Soviets Pass Law Banning Religious Repression

The Soviet legislature formally ended decades of religious repression today, passing a law on freedom of religion at a time when Soviets are flocking to churches in record numbers.

“Our people suffered to get this law,” said Mikhail Kulakov, a leader of the Soviet Union’s Seventh-day Adventists, who have been persecuted for evangelical activities.

The law forbids the government from interfering with religious activities, improves the legal status of religious organizations and gives Soviet citizens the right to study religion in homes and in private schools.

The Soviet constitution has long guaranteed freedom of worship, but in the past the Communist Party’s ideological opposition to religion as the “opiate of the masses” made that guarantee hollow.

In practice, the government discouraged religious services, closed churches and synagogues, imprisoned religious leaders and preached atheism.

But official tolerance for religion has increased since President Mikhail S. Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Gorbachev’s mother is a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox Church, and last year he acknowledged that he was baptized as a child.

Three years ago, Gorbachev held talks with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first such meeting in more than 40 years. In December, he met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

The new law, which passed 341 to 1 with one abstention, says the government will not “restrict the study, financing or propagandizing” of religion. It was not a roll call vote and the identity of the person who abstained was not known.

Atheism remains the doctrine of the Communist Party, but the law prohibits the government from funding either religious activities or atheist propaganda.

It allows religious groups to set up societies and send people abroad for spiritual study.

In the past, religious organizations had no clear legal standing and were unable to make contracts or represent themselves in court. Under the new law, they have the same status as individual citizens.

But a clause allowing public schools to be used for religious classes after regular hours set off a fierce debate and was defeated by one chamber of the legislature.

Western experts estimate that a quarter of the 285 million Soviet people practice religion.