perceived as dangerous to the totalitarian state whilst also being extremely vulnerable and yet at the same time very resourceful. It explores how this particular dynamic created the concept of the "religious underground" and produced an extremely rich secret police archival record. In a series of studies from across the region, the book explores the historical and legal context of secret police entanglement with religious groups, presents case studies on particular anti-religious operations and groups, offers methodological approaches to the secret police materials for the study of religions, and engages in contemporary ethical and political debates on the legacy and meaning of the archives in post-communism. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Figures Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Reframing the Religious Underground Religious Resistance and the Formation of the Underground The Secret Police Secret Police Operations Secret Police Archives and the Politics of the Religious Field in Post-Communism Studying Religions Through the Secret Police Archives Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References Part I Constructing the Enemy Historical and Legal Contexts 1 Shifting Images of a Harmful Sect: Operations Against Inochentism in Soviet Ukraine, 1920–23 Anti-religious Policy and Soviet Countryside in the Early 1920s Local Institutions of Power in the Early 1920s Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Ananiev County and the “problem of Rai” The Contradictory Policies of Provincial and Local Authorities: the Repressive Operation From 1921 From a Local Problem to a Cross-Border Threat: a View on Rai From Odessa Conclusions Notes Archival Sources Interviews References 2 Visualizing Invisible Dissent Red Dragonists, Conspiracy and the Soviet Secret Police Introduction: Materiality of Common Sense Grassroots Holiness: the Arrival of the Red Dragon Popular Eschatology as Conspiracy Theory Red Dragon-Type Organization: the True Orthodox Church Crafting Religious Dissent: Agitators, Spies and Couriers Secret Police Model Criminal Files Secret Police Bricolage Religious Network Schemes Conclusion: Clash of Conspiracies Notes Archival Sources References 3 The Legal Context of Religious Activities in Hungary Between 1945 and 1989/90 Introduction The Administrative and the Political Conditions of Legitimization of Churches By the State Religious Groups Pursued By the Regime – Categories From a Legal Standpoint Resisting Groups Within State-Approved Churches (minority in a State-Approved-So-Called Majority Church, Pursued Both ... Unapproved Religious Communities (illegal Churches or so-called “sects”) Religious Communities That Achieved State-Approved Church Status During Socialism Semi-Legal Religious Groups Following the Continuous Change of Church Policy in the 1980s Conclusion – Remission of Pursuit in the 1980s Notes Archival Sources References 4 Turning Religious Practices Into Political Guilt: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Narratives of the Securitate Files Introduction Historical Context Perceptions and Policies of the Securitate Towards Jehovah’s Witnesses During 1950s Turning Religious Practices Into Political Guilt Conclusions Notes Archival Sources References 5 A Coercive Political Environment as Place of Testimony: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Era of State Socialism in Hungary, 1948–89 Introduction: Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hungary History of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Before 1945 Jehovah’s Witnesses Between 1945 and 1948 The 1950s in the Life of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Underground Religious Life and the State Security Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Kádár Era Conclusion Notes Archival Sources Press References Part II Anti-religious Operations 6 Soviet State Security and the Cold War: Repression and Agent Infiltration of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Moldavian ... Introduction Religion and the State in Bessarabia Before 1940 Religion in Soviet Moldavia, 1940–41 and 1944–49 The Structure of Soviet State Security Apparatus in Moldavian SSR Deportation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1951) The Legal Basis of Mass Deportation of Jehovah’s Witnesses Vs. Individual Sentencing Agent Infiltration of Jehovah’s Witnesses Organizations Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References 7 The Secret Police and the Marian Apparition: Actions of the Polish Security Service Against the Miracle of Zabludów in 1965 Introduction Miraculous Phenomena in the Polish People’s Republic The Characteristics of the Site of the Marian Apparition of Zabludów and the Course of the Event May: a Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary Election Sunday Our Lady of Zabludów The Quarantine of Zabludów Actions Taken By the Secret Police in Relation to the Marian Apparition in Zabludów Collecting Information Information From Zabludów Information From the Podlasie Region Intelligence Officers in the Meadow Manipulative and Compromising Measures Intimidating Actions Conclusions Notes Archival Sources References 8 Acting in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in the Soviet Republic of Lithuania (1979–1989) Introduction Methods and the Scope of Data The Lithuanian Special Archives (LSA): Access to KGB Files in Lithuania and the Legal Rules That Govern Their Use ... Hare Krishna Movement in the Soviet Lithuania Atheist Propaganda, KGB and ISKCON Persecutions of KGB: Strategy and Actions The Consequences of the KGB Repressions to the Members of the Community Conclusion Notes Interviews References 9 Between Simplification and Absurdity: The Czech Protestant Milieu, “New Orientation” and the Secret Police “The Situation Remains Very Unsatisfactory”: StB and Czech Protestants in the 1950s Locating the “Hostile Center” Inside the CCE – the 1960s “We Have to Join the NO, All of us” – 1970s Conclusion Notes Archival Sources Interviews References Part III Methodological Approaches to Religions in the Secret Police Archives 10 Secret Police Informer Files as Sources for the Study of Vernacular Religion Under Communism Reading Secret Police Files Vernacular Religion in the Archives Notes Archival Sources References 11 Photographs of the Religious Underground: Tracing Images between Archives and Communities Introduction The “József Németh” Case Reading Photographs Photo Elicitation Photo Elicitation Experiences Conclusion Notes Archival Source References 12 Feasting and Fasting: The Evidential Character of Material Religion in Secret Police Archives Introduction Material Religion and Secret Police Archives Inochentist-Stilists in Communist Romania Fasting, Feasting and the Distribution of Foods Eschatology and Food Security Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References Part IV Secret Police Archives in Post-Communism Politics, Ethics and Communities 13 The Patriarchate, the Presidency and the Secret Police Archives: Studying Religions in Post-Communist Romania The (mis)use of the Secret Police Archives President Iliescu and Patriarch Teoctist The Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship and the Vladimiresti Case The Romanian Presidency, the Orthodox Church, and the Final Report Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References 14 The Possibility of Researching Religious Minorities in the Secret Police Archives of the Former Yugoslavia Introduction The Regulation of Religious Minorities in Yugoslavia State Security and Religious Minorities Archival Data on Religious Minorities From the Secret Police Archives to the Religious Community Archives Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References 15 If Sex Were a Factor …: The Securitate Archives and Issues of Morality in Documents Related to Religious Life Understandings of Morality in Communist-Era Archives on Religion Case Studies The Constructed File Using “Moral Deviancy” A Moral Code of Conduct for the State Employee Dealing With Religious Life Conclusion Notes Archival Sources References 16 Neo-Protestant Churches and the Secret Police Archives in Romania Standing in the Shadow of the Orthodox Church Healing From the Past Redeeming the Memory of a Painful Past Conclusion Notes References Index