Lives of Soviet Secret Agents

Religion and Police Surveillance in the USSR

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

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The Lives of Soviet Secret Agents: Religion and Police Surveillance in the USSR explores the covert world of secret police surveillance within the Soviet Union, delving into lesser-known grassroots religious life and the collusion of religious communities with the Soviet secret police. These case studies come from Ukraine, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Russia, spanning from the Central Black-Earth region to the Bashkir and Udmurt regions. This book reconstructs the stories of insider agents, focusing on the entanglements and ambiguities of collaboration and secret police surveillance in the Soviet era. These are the stories of the resilience and creative agency of religious believers in times when their faith in God was considered a legal offense. These issues are addressed through an in-depth analysis of previously untapped archival sources from the Soviet secret police archives and eyewitness testimonies.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-02-05
Mått152 x 229 x 30 mm
Vikt658 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor352
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
MedarbetareKatya Tolstaya
ISBN9781666938456

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Europas historia inom Historia och arkeologi

PrefaceIntroduction: Policing Religion in the Soviet Union Tatiana Vagramenko and Nadezhda BeliakovaChapter 1: Novice Sania: The Life of Underground Orthodox Communities through the Testimony of a Witness for the Prosecution Anna Samsonova and Tatiana VagramenkoChapter 2: Secret Agents in the Post-War Russian Orthodox Episcopate: The Case of the Ukrainian SSR Roman SkakunChapter 3: Fighting Prophets and Prophecies: The Soviet Secret Police against Pentecostals Vera KliuevaChapter 4: Agent Recruitment within the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches in Latvia Solveiga Krumina-KonkovaChapter 5: Mykola Murani — “Berezovskii” — “Sova”: The KGB Collaborator in Charge of an Underground Church Roman Skakun and Volodymyr MorozChapter 6: Undercover and in Faith: The Secret Life of a Woman Agent in the Baptist Community of Soviet Kyiv Nadezhda BeliakovaChapter 7: Targeted by the Intelligence Services yet Sheltered by the Almighty: The Memoirs of Jakob Görzen, Manager of an Underground Baptist Press in the USSR Johannes DyckChapter 8: Chain of the Qur’an: Secret Agents among Muslims during the Stalinist Repressions Yuliya ShapovalChapter 9: The Espionage Activities of an Embassy Typist: The Fate of Secret Collaborator Emina Akchurina Renat BekkinAfterword: Interrogating Shadows: Theology and the Legacy of Soviet Surveillance Katya TolstayaAbout the Contributors

“This agenda-setting volume brings together cutting-edge research into newly declassified archival documents from Ukraine, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Russia. A must-read for any serious student of religion and secret policing in the Soviet Union, the contributions explore not only the histories of infiltration , surveillance, and repression of religious communities, but also their resilience and survival.”