Anti-religious repressions of the 1920s – early 1930s as a strategic prelude to the Holodomor in Ukraine

Abstract

Abstract. This article seeks to reinterpret the anti-religious repressions of the 1920s and early 1930s as a strategic prelude to the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine. The author examines the formation of a repressive and supervisory system in the Donetsk region, arguing that the institutional destruction of the Orthodox Church was intended to eliminate the only autonomous structure capable of organizing mass peasant resistance. Scientific Novelty. For the first time, this study employs a conceptual framework that interprets anti-religious policy as an instrument of “social engineering” within a broader process of genocidal preparation. Drawing on archival materials, it reconstructs the specific role of the Donetsk region as an “ideological testing ground” where methods of coercive suppression of religious communities were developed prior to the artificial famine and the systemic repressions of 1932–1933. Conclusions. The findings demonstrate that the anti-religious terror of the 1920s and early 1930s in the Donetsk region was not merely ideological in nature but constituted a strategic precursor to the Holodomor, aimed at dismantling the institutional resilience of the Church as a primary locus of peasant solidarity. The large-scale expropriation of church valuables, the closure of churches, and the removal of church bells (debellization) enabled the totalitarian regime to establish a monopoly over the social sphere, transforming traditional communities into atomized populations deprived of mechanisms for collective self-defence. Thus, the systematic weakening of religious communities became a crucial element of social engineering, neutralizing the potential for popular resistance and facilitating the implementation of genocidal policies in 1932–1933.