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Communism and the persecution of churches
from 1917 (Soviet Russia); North Korea from 1945; China from 1949· Event· Church, doctrine & the world
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
Communist governments from 1917 onward closed churches, imprisoned or killed clergy and promoted atheism, from Russia to China and North Korea.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
After 1917 Soviet Russia seized church property, sponsored a 'League of the Militant Godless,' and in the 1937–38 Great Terror shot tens of thousands of clergy and believers. Of some 54,000 Orthodox parishes in 1914, only a few hundred were open by 1939. After 1945 Eastern Europe followed; Albania declared itself an atheist state in 1967. China expelled missionaries after 1949 and closed every church in the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). North Korea crushed what had been Korea's Christian heartland.
Why it matters
It was among the largest persecutions in Christian history. Yet churches survived underground, helped topple communism in Poland, and grew in China, showing persecution's limits.
Sources and history
Soviet archives opened after 1991, execution lists from sites such as Moscow's Butovo range, survivor memoirs, and church canonizations; the Russian church has named over 1,000 'New Martyrs.' North Korean data comes from defectors.
Questions and debates
Death tolls are estimates and vary widely. Historians also debate church leaders' compromises, such as the Russian church's 1927 pledge of loyalty to the Soviet state.
Connections (3)
▸Communism and the persecution of churches fell heavily on the Russian branch of Eastern Orthodox ChurchHistorical record
The connection
The Russian Orthodox Church, the state church before 1917, was a prime Soviet target: property seized, Patriarch Tikhon arrested (1922), tens of thousands of clergy and believers shot in 1937–38, and most churches closed. Stalin allowed a limited revival in 1943 to rally wartime support; Khrushchev closed thousands more in 1959–64. Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Georgian Orthodox also suffered.
When and where
Soviet Union, 1917–1991; Eastern Europe after 1945; the Butovo firing range near Moscow, where over 20,000 people were shot in 1937–38, including hundreds of clergy and believers.
Historical evidence
Soviet archives opened after 1991, Butovo execution lists, and the Russian church's canonization of over 1,000 'New Martyrs and Confessors' since 2000.
Questions and debates
Death tolls are estimates. Debate continues over Metropolitan Sergius's 1927 loyalty declaration and Soviet secret-police infiltration of the church hierarchy.
▸Communism and the persecution of churches drove northern Christians south, fueling South Korea's church boomMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Before 1945, northern Korea, centered on Pyongyang, was Korea's Protestant heartland. Under Soviet occupation and Kim Il Sung, churches were suppressed, and many Christians fled south before and during the Korean War. Refugees founded churches such as Seoul's Youngnak Presbyterian (영락교회, 1945) under Han Kyung-chik and brought fierce anticommunism into South Korean church life.
When and where
North to South Korea, 1945–1953; Youngnak Church founded in Seoul by refugees from the north in December 1945.
How do we know?
Church founding records, refugee memoirs and studies of South Korean churches show a high share of northern-born leaders and members.
Questions and debates
How many Christians fled is estimated, not counted, and scholars debate how much refugees, versus later urbanization in the 1960s–80s, drove growth.
▸Pope John Paul II challenged, starting in Poland in 1979, Communism and the persecution of churchesMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Elected from communist Poland in 1978, John Paul II returned in June 1979 and told a huge Warsaw crowd, 'Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.' Perhaps a third of Poles saw him. Fourteen months later Solidarity was born; Poland's communist regime fell in 1989, followed by its neighbors.
When and where
Victory Square, Warsaw, June 2, 1979, the start of a nine-day trip; Gdańsk shipyard strikes, August 1980; Polish elections, June 1989.
How do we know?
Recordings and texts of his homilies, secret-police files, and testimony from Lech Wałęsa and Mikhail Gorbachev, who said the collapse would have been impossible without the pope.
Questions and debates
Historians weigh his role against economic failure, Gorbachev's reforms and Western pressure; whether the Soviet bloc was behind the 1981 attempt to kill him remains unproven.