“Saratov font”: Complication of church-state relations in the USSR in the late 1940s (based on materials from the Saratov Volga region)

The article reveals the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (the ROC) in the late 1940s on the territory of the Saratov Volga region. After several years of a forced truce, the state began to tighten its religious policy again and resumed an active anti-religious campaign. One of the reasons was the scandal in the Saratov region in 1949, connected with the mass bathing on the Epiphany holiday and the subsequent publication of I. Ryabov’s feuilleton called “Saratov font” in the Pravda newspaper. The anti-religious campaign that followed these events revealed multiple manifestations of religiousness in the Saratov region of both the ordinary population and representatives of the authorities. It turned out that many people participated in the sacraments of the Church, wore crosses and provided all possible assistance to the Church. As a result, a wave of administrative punishments started again: believers were expelled from the party, fired from their jobs. But a complete rupture of relations between the state and the church did not happen, which was associated with the intense foreign policy activities of the ROC and its participation in the struggle for peace.