Some aspects of state control over the activities of religious communities in Khakassia in the first half of the 1980s

Abstract

Based on the analysis of materials from the National Archive of the Republic of Khakassia and regulatory documents, the article examines the features of state control over the activities of registered and unregistered religious communities in Khakassia in the first half of the 1980s. At the level of local executive committees, religious groups were monitored by the commissions of assistance to executive committees for monitoring compliance with the legislation on cults. In accordance with the State policy, they promoted the legalization of the activities of religious communities and monitored their compliance with the legislation on religious cults. By the mid-1980s, members of such commissions were also engaged in atheistic education. The activities of the assistance commissions were regular. The professional level of its members has significantly increased, and the work itself was actively planned, but at the same time it became more formal. The study also found that the members of the commissions paid great attention to fixing violations of the legislation on religious cults and preventing such cases. During the first half of the 1980s, the commissions increasingly strengthened their control over the activities of religious groups. They paid particular attention to legalizing the activities of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Old Believers, and Jehovah's Witnesses. In cases of refusal of believers from the state registration of the community, the members of the commissions contributed to its liquidation.