LEGISLATIVE REGULATION OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN UKRAINE DURING THE SOVIET PERIOD (1918-1991)

The article is devoted to the problem of legal consolidation and the real place of religion and the church in the USSR, starting with the first stages of organization, and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The authors emphasizes that, although freedom of conscience and religion was enshrined in all Constitutions of the Soviet period and throughout its existence, including the Constitutions of the Ukrainian SSR, in practice the authorities often violated the requirements of the law or interpreted them in their favor, creating this is the impossibility for people to freely adhere to church customs and traditions. In the article considerable attention is paid to the anti-religious policy and propaganda of the Bolshevik regime aimed at the destruction of spirituality among the population and the imposition of its ideology, which in some cases was even the opposite morality to which the population was accustomed. The author considers it necessary to note that such actions on the part of representatives of the power structures caused resistance and disagreement among the believers, including those in the then intelligentsia and clerics. Mass repressions of priests could not remain outside criticism and condemnation of the population, but the Soviet government took all possible measures to recognize those who disagreed with party politics as "enemies of the people and the communist regime." Separately, the article highlights questions about the state and peculiarities of atheistic propaganda for the different political elite of the Soviet Union. Lenin's policy was accompanied by inconsistent measures in the conduct of anti-religious policy and the controversial attitude of Vladimir Ilyich by himself in church and religion. During that time, constitutions appeared, there were norms on freedom of religion, however, at the same time, decrees were issued to reduce the number of publishing houses of publications and books of religious affairs. Stalin's policy was characterized by more active, consistent and purposeful actions against believers and clergymen: mass arrests and other types of repressions, the ban on the publication of religious books, the destruction of churches and the plunder of church property. The authors emphasizes that all this happened in the conditions of the existence in the "Stalin Constitution" of the norm on "the freedom of sending religious cults and the freedom of anti-religious propaganda." During the so-called "thaw" period, there has been a certain easing of the repressive pressure on the faithful by the state, but this pressure has gained an administrative color: raising taxes for religious organizations, banning the participation of children and adolescents in choirs of singers and church services, restrictions on holding christenings, banning charity and measures aimed at the destruction of religious structures. This way, during the entire existence of the Soviet regime on the territory of Ukraine there was a fact of aggravation of relations between the leadership of the country and the population through religious harassment. With the help of atheistic propaganda, the communist government tried to impose its ideology and world outlook on the people. And only with the adoption of Ukraine's independence began a new stage aimed at restoring the spirituality and moral traditions of the people.