Posted on 11/16/2016 5:35:16 PM PST by marshmallow
Ufa, November 16, Interfax - Thousands of people may have been subjected to repression for Orthodox faith under Soviet rule, church researchers said.
"The total number of victims in the years of the repression currently cannot be determined because the archives of the relevant agencies are not accessible to the public. However, church researchers believe the number of people who suffered for their faith may reach 500,000 people," Metropolitan of Ufa and Sterlitamak Nikon said at the 6th Tabyn Recitals entitled '1917-2017: Centennial Lessons.'
The names of 1,774 saints have now been included in the Assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, he said.
The hierarch said most people of Russia kept their Orthodox faith despite the persecution of the Church.
"According to the population census conducted in 1937, when anti-religious propaganda in the USSR reached its peak, 56.7% of the people aged 16 and older were believers," he said.
I would be surprised if it was that low!!
Ditto. Me too.
FAR FAR more than that in the USA suffering from government suppression and oppression of religion. Today, not decades ago.
SR 1346 – Putin & Trump Agree in 1st Phone Call to Normalize Relations
They mean “suffered” like executed and in prison camps and stuff.
Half a million is way below the number. I would put the number at two million. We will NEVER know.
I think 500,000 (which looks less than half a million, doesn’t it?) is too low.
I agree.
I hesitate to throw numbers around, but I have the impression that I’ve read that the half-million would be covered simply by priests and their families plus men and women religious. That leaves out all the lay people who were martyred (let alone “suffered” in any way) for their devotion to the Orthodox faith.
It sure does.
I don't trust Pravda. Never did. Why would anyone trust a newpaper called "Truth"? I guess 11 million people need SOMETHING to read in the morning. They can always use it later as...never mind. You know what I mean.
Given the supplies available in the USSR, I see your point. We used to buy the Charlotte Observer sometimes to line our snake’s cage, but then the snake died.
:o)
You’re close!
Slytherin Susan.
LOVE IT!
She was very friendly, due to our body temperature. Maybe we’ll have another some day.
Sad Sack?
#SS
Police were very careful to not be obviously putting people in prison for their faith in spite of the fact that that's what was happening.
His last work, "Two Hundred Years Together" gives his thoughts on why that was the case but there hasn't yet been an English language edition published in the US.
(many, and by now maybe most, chapters are around on the web in English though)
Aside from what a great writer he was, one of the most interesting things to me about Solzhenitsyn is how much the publishing and academic community was madly in love with him right up until he said the West was becoming nearly as godless as the Soviet Union was and that abandoning Christianity would lead to their collapse just like it led to the collapse of the USSR.
Major no no to be saying good things about Christianity.
That number is very low. Almost all of the estimates I have read suggest the figure is in the millions.
We’re talking about being marched off to the gulags and worked to death, if not outright executed. 30,000 Orthodox clergy were killed and over 1 million believers.
And you compare that to suppression? My God.
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