The main objective of the journal was to highlight perceived issues throughout the history of religion, particularly concerning its role in the previous Russian empire, as well as to document the development of atheism as a philosophical position.

The journal also intended to help foster the Soviet policies of state atheism by highlighting the spread of atheism in the USSR and abroad, in addition to providing translations of material from Western bourgeois scholars regarding religion and the church.

Emphasis was put upon criticizing organized religion as a power structure and its supposed incompatibility with Soviet thought.

The slogan of the journal, printed on the front page, read: "Religion is a datura for the people" (Russian: «Религия — дурман для народа»).

In 1931, the League of Militant Atheists began publishing the journal Voinstvuiuschii ateizm (Russian: «Воинствующий атеизм»; lit.