REALITY OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN SAMTSKHE-JAVAKTHETI

(1940-60 s)

Abstract

Religious policy in the Soviet Union meant constant battling against any kind of religion in the state. Govenrment used atheism as well as party members and other high ranking officials to spread their ideas more thoroughly. Stalin, during the 40s changed this approach and tried to be more lenient toward various religious groups.
The following paper tries to gain deeper understanding of the effects of above mentiond leniency on Samtskhe-Javakhetis religious identities. During the period Soviet government tried to fix their relationship with orthodox church and other religious groups, but also tried to be indifferent toward them. This relationship can be well observed on the example of Samtskhe-Javakheti region.
Main finding of the paper is that Soviet unions idea of having different relationships toward diferent religious groups heavily slowed down integration of different ethnic groups. Policy also caused even more conflicts in already difficult region.