Freedom of Religious Conscience

Council of People's Commissars, Decree on the Freedom of Conscience, and on Clerical and Religious Societies. February 2, 1918

Original Source: Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krestian'skogo pravitel'stva, 1918, No. 18, pp. 272-73.

  1. The church is hereby separated from the state.

  2. It is forbidden on the territory of the republic to issue any local laws or ordinances which would hamper or restrict freedom of conscience or would establish any advantages or privileges on account of the religion of citizens.

  3. Every citizen is free to profess any religion or profess none. All deprivations of rights connected with the profession or non-profession of any religion are hereby abolished.

NOTE. Any indication of religious affiliation or non-affiliation of citizens shall be removed from all official acts.

  1. The actions of state and other public-law social institutions shall not be accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.

  2. Free performance of religious rites is guaranteed in so far as these do not violate public order and are not accompanied by violation of the rights of citizens or of the Soviet Republic.

The local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure, in such cases, public order and security.

  1. No one can evade, on the plea of his religious views, performance of his civic duties.

In particular instances exceptions to this rule are allowed by decision of a people's court, on the condition of substitution of one civic duty for another.

  1. The religious oath is abolished.

A solemn oath is given when necessary.

  1. Civil registers are kept exclusively by the civil authority, namely, by marriage and birth registration departments.

  2. The school is hereby separated from the church.

Religious instruction in all state, public and private educational establishments where general educational subjects are taught, is not allowed.

Citizens can teach and be taught religion privately.

  1. All clerical and religious societies abide by the general regulations concerning private societies and unions, enjoy no privileges and receive no subsidies from the state or from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.

  2. Compulsory subscriptions and levies in favor of clerical or religious societies, as well as measures of compulsion or punishment on the part of these societies with regard to their members, are not allowed.

  3. No clerical or religious societies have the right to own property.

They have no rights of a juridical person.

  1. All property of the clerical and religious societies existing in Russia is declared the property of the people.

Buildings and objects designed specifically for worship are handed over, by special decisions of the local or central state authority, to the religious societies concerned for free use.

Ul'ianov (Lenin)
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

N. Podvoiskii, V. Algasov, V. Trutovskii, A. Schlichter, P. Proshian, V. Menzhinskii, A. Shliapnikov, G. Petrovskii
People's Commissars

Vl. Bonch-Bruevich
Business Manager

Secretary, N. Gorbunov

Source: Decrees of the Soviet Government (Moscow: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, 1957), Vol. I, pp. 373-374.

1917

EVENTS February Revolution Formation of the Soviets April Crisis Revolution in the Army July Days Kornilov Affair Bolsheviks Seize Power First Bolshevik Decrees Constituent Assembly Treaty of Brest Litovsk
FOUR KINDS OF STATES Communist Party Building Economic Apparatus Building the Soviets Red Guard into Army State Security
DISINTEGRATION OF THE OLD SOCIETY Depopulation of the Cities Food Supply Conflict with the Church Death of the Old Culture Destruction of the Left The Empire Falls
CREATION OF A NEW SOCIETY New Letters and Dates Culture and Revolution The New Woman Workers Organization Peasant Revolution Organs of the Press Raising Socialist Youth