The author, relying on archival documents, shows that in the spring and summer of 1954, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich was busy not preparing an anti-religious campaign, as some researchers believe, but trying to recreate the Sector of the History of Religion and Atheism at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, abolished as a result of the reorganization in 1953. After the abolition of the sector, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich initiated the creation of a Commission for the Study of the History of Religion and Atheism to continue research in this area at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences. The main task of this Commission was to prepare for the Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences a large series of books called “Library of Scientific Atheistic Literature”, which was to include collections of documents and materials on the history of religion and atheism, works by prominent representatives of atheistic thought and scholars in religious studies, as well as popular science literature. Attempts to restore the sector met with resistance from the directorate of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences, and the sector was restored only after the death of V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. However, the publication of books of the “Library of the History of Religion and Atheism” founded by him, which started in the spring of 1954, continued until the early 1990s.
Keywords: V.D. Bonch-Bruevich, scientific atheism, Department of the History of Religion and Atheism of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, Commission on the History of Religion and Atheism, scientific and atheistic literature
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2022_2_140
About the author
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Marianna M. Shakhnovich – DSc (Philosophy), Professor, Chair of the Department of the Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies, St. Petersburg State University; 5 Mendeleevskaya linya, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |