Vladimir Lenin
Leader of the Bolshevik government that took power in Russia in 1917. He signed the decree of 1918 separating church and state, and in 1922 set out for the Politburo a plan to use the removal of church valuables to break the Orthodox clergy.
The decree of 20 January (2 February) 1918 on freedom of conscience and on church and religious societies is signed “V. Ulyanov (Lenin)” as chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (Decree on the Separation of Church and State (1918) signatures).
On 19 March 1922 he wrote a secret letter to the members of the Politburo about the removal of valuables from the churches. He argued that the famine gave the government its best chance to carry the removal through against the clergy, wanted the proceeds as a fund of several hundred million gold roubles, and asked that the trial of those who had resisted at Shuya end in the shooting of as many as possible of the most influential among them (Lenin, Letter of 19 March 1922 whole letter). See the Russian Church under the Bolsheviks.
In the timeline
- 1917 to 1918, firm dateThe Russian Church under the Bolsheviks
In November 1917 a council of the Russian Orthodox Church restores the patriarchate and Tikhon takes the patriarchal seat. Two months later the Soviet government separates church and state by decree and declares all church property to be the people’s.