How was Russian culture affected by Bolshevik rule?
Bolshevik cultural policy was based on spreading their values to the population. They attempted to promote equality to create a classless society. In addition to removing class differences they attempted to give equal status to women and to young people. In order to encourage women to work state funded crèches were established and laws passed to give women parity in terms of pay with men. The state tried to destroy the old concept of families by legalising abortion and enabling people to obtain divorces much more simply. This was against the teaching of the Orthodox Church which was not tolerated by the Bolshevik party as it had been deeply involved in the Tsarist system and the belief propagated by it that the Tsar was God’s representative on Earth was the basis of its power. Religion in general was considered the “opium of the masses” as it was described my Marx the founding father of communism. The church’s physical resources were taken from it and its ability to spread its message was damaged by the outlawing of religious education outside of the home and by the activities of the League of the Militant Godless a Bolshevik sponsored organisation intended to spread anti-religious propaganda. Bolshevik success in this area was varied as it did succeed in destroying the church as organisation but surveys of the peasantry in the 1920s found that 55% of peasants were still practicing Christians. The survival of religion is probably due to the often more lenient policy practiced locally which would often permit religious people to join the party in contravention of central policy. Islam was also prominent in the east of Russia however this was affected little partially due to wariness of the Bolshevik leadership and probably also due to the distance from Moscow which made enforcement of central party policy difficult.
