Educational and Cultural Institutions of Mykolayiv Region in the Anti-Religious Propaganda of the «Khrushchev Thaw» Period (Based on Periodicals)

Abstract

The ways of state policy realization in the field of religion are considered and analyzed. The role of educational and cultural institutions of Mykolayiv Region (Oblast) in carrying out of anti-religious propaganda is clarified. At the initial stages, attention was focused on the training of readers for anti-religious propaganda. Those were mainly secondary school teachers and higher education lecturers. Only in Kryve Ozero District (Raion) of Mykolayiv Region, at the beginning of 1958 there were 67, and in September 1958 – 104. Among them – 13 chemistry teachers, 13 physics teachers, 19 biology teachers and geography teachers, 14 teachers of history, 8 medical workers, 23 agricultural specialists, etc. During the seven months of that year, they had read 346 lectures.

A lecture devoted to atheistic themes, evenings of questions and answers, demonstration of chemical experiments and scientific films took place. All that was described on the pages of local periodicals. We have studied the issue archives of the newspapers «Bugskaya Zarya», «Pivdenna Pravda», «Prapor Komunizmy».

The most efficient and accessible method of conducting anti-religious propaganda in Mykolayiv Region is identified. It was the giving of scientific lectures, accompanied with chemical experiments.