Irreligion in Russia

[11] The future Empress Catherine II as early as the 1740s and 1750s became acquainted with Voltaire's original works, which practically did not contain the propaganda of materialism and atheism, to which he had just begun to join at that time, but afterwards her interest in them faded away.

[12] Along with this, being a Voltairean,[13][14][15] Catherine was carried away by reading and analyzing the "Historical and Critical Dictionary " by Protestant Pierre Bayle, from which the principle of toleration, embodied during all her reign, was derived.

[16][17] In 1767, Catherine made an attempt to reform the Russian Orthodox Church, subject to the following amendments to the Holy Synod: to allow Old Believers in the post to use a number of dishes, as well as shorten the duration of posts; on top of that, she worked to remove from the houses of the icon, eliminate a number of Christian holidays, replace the lengthy services with short, evening and all-night vigil - with brief prayers with instruction, allow bishops to have a wife, change the form of clergymen to a more Secular variety, eliminate some difficulties about the need for divorce, to allow marriages between relatives and representatives of different faiths and finally to liquidate the commemoration of the deceased and so on.

After the death of Voltaire, the empress ordered 100 complete collections of works by the thinker so that "they serve as a teaching that they will be studied, confirmed by heart so that the minds will eat them," and even planned to erect a monument to the philosopher in St Petersburg Great French Revolution Voltaire's busts, standing in the living rooms and corridors Winter Palace, were demolished, the publication of his writings is prohibited, the available copies were confiscated.

As a result of these events, Catherine II was fully introduced to Orthodoxy as a religion capable of destroying "atheism, pagan, immoral, anarchic, villainous, diabolical, hostile to God and the apostles".

For a certain period of time, among the courtiers of the Russian Empire, the Empress was popular with jokes about religion, the demonstration of godlessness and the exaltation of Voltaire as a philosopher who came to the world in order to free him from superstition.

However, with regard to the views of the empress and her supporters, a number of people from both the middle and upper classes expressed dissatisfaction, including the prince Mikhail Shcherbatov ("Catherine" ... is enamored with the meaningless reading of new writers, the Christian law, although she piously pretends to be pious, and for nothing reveres.

[24] The "Penal Code on Penalties and Corrections" of August 15, 1845 for the withdrawal from Orthodoxy provided for liability in the form of hard labor for a period of eight to ten years.

[28] Freedom is fixed anti-religious propaganda struggle against religion was the task of a number of public organizations (League of Militant Atheists (1925-1947), society "Knowledge" (since 1947)).

And if you talk with a person who claims that he is not Orthodox or Muslim, that he does not believe in God, then it turns out - in most cases, some beliefs and even religious practice in his life are present.