Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency JPRS translation reproduces an interview published in the Soviet journal Sotsiologicheskiye Issledovaniya, signed to press on 8 July 1988. In it, deputy chief editor Gennadiy Batygin talks with Innokentiy, a teacher at the Leningrad seminary. The conversation takes place during the millennium of the Christianization of Russia. They discuss religion under glasnost and perestroyka, ideological prohibitions, the shortage of Bibles, preservation of church monuments and the position of believers in Soviet society. The document contains no UFO material.
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Document 2 of 3 49. [Batygin] Whether we want it or not the mass repressions, the atmosphere of all-embracing "'vigilance'" cultivated over the decades, and the fear of mutual denunciation have made concern for the past misplaced. Even looking into the past was not without danger. The uniquely interpreted idea of "'the new man'"--godless, loveless, unrepentant--replaced individual responsibility with loyalty to the regime. And this is the only explanation for the actions of those who, perhaps sincerely in some kind of strange passion, tried to straighten out their own times and not the past. One of my friends grew up in the village of Troyebortnoye in Bryansk Oblast. He tells how during the Thirties the priest in this tiny Russian village was killed, by a shot fired through a window from a sawed-off gun. The police never found the killer but the village knew who had long had no special liking for the "'long-skirt.'" The old priest had in fact been neglecting his pastoral duties--he performed the baptisms and funeral services when he had to, but mostly he worked in his kitchen garden. All the same, an end was made to religiosity--even without an order from some authorized agent. 50. [Innokentiy] As a Christian I do not settle the accounts. But without an understanding of the past we cannot be full-fledged people of the present and the future. Why did doctor of philosophical sciences I.A. Krylev publish at one time an article in which it was 'proved'' that religious activists (it was a question of a commune of teetotalers who were socially and politically harmless) are 'enemies of the people.'? And why even today does he accuse writers of 'flirting'' with religion? The explanation for this goes far beyond the framework of purely personal characteristics. It is the business of sociologists to study the genesis and dynamics of sociopolitical situations that create the very opportunity for political denunciations. 51. [Batygin] Already the approach to the problem and the perception of the world by pseudo-patriots are deeply eclectic. Strange as it may seem, this same approach to the problem is taken by some of their 'unmaskers.' Religious culture and the demagogic shouts of the alleged fighters for the Orthodox past are thrown together in the same group. And moreover, to commit to the real state of class affairs is supposedly a petty bourgeois social base for religious-political and nationalistic attitudes. With the concept of class comes the idea of the individual as the 'spokesman' for someone's objectively hostile interests, and this suggests the conclusion of intrigues by the special services: the nightmare syndrome of persecution grows. As a result we again have the abuse and further searches for the enemy. The circle is closed. Let us be consistent in our reasoning. Who needs the ideology of pogrom? Not only not the Russian people. Both the nationalistic appeals and the attempt to find behind them a 'petty bourgeoisie' seem at least
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 19 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.