Religious Revival and the Political Activity of Religious Communities in Estonia During the Process of Liberation and the Collapse of the Soviet Union 1985–1991

ABSTRACT

This article examines the activity of Estonian religious communities in the period of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1991 the Republic of Estonia regained its independence. This coincided with an upsurge in churchgoing and church activity in society, often referred to as a national and religious awakening. This article, based on archival material, focuses on the changes in church–state relations, on the growing influence of religion and the activity of representatives of religious organisations, and on the development of and attitudes towards new religious movements which emerged in Estonian society in the period from 1985 to 1991. We view these developments in a wider context of social changes in the Soviet Union, with a special emphasis on Estonia, to describe the role that religious communities played in the Estonian liberation process.

Acknowledgment

The research on which this article is based was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, targeted financing project SF0180026s11, and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT)).

Notes

¹ Piip’s reports and proposals on atheist propaganda and counterpropaganda written in the first years of perestroika, addressed to the chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs in Moscow Kharchev and the Central Committee of the ECP, are full of criticism of those organising atheist propaganda. In August 1986 he complained about statistics showing that the number of believers had slightly increased among the younger generation. To some extent he was preempting possible criticism of his own lack of achievement. He was especially critical of the character atheistic propaganda had taken. He firmly believed that the only way to support atheistic propaganda was through a change of attitude in society. Atheism could be successful not through vulgar and superior treatment of believers and their religion, but through systematic atheistic work. The political loyalty of believers needed to be taken for granted. He proposed specific measures to be taken in radio and television broadcasts and in newspaper articles, and even proposed titles for books for children: Today is the Birthday of our Earth; Let’s Fly to the Cosmos to Look for the Biblical Paradise (UNVA 7).

² The new edition of the New Testament was translated by theologians Toomas Paul and Uku Masing. The manuscript had been handed to Archbishop Hark in March 1983, but the book was published only in 1989. The reason for the delay was not to do with church–state relations – on the contrary, in 1985 representatives of the Council of Ministers of the ESSR had asked the CRA why publication had been postponed – but with differences over translation which had emerged within the Lutheran Church. The postponement however meant that the print-run was increased from 12,000 to 17,000 (Paul, 1999, pp. 776–781).

³ In this context we should note a report by the chairman of the Estonian branch of the KGB Karl Kortelainen. He described two groups in the EELC, the first eager to change society and the church and the second remaining loyal to the ruling system and its traditions. In a book about the relations between churches and the KGB in the ESSR Indrek Jürjo says that many clergy in the second group were the leading figures in the EELC hierarchy (Jürjo, 1996, p. 178).

⁴ The factory in question, Dvigatel in Tallinn, founded in 1897 by Tsar Nicholas II, was a centre for a pro-Moscow organisation, Interdvizheniye (Internatsional’noye dvizheniye trudyashchikhsya Estonskoi SSR; in Estonian Eesti NSV Töötajate Internatsionaalne Liikumine (Interliikumine or Interrinne)). Interdvizheniye was a group of factory workers of Russian nationality opposed to any kind of national awakening or self-determination and dedicated to defending current Soviet rule.

⁵ There was also a pro-Moscow element in the ECP, represented by the above-mentioned Interdvizheniye.

⁶ The Committee had subcommittees. Illar Hallaste was a member of the subcommittees for cooperation with the Supreme Soviet, citizenship, foreign relations and organising parliamentary elections. Avo Kiir, an elected member of the ENIP, was a member of the subcommittees for liquidating the KGB in Estonia, defence, culture and borderlands. Vello Salum and Üllar Kask, both members of the ENIP, were members of the subcommittees for defence and culture. Kiir, Kask and Salum were also members of a subcommittee for cooperation between the Congress and religious organisations. In October 1990 the Committee was reelected: Hallaste became a vice-chairman and three clerics – Salum, Kiir and Jüri Stepanov – were elected members of the Committee (Pärnaste, 2011, pp. 189–198).

⁷ He proposed the deletion of article 10, sections 3 and 4, which stated that a congregation was allowed to use only one church building and was allowed to keep there only things required to carry out services; article 12, which stated that formal meetings of a congregation needed permission from the local Soviet; article 14, which stated that the local Soviet had the right to remove members from the board of a congregation; article 17, which stated that it was forbidden to organise youth work, Bible courses or similar meetings; article 18, which forbade any kind of religious education outside a specific seminary; and finally article 45, sections 2 and 3, which stated that it was forbidden to establish any kind of organisations for charitable or other work (UNVA 33).

⁸ For example in the FEBC the number of baptisms increased from 168 (1986) to 268 (1989), in the EMC from 62 (1986) to 100 (1989). In the ECSDA, however, the highpoint came in 1988, when there were 31 baptisms (22 in 1986). In 1989 the number of baptisms in the ECSDA decreased. At the same time the statistics of EELC contributing members, in the case of the ROC the participants in ceremonies at important church fetivals, and in the case of the FEBC, EMC and ECSDA the number of members, show a quite different picture. In the two largest communities the numbers increased: in the EELC from 48,590 (1986) to 59,376 (1989) and in the ROC from 13,300 (1986) to 16,000 (1989); but in other religious associations the number decreased. For example in 1986 the FEBC had 6121 members, but 5797 in 1989, and the EMC and ECSDA had similar experiences. By 1991 the numbers had slightly increased. The highpoint came in 1992, when the EELC had 76,132 contributing members, the FEBC 6511 and the EMC 1866 members (Plaat, 2001, pp. 245–246, 250).

⁹ For a more detailed overview of this conflict see: Ringvee, 2011a, pp. 125–164; Rohtmets, 2009, pp. 282–308.

¹⁰ According to another initiator of the ENIP, Eve Pärnaste, Väärtnõu first put the idea to her in December 1987 and the first public presentation was in January 1988.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Priit Rohtmets

Priit Rohtmets has a PhD in theology and is currently a researcher of church history at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He is a member of the research group in religious studies at the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory in Estonia (http://www.ut.ee/CECT/eng.html) and a member of a research project at the University of Tartu ‘Secularization (De-institutionalization and De-Christianization): Religion in Estonia from the Modern Period to the Present’. In his research Rohtmets has focused on Estonian and Baltic church history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the emergence of national theology, state–church relations, and the relationship between nationalism and religion in Northern Europe (with Jouko Talonen ‘The birth and development of national Evangelical Lutheran theology in the Baltics from 1918 to 1940’, Journal of Baltic Studies, 2013). He has done research on the ecumenical movement, focusing primarily on a peace organisation, the World Alliance for Promoting Friendship through the Churches, and was co-editor of the book History of Estonian Ecumenism (Tartu/Tallinn, University of Tartu/Estonian Council of Churches, 2009). In this journal, with Triin Vakker he co-authored the article ‘Estonia: relations between Christian and non-Christian religious organisations and the state of religious freedom’ in Religion, State & Society, 36, 1, 2008, pp. 45–53. Email: [email protected]

Ringo Ringvee

Ringo Ringvee has a PhD in theology and is a historian of religion with special interest in contemporary religious diversity, minority religions and religion–state relations. He is a member of the research group on religious studies at the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory at the University of Tartu and is an adviser in the Religious Affairs Department at the Estonian Ministry of the Interior. His publications include chapters in books and articles in journals on minority religions and the legal situation concerning religious communities in Estonia and other Baltic countries, including: ‘Dialogue or confrontation? New religious movements, mainstream religions and the state in secular Estonia’, International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 3, 1, 2012; ‘Regulating religion in a neoliberal context: the transformation of Estonia’, in T. Martikainen and F. Gauthier (eds), Religion in the Neoliberal Age (Ashgate, 2013), and ‘The state, new religious movements, and legislation on religion: a case study of three Baltic states’ in D. Kirkham (ed.), State Responses to Minority Religions (Ashgate, 2014). In this journal he has previously published ‘State, religion and the legal framework in Estonia’, Religion, State & Society, 36, 2, 2008. Email: [email protected]