Word: religion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tashkent-based Muslim board for Central Asia, the most important of the four government-imposed bureaucracies for Soviet Islam, Deputy Chairman Abdulgani Abdulla recalls that "almost nobody was interested in religion" in the 1960s. Now, he reports, large numbers are becoming active believers, many of them young people. "None of the philosophies except the religious ones are able to satisfy men's needs," he maintains. The leader of the Muslim board for Transcaucasia, Allahshukur Pasha-zada, declares that until recently "freedom of conscience was on paper only." The pre-Gorbachev regimes, he says, "destroyed all the values of the people...
...sprouting Iranian-style beards. However, there is sparse evidence of religious fanaticism, either inspired by neighboring Iran and Afghanistan or encouraged by the Soviets' own tolerance.) The crucial factor is awareness inside the Kremlin that economic and cultural stagnation stems largely from the Communists' dogged policy of repressing religion and other forms of independent thought. Islam, like the country's other religions, is a major beneficiary of "new thinking...
Galina Boyko, principal of School No. 32 in Moscow, was teaching Russian literature to a class of 13-year-olds when a boy shot his hand into the air and asked about man's need for religion. Boyko, a 32-year veteran of the classroom, was understandably startled: religion has long been taboo in Soviet schools. But instead of avoiding the issue, she led her students through a 30- minute debate on the universal search for faith. "Before school reform, parents would have come to me, frightened that religion had even come up," Boyko said. "Now no one is surprised...
...years ago, Boyko would not have handled the topic of religion with such confidence, nor would Volodya have had the last word. Now fresh breezes of tolerance are wafting through many Soviet schools, from first to tenth grade. Always considered a potent means of molding character, schools have been transformed into little laboratories of restructuring. Under Gorbachev, they are to change citizens from sheep into self-starters. Said Boguslovsky: "Soviet society requires not just a person who carries out orders but someone who thinks for himself. Our children are not mannequins, and our school is not a fortress...
...RELIGION: A feast of Christian art from Africa...