Soviet Ritualism

I. Kryvelev, An Important Side of Everyday Life. October 4, 1959

 

Original Source: Kommunist, No. 8, 4 October 1959, pp. 65-72.

Religion has permeated many aspects of people’s consciousness and way of life. Therefore religious survivals are not solely a matter of faith in the truth of certain dogmas comprising a given creed. Emotional experiences that escape the control of logical thought are also included. Adherence to certain forms of everyday life connected with religion and religious worship also plays an especially bi-, role. The various elements of the religious complex are unequally resistant to the attacks of atheism, and this causes unevenness in the entire process of overcoming religion.

A study of this process in our country has shown that the most tenacious of all the elements that comprise the religious complex are the acts of religious worship that have become firmly ingrown in people’s lives and because of this have become an everyday tradition. With proper explanatory work, the unsoundness of the religious -mystical convictions expressed in the whole body of dogmas and teachings can become clear even to the believer, and this must to some extent influence his thinking. The emotional subjection to religious experience that is connected with the desire for consolation, with the specific narcotic influence of prayer, and particularly of public worship in the atmosphere of a chapel especially intended to produce such an influence, offers considerably more resistance to logical, rational criticism, even the most convincing criticism based on obvious facts of science and practical experience. As for rites and other acts of worship that have become traditional and ingrained in people’s lives, observations and studies have shown that they are even more firmly rooted and often continue to be performed even when the religious teachings connected with them are no longer accepted.

It has long been the custom among the peoples of the Soviet Union, as among other peoples of the world, to mark such events as the birth of a child, the beginning of a person’s independent life, marriage and even death by a special ceremony, joyous or, in the last case, melancholy. Religion has undertaken not only the consecration of these ceremonies but also their conduct–their methods and organization, so to speak. All the rites performed on these occasions are as a rule of an emotion-laden nature. The performance of religious ceremonies is usually accompanied by a family gathering and the entertainment of guests; as is known, even a funeral is linked in the Russian way of life with entertainment in the form of a banquet. As a -result, each such ceremony is long remembered by those who take part in it.

The people who engage in rites are by no means always filled with religious sentiments; their participation is not always based on religious belief. Not only in our time but even before the revolution, rites were performed simply as a matter of tradition, because it was the custom to mark certain events in a person’s life in just this way. Still, the fact that people participated in these rites could not but support their religious belief and exert a definite ideological influence on them. Ali these ceremonies and rites were adopted by the clergy and comprised an essential element in the system of their measures for influencing people’s minds.

Besides rites and holidays connected with events in an individual’s personal life, religious holidays of so-called public worship became deeply rooted in people’s lives over thousands of centuries. Almost every religion has its own calendar of holy days and other commemorative days that are marked not only by special ceremonies of worship but also by certain other specifically “holiday” features. Each holiday was linked with a particular religious legend, and in some cases with a whole mythological complex. Christmas, for example, is explained by the church in terms of the gospel myths concerning the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, Easter is linked with the myth of the death and resurrection of this man-god, the Jewish Passover draws on the legend of the sojourn of the ancient Jews in Egyptian bondage and their miraculous emancipation, etc. In the overwhelming majority of cases the actual origin of the religious holiday is not at all the one claimed by the clergy; with respect to the examples cited above, it is enough to say that Christ never existed and the Jews never suffered Egyptian bondage.

These holidays have not only a pre-Christian but also a pre-Judaic origin. They take their history from the ancient Oriental cults of the dying and resurrecting gods and from holiday sacrifice to spirits celebrated by nomadic shepherd tribes in the period of the disintegration of the primitive communal system. The new religions that formed at various stages of historical development accepted the ancient holidays that had become rooted in everyday life and gave them a new mythological interpretation. In this way, for example, the lamb that was sacrificed to spirits of the wilderness later became the divine lamb about whose immolation the gospel sneaks. The mundane features of the observance of each holiday that formed in the course of the life of tribes and peoples were also gradually subjected to reinterpretation in the spirit of the mythology of the given religion. As a result, for example, Christmas holiday observances in families of Russian believers include, besides Christian rites, numerous survivals of the pre-Christian Slavic Yule. This applies to almost all other religious holidays, in particular to the so-called patron saints’ days. …

It can be considered that the majority of the population of our country has broken with religion. The mass departure of the -working people from religion could not but greatly affect their way of life as well. The old traditions connected with religion and acts of worship are being broken and gradually overcome. Not always, however, are they replaced in everyday life by new forms.

In many instances people who have already left religion, or at least are entirely indifferent to it and occupy a kind of “neutral” position, resort to religious rites and ceremonies: They baptize their children, marry in church, perform religious burial rites, observe Easter and Christmas, stay home from work on saints’ days, etc. This is particularly true of people who are still wavering in their attitude toward religion and atheism. In all cases one must not underestimate the influence that the performance of religious rites and ceremonies has in impeding the process of overcoming religious survivals.

It is also necessary to see the importance that the performance of religious ceremonies has for strengthening the positions of the church and the clergy. Each such ceremony in our conditions is a kind of demonstration of the fact that religion persists and keeps some people under its influence. When, for example, a poorly indoctrinated Young Communist marries in church, this provides highly useful material for ‘talk to the effect that even Komsomol members, if you please, cannot live without the church. Besides this, the prevalence of these ceremonies helps to strengthen the material base of the church. But the chief harm here is still ideological. It must be clearly realized that the performance of a religious rite is a concession to religious ideology, which is hostile to communism.

The various kinds of rites have not been preserved and retained in everyday life to the same extent. The most tenacious to this day are the religious rites marking the birth of a child, baptism into Christianity, and circumcision in Judaism and Islam. Church funerals axe somewhat less widespread and church marriages still rarer. In many cases an event will not be commemorated with full religious observance, but civil and religious forms of observance will be combined. For example, young people get along without a church marriage ceremony, but during the wedding they kiss an icon or the parents bless them with an icon. Sometimes a deceased person is buried under a civil ceremony but the church is still asked to perform a requiem “just in case.” In life the old and the new are often oddly interwoven, and this exerts a strong influence on rites and holidays. In the cemeteries of the Ulchi (a small nationality along the lower reaches of the Amur), for example, one can see the following: A post with a red five-pointed star or so-me other modern Soviet emblem has been erected over the grave, but along with it are fragments of sleighs and skis that have been broken over the grave by relatives so that the ‘spirit’ of the deceased can use them in his future life.

One substantial reason for the tenacity of religious rites and holidays is that we have not managed to create and disseminate in everyday life sufficiently bright and festive ceremonies that would force out the traditions and rites imbued with religious worship. People in our country often resort to religious rites for baptism, marriage, etc., only because other methods of festively marking important events in their lives of their kin are unknown or unavailable to them. Frequently they participate in religious holidays only because they have no other Means of “holiday” relaxation, do not know how to use their leisure time beneficially and worthily yet at the same time interestingly and entertainingly.

As we see, we are confronted with the important and complex task of actively fostering the development and wide dissemination among the masses of new holiday forms-both in the sphere of the individual and family life of Soviet man and in public life. This is a matter of holidays and rites, which, while satisfying the people’s need for interesting and festive holiday relaxation, would be completely devoid of the slightest elements of religious worship and would have great educational value.

The significance of this work does not reduce merely to a struggle against religion, although in itself this task is of enormous ideological importance. The development and dissemination of new, nonreligious ceremonies and holidays should play an important role in further improving and adorning the socialist way of life of the working people of town and countryside. This will bring more beauty and festivity into our public and personal life, open up new opportunities for intelligent and entertaining leisure and help to satisfy the people’s emotional needs for vivid spectacles and dramatic ceremonies, Artistic taste in the staging and celebration of holidays will promote the esthetic education of Soviet man.


Major events and dates of public life are marked in our country by holidays that have become tradition and a part of our way of life. The anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, May Day and International Women’s Day on March 8 have long become a firm part of the lives of Soviet people. They involve certain traditional activities, participation in demonstrations and ceremonial meetings, the giving of gifts to women, etc. Or, these days there is a holiday atmosphere in every community, people visit each other, go for walks or rest, and the fact that holidays of the Soviet revolutionary calendar have become holidays truly of the people is of great and progressive ideological importance.

It should be said, however, that many important events in public life are not yet always and everywhere celebrated festively, vividly and impressively; in many cases these events in general go by unmarked. The anniversary of an enterprise, collective farm or city, the successful completion of an economic year on a collective farm, the pre-schedule fulfillment of the annual plan by an enterprise, the presentation of an award to a province, city, enterprise or collective farm, the anniversary of a noted individual, etc.–such events are by no means always celebrated in our country ceremoniously and interestingly.

People feel a need to mark holidays together, and not only in the company of their close friends and relatives but in a wider circle of residents of their village or town, workers of the entire enterprise, etc. On these holidays one wants to be “in company,” with the people, in the street, in public places. We still have few nonreligious public holidays, and this in part contributes to the tenacity of religious holidays, especially the so-called saints’ days, in both urban and rural life.

For marking events in one’s personal life there are fewer models that can be followed and further developed and popularized. …

In recent years various organizations in almost all the republics of the Soviet Union, as well as individual citizens, have been displaying considerable initiative in working out and introducing in everyday life–both public and personal-new, non-religious rites and holidays. The Komsomol has shown fruitful initiative in conducting marriages for Komsomol members and other young people. Izvestiia has given considerable attention to the question of rites and has published a number of interesting comments by its readers in this connection: the enormous number of responses received by the editors show how strongly interested the broad circle of the working people has become in this question. Many public organizations, especially in the Baltic republics, have developed considerable work on the practical introduction of such holidays as Harvest Day, Song Day, Spring Day, etc., in the lives of the working people. Various cities of the Russian Republic have adopted the practice of celebrating Russian winter. The scientific-atheism section of the Russian Republic Society for the dissemination of political and Scientific Knowledge, jointly with the Russian Republic House of Folk Crafts, held a broad conference devoted to non-religious holidays and rites, with a demonstration of a number of works of folk art. It has now become an urgent task to generalize this experience and interpret it theoretically and, most important, to develop and expand the scope of this work in every way. The collective efforts of organizations and institutions are needed both on a nationwide and a local scale. Academic institutions (the Institute of Philosophy, the N. N. Mikhlukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnography, the Institute of History), the Komsomol Central Committee, the USSR Ministry of Culture, the Russian Republic Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, the Writers’ Union, the Composers’ Union, the Artists’ Union, etc., should take part in this work, the foundation of which has now been laid.

One method sometimes used by proponents of the old in our everyday life is to camouflage the purely religious nature of individual rites and traditions. A major task is to expose the attempts of our opponents to hide religious rites and customs under the canopy of national traditions. At the same time it must be seen that a religious form frequently conceals an ideolog4cally and politically harmful nationalistic content. We reject the religious form of certain “traditional” holidays just as decisively as we reject their nationalistic content. It is absurd to attempt to use a decrepit reactionary form for progressive socialist content. In this respect one cannot but note the mistake of the magazine Nauka i religiia, which published an uncritical eulogy of the ancient pagan holiday of Ligo formerly observed in Latvia.

“It is necessary, utilizing everything of value in the people’s historical experience, to direct and stimulate the development of new, progressive forms of life and custom that correspond to the high and noble norms of socialist society and the features of the moral makeup of Soviet man.”

A “concoction’ of the new out of nothing, an artificial implantation of customs alien to people, cannot be successful. “New forms created in the quiet of offices will not take hold and will remain on paper. Nonreligious holidays and rites will find their way into everyday life if they stem from what is to some extent known and customary to people. The national features of each custom and rite play an especially important role here. What is customary and therefore acceptable to the Estonian and Lithuanian collective farmer might prove to be confusing and “uncomfortable” for a young boy or girl from a Tambov or Siberian village. But under a11 conditions, of course, there remain in force the requirements of ideological, ethical and esthetic criteria stemming from the tasks of the communist education of Soviet people, and in particular young people.”

Elaboration of the theoretical bases of the question and study of the popular traditions that have already formed should be conducted side by side with work on establishing a system of nonreligious holidays and rites and working out forms and methods of observing them. Besides public Soviet holidays, for which days off are established under the law, there are also a number of days in our calendar that, although they are working days, are marked by our people and the public as holidays. High among them are such important dates as V. I. Lenin’s birthday and International Women’s Day. Also celebrated are Victory Day, Soviet Army Day and a number of others-Railway men’s Day, Miner’s Day, Metalworker’s Day, Tank Day, Artillery Day, Aviation Day, etc. Certain traditions have already been worked out I in regard to celebrating the legal holidays. But there is no doubt that much can and must still be done to see to it that these days are celebrated even more festively and colorfully, so that this celebration becomes a deeper part of the life 0, each citizen, of his family and home life. As for the other public holidays enumerated above, the ceremonies for their celebration in our country are still quite pallid and undeveloped. Usually formal meetings are held, but the procedure for their conduct is not always sufficiently varied. It would be correct, relying on existing experience to work out a specific ceremonial for each holiday, taking into account the particular nature of the given date, with unique spectacles and festivities for each individual occasion.

Much work still must be done to introduce in everyday life new public holidays that are not yet widespread. One can name the following events that warrant formal celebration: the anniversary of the organization of a Union or autonomous republic; the anniversary of the organization of a collective farm; presentation of an order, Challenge Banner, etc: Harvest Day; Spring Day; etc. In working out the methods for celebrating these holidays, an attempt must be made in particular to avoid stereotype and conventionalism: Only then will the ideological content of the holiday reach and become fixed in the consciousness of the people.

A second group of events requiring festive celebration concerns such stages of the personal life of Soviet man as birth, entering school, joining the Komsomol, receiving a passport, finishing school, the first paycheck, draft in the army, returning from the army, entering a higher educational institution, finishing a higher educational institution, marriage, silver wedding anniversary, golden wedding anniversary, birthday, receiving an award, retirement and, finally, burial.

The dissemination in everyday life of new rites and ceremonies connected with all these events and occasions can hardly be carried out within a short time. It is evident that priority will have to be given to working out a few of the most needed ceremonies and rites, those that are especially important in forcing out religious rites. Here one can include the birth of a child, receiving a passport, marriage and burial. Later this experience can be successfully used in working out other ceremonies and rites. …

Whereas old traditions formed over centuries and millenniums, our socialist traditions by no means require such long periods to form. We cannot and must not wait centuries. We are fully able, utilizing our public organizations and state institutions and every method and means of ideological influence, to create new traditions and work for their wide dissemination.

Modern technical means of disseminating culture are so powerful and effective that they make it possible within a short time to make various elements of spiritual culture the possession of the broadest masses of the people. We know how quickly, songs from motion pictures or works performed over the radio and television take hold among the people, and especially among the young people. The production of phonograph records also has enormous importance in this respect. What is to prevent us, after working out the appropriate ceremonies and rites, from giving them currency through films, television programs, hundreds of thousands of phonograph records and mass-produced tapes?! It would be incorrect to establish ceremonies and rites out of nothing; it is necessary to use what has already to some extent been created by life and therefore is more or less familiar to people.

People must be given material that they can use directly but that does not fetter their own initiative. The latter should be manifested, first, in giving the general elements of a ceremony a specific national character and, second, in the adaptation of the forms of its observance to local conditions.

The high artistic level of the material of our ceremonies should also be reflected in its vividness, emotional infectiousness and impressiveness. It is necessary that our rites and holidays be more interesting and more beautiful than church ones, so that they give broader scope to imagination and are better remembered.

Eminent artists should take part in the preparation of all materials connected with this work. Theater directors, together with motion picture directors, can help work out the ceremonies and formulate them in the manner of scenarios. Poets will write poems and the words to songs and hymns. Composers will write appropriate music, and artists will contribute display and costume sketches. This is a matter of works intended for the broadest dissemination, works that should become deeply rooted in and grow into the socialist Soviet wav of life.

Source: Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. XIII, No. 23 (1959), pp. 9-10.

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