TY - JOUR AB - This paper discusses the methodological challenges of Soviet sociology of religion in the period between 1960 and 1989, when it was charged with the contradictory task of investigating the actual standing of religion in Soviet society and, at the same time, with proposing methods through which the official “scientific atheism,” deeply rooted in Marxism, could be imposed upon the very populations that were the subject of its inquiries. The authors propose an insight into the actual practices of the researchers, based on little-known archival materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. The materials adduced by the authors show the various ways in which Soviet believers were surveyed and in which questionnaires were constructed, illustrating the modes of argumentation used in atheist propaganda conducted alongside such surveys, and giving a rare glimpse into the methodological discussions that were taking place at conferences organized by the Institute of Scientific Atheism. The authors track also the sociological conceptions and typologies adopted by Soviet sociology. AD - Belgorod National Research University, ul. Pobeda 85, 308015, Belgorod, Russia AU - Klimova, Svetlana M. AU - Molostova, Elena S. DO - 10.5840/forphil201318211 KW - atheism; ideology; Marxist propaganda; methodology of sociology of religion; scientific world-view; Soviet Union 1960–1989 M1 - 2 M3 - Article PY - 2013 RN - Alekseev, N. P. “Metodika i rezul’taty izucheniya sel’skogo naseleniya (na materialakh Orlovskoy oblasti).” Voprosy nauchnogo ateizma no. 3 (1967): 131–50. Alymov, Sergey S. “Ponyatie «perezhytok» i sovetskie sotsial’nye nauki v 50–60-e gody.” Antropologicheskiy forum 16 (2012): 261–87. Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. Translated by Michael Glenny. Vintage Classics. London: Vintage, 2004. Filatova, Valentina F. Magicheskiy diskurs. Voronezh: Izdatel’stvo Voronezhskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 2010. Filatova, Valentina F. Semiotika magii: Leksika, struktura i semantika voronezhskikh magicheskikh obryadov. N.p.: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2012. Gardzha, Viktor I. “Sotsiologiya religii.” Chap. 15 in Sotsiologiya v Rossii, edited by Vladimir Aleksandrovich Yadov. Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, 1998. Glock, Charles Y. Sotsiologiya religii v sotsiologii segodnya. Problemy i perspektivy. Moscow: Progress, 1965. Kalashnikov, Mikhail F. Molodoe pokolenie i religiya: Opyt konkretno-sotsial’nogo i sotsial’no-psikhologicheskogo issledovaniya. Perm’: Permskoe knizhnoe izdatelstvo, 1977. Kelle, Vladislav Z. “Nekotorye voprosy obshchestvennogo soznaniya.” In Aktual’nye voprosy istoricheskogo materializma. Besedy po aktual’nym problemam nauki, 41–6, edited by Dmitriy P. Tselishchev. Moscow: Znanie, 1966. Kobetskiy, Vladimir D. “Issledovanie dinamiki religioznosti naseleniya v SSSR.” In Ateizm, religiya, sovremennost’, edited by V. N. Sherdakov, 116–130. Leningrad: Nauka, 1973. Kurochkin, Pavel K., ed. K obshchestvu, svobodnomu ot religii: Process sekulyarizatsii v usloviyakh sotsialisticheskogo obshchestva. Moscow: Mysl’, 1970. Lenski, Gerhard Emmanuel. The Religious Factor. New York: Doubleday, 1961. Levada, Yuriy A. Sotsial’naya priroda religii. Moscow: Nauka, 1965. Manuscripts in F. 606. Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI). Pivovarov, Victor G. Religioznost’: opyt i problemy izucheniya. Yoshkar-Ola: Mariyskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1976. Shukshin, Vasily. Stories from a Siberian Village. Translated by John Givens and Laura Michael. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996. Smolkin, Viktoriya. “«Svyato mesto pusto ne byvaet»: ateisticheskoe vospitanie v Sovetskom Soyuze, 1964–1968.” Neprikosnovenny zapas: debaty o politike i kul’ture 65, no. 3 (2009): 36–52. “Sovetskaya etnografiya nakanune XXII s’ezda KPSS.” Sovetskaya etnografiya 4 (1961): 3–8. Stalin, Joseph V. “Beseda s pervoy amerikanskoy rabochey delegatsiey 9 sentyabrya 1927 goda.” In Sotchineniya, 10: 92–148. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1949. Ugrinovich, Dmitriy M. Vvedenie v teoreticheskoe religiovedenie. Moscow: Mysl’, 1973. Velikovich, Lazar’ N., Marlen P. Gapochka, and Viktor I. Gardzha, eds. Religiya i tserkov’ v sovremennuyu epokhu. Moscow: Mysl’, 1976. Yablokov, Igor N. Sotsiologiya religii. Moscow: Mysl’, 1979. SN - 1426-1898 (paper) 2353-7043 (online) SP - 169–190 ST - “Scientific Atheism” in Action: Soviet Sociology of Religion as an Agent of Marxist-Atheist Propaganda from the 1960s to the 1980s T2 - Forum Philosophicum TI - “Scientific Atheism” in Action: Soviet Sociology of Religion as an Agent of Marxist-Atheist Propaganda from the 1960s to the 1980s UR - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=96215224&lang=pl&site=ehost-live http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2013_0018_0002_0169_0190 VL - 18 ID - 12 ER -