Arto Luukkanen The Party of UnbeliefThe Religious Policy ofThe Bolshevik Party, 1917-1929  PDF 
The Finnish Historical Society has published this study with the permission, granted on 18 April 1994, of Helsinki University, Faculty of Theology.  

Abstract Arto Luukkanen The Party of Unbelief — The Religion Policy of The Bolshevik Party, 1917-1929. 
The main objective of this dissertation is to study the religious policy of the Soviet Bolshevik party during the years 1917-1929 by utilizing historical methods. The Bolshevik religious ideology was influenced by Left-Hegelian philosophy, Marxist materialism and the anti-clerical attitudes of the Russian intelligentsia. The period under examination can be divided into four separate sections. During the civil war (1917- 1920) the ruling regime limited its official religious policy to legislative acts in church-state relations and its main political objective was to isolate the Russian Orthodox church, the ROC. The mission of executing Soviet religious policy was given to the NKYust's "Liquidation Committee" and to the Soviet security organs. The introduction of the early NEP policy (1921-1923) did not automatically represent a relaxation of the religious policy but, on the contrary, the Bolshevik government, especially Lenin and Trotsky, engaged in general attack against the ROC during the so-called "confiscation conflict". Trotsky and his "Liquidation Committee" conducted this anti-religious campaign in order to obtain money and to undermine the role of religions in the Soviet society by fomenting pro-government schisms inside the religious organizations. After Lenin lost his grip on power, the "triumvirate" and especially Stalin outmanoeuvred Trotsky in the anti-religious work by organizing their own antireligious cabinet (CAP). This change was rationalized by certain slogans of the high NEP (1924-1927) which underlined the importance of seeking reconciliation in the Russian countryside. Moreover, foreign pressure also played into the hands of the "triumvirate". This policy of appeasing the peasantry also implied a relaxation in the antireligious campaign. The 12th and 13th party congresses represented the beginning of the high NEP and of "detente" in Soviet religious policy. The more moderate party leaders wanted to stabilize the Russian countryside by making concessions to religion while at the same time hard-liners attempted to brake the normalcy of the NEP in this area. The NEP could not survive the introduction of the Cultural Revolution (1928-1929). The criticism from the left-opposition gradually undermined the fundamentals of the NEP's civil peace. Stalin was also anxious also to utilize this mood in order to get rid of his "rightist" allies and to this end encouraged the Cultural Revolution by supporting Komsomol's drive to politicize Soviet society. In the religious policy former religious political organs were disbanded and their responsibilities were transferred to the VTsIK. The battle between moderates, so-called culturalists and hard-liners (interventionists) was one of the most characteristic features of anti-religious activity at that time. As a conclusion, it must be stated that the Soviet religious policy was always dependent on the general political objectives of the party leaders. The development of the Soviet religious ideology must 6 therefore be studied in association with other major political battles.