Without a God in the Head: How the Atheist at the Bench magazine fought with the Lord. Magazine "atheist" and other anti-religious propaganda in the ussr Magazine new atheist read

History

Yaroslavsky E.M. ( Chief Editor), Skvortsov-Stepanov I.I., Semashko N.A. In addition to the actual newspaper "Godless", the editorial board also participated in the publication of the atheistic magazines "Godless Crocodile" (1924-1925) and "Godless" (1923-1941) (in 1923- 1932 was called "The Atheist at the Bench").

At the end of 1922, there were already periodical anti-religious publications in Soviet Russia, but Yaroslavsky wanted to organize a newspaper that he personally controlled.

The question arose about the name of the future anti-religious newspaper. A significant part of the population of the country of Soviets not only did not know foreign languages, but she was generally illiterate. Therefore, for the overwhelming majority of Soviet citizens, the foreign words "atheism" and "atheist" were incomprehensible. One of the associates of E.M. Yaroslavsky described the process of choosing a name for a new publication:

To begin with, when the question of the name of this newspaper was being decided, there were those among us who said that we need to somehow make this title softer, that "atheist" is almost a dirty word, should the newspaper be given such a name? ... And to this day we have to hear that “he is lying godlessly,” etc. Comrade Yaroslavsky, who was present at the meeting of the Moscow Party Committee, where this issue was decided, reminded us: “Communists never hide their convictions. What for? We need to be known. Let there be a name - "Atheist" ".

And finally, on December 21, 1922, the first issue of the Sunday illustrated newspaper Atheist was published. At the same time, the publication of the anti-religious journal Science and Religion was discontinued. The editor of the abolished publication, M. V. Gorev, became deputy editor-in-chief of the Bezbozhnik newspaper. A little later, he became one of the leaders of the USSR Security Council. The newspaper "Atheist" was published "... at first irregularly, then 3 times a month, then weekly."

During the war, the functionality and printing house of the Bezbozhnik newspaper was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy Publishing House

The first two issues of the new newspaper were published with a circulation of 15 thousand copies. Then the circulation increased steadily. On April 1, 1924, the circulation was already 50 thousand copies, and on November 1 - 210 thousand. Later (in 1931) the circulation of the newspaper reached 500 thousand copies.

Gallery

Magazine "The Godless at the Bench" and "The Godless"

Notes (edit)

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See what "Atheist (newspaper)" is in other dictionaries:

Atheist: An atheist is a person who does not believe in God (see Atheism). The Atheist newspaper and magazine (English), published by the Union of Militant Atheists in the USSR, later "Atheist at the Machine." An atheist settlement in the Gordeevsky district ... Wikipedia

"BEZBOZHNIK"- newspaper, organ Center, Council of the Union of Armies, atheists of the USSR, began to appear on December 21. 1922, at first irregularly, then every 3 months, then weekly. A break in publication from 1935 to March 1, 1938, then came out until June 1941. Almost permanently ... Atheistic Dictionary

"BEZBOZHNIK"- Periodical atheistic publications in the USSR. 1) The newspaper, the printed organ of the Union of Militant Atheists (SVB), was published from 21 December. 1922 to Jan. 1935, from March 1938 to July 1941, at first irregularly, after. 3 times a month and weekly. ... ... Orthodox encyclopedia

atheist-, a, M. Atheist, a member of an anti-religious society; a person leading anti-religious propaganda. Kupina, 29. ◘ The method of anti-religious propaganda must be changed by opening circles of atheists and natural history. RKK, 1925, No. 1, 51. Semka suffered, ... ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Soviets

- ("Atheist",) 1) an anti-religious newspaper, published in Moscow from December 1922 to July 1941, at first irregularly, then 3 times a month, then weekly (from January 1935 to March 1938 it was not published). Executive editor Em. Yaroslavsky. ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

A. Ter Oganyan, performance "Young atheist". Place of prov ... Wikipedia

- (formerly the Union of Atheists; Society of Friends of the newspaper "Atheist") is a voluntary public organization in the USSR, founded in 1925, which set as its goal the ideological struggle against religion in all its manifestations. Contents 1 History ... ... Wikipedia

ATHEISM- [from the Greek. ἄθεος rejecting gods, devoid of Divinity, atheist], denial of God, atheism; with Orthodox theological t. sp. disbelief in God Jesus Christ and denial of His existence; associated with this denial, the absolutization of the created forces of the world ... ... Orthodox encyclopedia

The Union of Militant Atheists (formerly the Union of Atheists; the Society of Friends of the newspaper "Atheist") is a voluntary public organization in the USSR, founded in 1925, which aimed at the ideological struggle against religion in all its manifestations. Contents ... Wikipedia

The anti-religious press came out in the USSR from the beginning of the 1920s: they published the magazines Revolution and Church, Babylon Tower, and the Atheist newspaper. They were boring and toothless - editorial offices closed one by one.

Whether the magazine "Atheist at the Machine", founded by the chief specialist of the party on the "church issue" Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. Another of his projects, the Atheist newspaper, has already become a mouthpiece for atheism: in the 1930s, its circulation reached 500,000 copies. Yaroslavsky advocated the prohibition of church music, including the works of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and believed that the fight against religion is the fight for socialism.

The first name of the magazine is "The Atheist". From 1923 to 1932 it was called "The Atheist at the Bench", then again "The Atheist" until its closure.

In one of the first issues, the magazine publishes material with photographs about the opening of the graves of the miracle workers Zosima and Savvaty on Solovki. The editors show: the remains of the saints are as perishable as the remains ordinary people... In the following publications, the magazine calls Jesus a vicious moonshiner, and God - a "bastard."

But the main weapon of "Atheist at the Bench" is the caustic and evil caricatures of Dmitry Moor, the founder of the Soviet political poster and the chief artist of the magazine. Moor draws God, Allah and Jehovah in the form of helpless old men with twisted and embittered faces and creates the main symbol of the magazine - a young red-cheeked atheist Antipka (according to legend, Moor copied him from a teenage street child whom he met on the street). The magazine also publishes drawings by the famous Soviet graphic artist and monumental artist Alexander Deineka.

Yaroslavsky and the editor-in-chief of the magazine Kostelovskaya arrange a dispute on the pages of Pravda. Kostelovskaya calls to attack the church "head-on", Yaroslavsky accuses the magazine of excessive vulgarity. Since the end of the 30s, the authorities understand that the ideological struggle against religion does not bring the desired results, and they refuse atheistic periodicals. Both editions - the magazine "The Godless at the Machine Tool" and the newspaper "The Godless" - were closed in 1941.

At the first stage of its existence, the Soviet government paid great attention to anti-religious propaganda, both among adults. Since 1922, a newspaper "Bezbozhnik" was published in the USSR, around which a network of correspondents and readers quickly developed. Thanks to them, in August 1924, the Society of Friends of the Atheist newspaper was formed in Moscow.

The I Congress of the ODGB, which took place in April 1925, decided to create a single all-Union anti-religious society, which was named the Union of Atheists. In the same year, a monthly scientific and methodological journal "Anti-Religious" appeared, which became the organ of the Central Council of the Union of Atheists of the USSR.

From January 30 to February 4, 1932, the XVII Party Conference was held in Moscow, which approved the plan for the development of industry for 1932 and adopted the directives for drawing up the second five-year plan of socialist construction. At the conference, the main political task of the second five-year plan was formulated - to finally eliminate the capitalist elements and classes in general, to completely destroy the causes that gave rise to class differences and exploitation, overcoming the remnants of capitalism in the economy and the consciousness of people, turning the entire working population of the country into conscious and active builders of a classless socialist society ...

The tasks, as we can see, were set, and the goals were defined. For religious organizations, this certainty of the 17th Party Conference was tantamount to a verdict. Conscious and active builders of the new society could not be carriers of the "religious infection". Anti-religious activity needed to be strengthened. Of course, the Union of Militant Atheists could not stand aside from this case. Indeed, by November 1931 there were already over 5 million members in its ranks, united in more than 60 thousand cells (and after all, in 1926 there were only 87 thousand people in the Union, in 1929 - 465 thousand, and in 1930 - over 3.5 million!). The circulation of anti-religious literature also increased from year to year: if in 1927 the organizations of atheists published books and brochures with a total volume of 700 thousand printed sheets-prints, then in 1930 - more than 50 million. The circulation of the newspaper "Atheist" in 1931 reached half a million copies, and the circulation of the magazine "Atheist at the Machine Tool" - 200 thousand. Circles of young atheists were organized with might and main (by the end of 1931 there were 2 million people in them). By the way, in 1932, the state anti-religious publishing house with a circulation of 12.5 thousand copies also published the first volume of the five-volume collection of the chairman of the Central Council of the SVB E.M. Yaroslavsky "Against religion and the Church."

On what means did the Union live and maintain its bureaucracy, was engaged in publishing? Officially - for membership fees (60 kopecks from a city dweller and 24 kopecks from a villager), as well as income from a literary publishing house. In reality, the state helped, which was then interested in strengthening the godless propaganda. It was the state that was interested in the creation of special anti-religious workers' universities - special educational institutions created with the aim of preparing an anti-religious district activist literally on the eve of a new attack on religion and the Church in the USSR. The first such university appeared in the Rogozhsko-Simonovsky (Proletarsky) district of Moscow. In 1930, a collection of programs and materials from the "Workers' Anti-Religious University" was even published in Moscow. Funds for the creation of such a university in all large cities of the USSR could be provided only by the central government.

The population census, which took place in 1937, became a kind of barometer of religious sentiments that took place in Soviet society. Questions about religious beliefs included in the questionnaires on Stalin's personal instructions provided amazing information: of the 30 million illiterate citizens of the USSR over 16 years old, 84% (or 25 million) recognized themselves as believers, and of the 68.5 million literate - 45% (or more than 30 million). Even when adjusted by the authorities, these figures forced to admit the obvious failures of the total struggle against religion and the Church. The declared goals were not achieved, although the NKVD did a lot to "eradicate" religious leaders of all confessions. It was necessary to take any measures, including "revive" the Union of militant atheists.

In the summer of 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, publications of the Union of Militant Atheists were closed, and the Union practically ceased to exist. In 1947, the functions of promoting scientific and atheistic knowledge were transferred to the newly created All-Union Society "Knowledge".

Emelyan Yaroslavsky (Minei Izrailevich Gubelman) was the permanent leader of the Union of Militant Atheists and the editor of its printed publications. railroad, as well as a circle of students. From October to December 1905, he was one of the leaders of the labor movement in Yaroslavl (hence the pseudonym Yaroslavsky).

In July 1917, Emelyan Yaroslavsky returned to Moscow, created the military organization of the party, was one of the leaders of the Bolshevik newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat, in the fall of 1917 he edited the newspaper Derevenskaya Pravda. He was a delegate to the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b), a member of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, one of the leaders of the armed uprising in Moscow. From the Bolsheviks of Moscow he was a deputy of the Constituent Assembly. In 1918 he was the commissar of the Moscow military district, then he worked in Perm and Omsk. At the 8th and 9th Party Congresses, he was elected a candidate, and at the 10th and 11th Congresses - a member of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), in 1921 he worked as a secretary of the Central Committee. At 12-16 party congresses, Yaroslavsky was elected a member of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), since 1923 - secretary of the Central Control Commission's party board. He was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the editorial board of the newspaper "Pravda" and the magazine "Bolshevik", since 1931 - chairman of the Society of Old Bolsheviks, since 1937 - deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1939 - academician and member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Died on December 4, 1943. Buried at the Kremlin wall.

Covers and illustrations of the magazine "The Godless at the Bench"

In 1927, the Union of Militant Atheists published a collection of anti-religious cartoons dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Atheist magazine

The Union of Militant Atheists was not the only organization engaged in atheistic propaganda. In 1922, on the initiative of P. A. Krasikov and I. A. Spitsberg, the scientific society "Atheist" was created with the aim of propaganda best works on the criticism of religion. The Society has been publishing journals since 1923. "Atheist". The Atheist Publishing House, which existed until 1932, published the collections “Thoughts of K. Marx and F. Engels about Religion”, “Thoughts of V.I. Drews, J. Fraser, J. Robertson, a number of works of owls. authors, including "The History of Atheism" by I. P. Voronitsyn, "The History of the Russian Church" by N. M. Nikolsky, "The History of the Inquisition" by S. G. Lozinsky and others. The head of the society "Atheist" was Ivan Anatolyevich Shpitsberg ( 1881-1933).

Cover of the first issue of "The Atheist": "We've finished with the earthly king, let's start with the heavenly ones."

"Atheist", weekly newspaper and bi-weekly magazine; published by the Center. Council of the Union of Atheists in the USSR, voluntary public organization, pursuing the goal of anti-religious propaganda and agitation.

The article reproduces the text from the Small Soviet Encyclopedia.

"Atheist"- monthly anti-religious satirical magazine. It came out in Moscow from to g. Before, it was published as an organ of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), then as an organ of the Central and Moscow Council of Militant Atheists of the USSR. It was printed on 16 pages, with multi-color illustrations, with a circulation of 20 to 70 thousand copies. In 1929-1932. was issued twice a month. Responsible editor - M. Kostelovskaya, since July 1928 - I. Stukov.

The task of the magazine was expressed in his cartoon drawing by the head of the art department, Dm. Moore. On the cover of the first issue of The Atheist, a worker was depicted ascending to heaven, to the gods, who scattered in fear at the sight of his formidable hammer. The inscription read: "We have finished with the earthly king, we take over the heavenly ones." The entire content of this bright, militant anti-religious organ, in which satire played, especially in the first years of the magazine's existence, almost a dominant role, was subordinated to the fight against religious intoxication, religious prejudices, and the atheistic education of the masses.

The magazine was oriented towards the working reader. And it is no coincidence that already from the third, March, issue of 1923, the editorial board calls him "The Atheist at the Machine." The magazine was published under this name until the end of 1931. And only from 1932 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, when the publication ceased, again takes on its original name - "Atheist".

The magazine was mixed. Articles, essays, notes, conversations of famous scientists and anti-religious writers on anti-religious and scientific-atheistic topics were often published here, articles on natural-scientific knowledge that played a large role in educating readers of a scientific worldview were published. Scientific and atheistic journalism was successfully combined with satire. Satirical works of various genres (pamphlets on biblical themes, anti-religious ditties, etc.), numerous drawings and cartoons penetrated all departments, giving a special satirical flavor to the materials. Employees and authors spoke to their readers in an intelligible language, in an engaging manner. This contributed to the popularity of the magazine, caused a stream of letters and notes. Such permanent departments and headings as "Questions and Answers", "They Write to Us", "News from the Places", specially created to strengthen ties with the rabkorov's activists and readers, were almost completely filled with their materials.

The topics were varied. A special place was occupied by works of various genres, revealing the class essence of religion. The reader learned what role religion played in the class struggle under tsarism, understood its counter-revolutionary role during the revolution and the nationwide struggle against the White Guards and foreign invaders, the class, exploitative essence of religion in the capitalist countries. The staff of the magazine showed the reactionary role of religion. Much attention was paid to exposing the reactionary essence of Eastern religions, the fight against sectarianism, showing the inflammatory, anti-Soviet role of the White émigré churchmen. Materials were published regularly about the emergence of religion, religious teachings and beliefs. In satirical works and cartoons, all kinds of legends about gods and saints, various beliefs and prejudices were ridiculed.

Clergymen, sectarians, healers and other carriers of religious intoxication most often fell under fire from satirists. The magazine's satirists were irreconcilable to all kinds of religious festivals with accompanying drunkenness, fights, hooliganism, truancy. They decisively opposed ignorance and lack of culture, against an unfriendly attitude towards women, etc.

Particular attention was paid to anti-religious propaganda among young people, workers, and Red Army soldiers. From the end of the 1920s, peasant problems began to play a dominant role. Special themed rooms are dedicated to the life of the village. Permanent departments are set up: "Worker Page", "Pioneer Page", "Red Army Man Page", etc.

The largest writers, artists and anti-religious scientists of the country collaborated in the magazine. From the very first issues, Demyan Bedny constantly publishes his fables. From issue to issue, A. Serafimovich conducts a conversation with the reader, speaking not only with stories and essays, but also with publicistic works. Anthony's pamphlets were very popular. Loginov on biblical topics that were published over a number of months with sequels ("The history of the firm" God, Father and Son ", etc.). Among the regular authors of "Atheist" were such writers of the older generation as N. Aseev, S. Basov-Verkhoyantsev, F. Berezovsky, F. Blagov, O. L. d "Or, L. Nikulin, N. Shebuev and others. Actively cooperated

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