Anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War

Following the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik seizure of power led to the Russian Civil War which continued until 1922. The victory of the Bolshevik Red Army enabled them to set up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Throughout the civil war various religions, secularists and anti-clericalists of the Bolsheviks played a key role in the military and social struggles which occurred during the war.

Since 1721 the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) had been the established church of the Russian Empire. The church reforms introduced by Peter I introduced a period of Caesaropapism to the ROC. This meant that while the ROC enjoyed substantial privileges, it was nevertheless subordinated to the state. As the intelligentsia became more critical of the Tsarist regime, this was often accompanied by a rejection of the ROC, and sometimes by a rejection of religion in general. Others, such as Leo Tolstoy retained a strong Christian belief but rejected the autocracy. He was excommunicated by the ROC. Some Bolsheviks, such as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich became involved with the religious minorities collectively called the "sectarians". Bonch-Bruyevich joined Tolstoy and Vladimir Chertkov in supporting the Dukhobors, even sailing with a group of them when they migrated to Canada. In 1914 there were 55,173 Russian Orthodox churches and 29,593 chapels, 112,629 priests and deacons, 550 monasteries and 475 convents with a total of 95,259 monks and nuns in Russia.

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