Buddhism and Soviet identity in Buryatia in 1920s-1930s

The paper discusses the problem of constructing the policy of the Soviet state to the Buddhist religion in Buryatia in the context of ideological struggle for the creation of a 'new person'. The initially tolerant attitude to Buddhism as a religion of the oppressed ethnic minority in the mid-1920s changed to a repressive policy towards the bastion of class enemies. Basing on the original documents, the author argues that the general atmosphere of intolerance of the Soviet power to religion as a worldview was supplemented with the desire to homogenize the non-Russians with the ethnic majority that would provide a common view on patriotism and loyalty. Soviet authorities understood Buddhism as the basis of an alien worldview and simultaneously as an important element of the conservative ethnic tradition, which was the most opposed to soviet values. In this sense, it was religion that promoted sustainability of ethnic cosmology with its ideas about space, justice and morality. Soviet authorities were fully aware of how strongly the Buddhist mentality ingrained in the Buryat public consciousness. Such an ideological opponent as Buddhism could be suppressed in several ways. The first way implied discrediting religion and clergy, destruction of temples and bringing the monks-lamas beyond public and family activities. The second way meant the complete destruction of the Buddhist worldview, its ethics and conceptual apparatus. In the case of the young generation, the ideological victory could be attained by means of what is perhaps more important: everything associated with Buddhism was declared old, outdated and backward. Socially approved behavior meant a purely materialistic worldview. In addition, an important place was given to people's concerns to be suspected of religious faith as this could lead to the most tragic consequences. Destroying the tradition, the communist authorities aimed at a complete change in the cosmological ideas about the world order. Besides, Soviet identity meant both atheisation of the public consciousness and replacement of the traditional language by the Soviet one with its specific ideological lexical units (materialism, atheism, revolution and counterrevolution, class enemy and others). Channeled through the media and artistic sphere, socio-political discourse successfully exercised the function of education in the communist spirit, condemning and bringing the concepts of traditional culture related to Buddhism beyond the limits of the socially approved language.

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