The aim of this book has been threefold: to provide an overview of religious policy from the death of Stalin to the years immediately following the collapse of communism, to explore the nature of the policy process as it affected religion, and to isolate some of the long-term trends which contributed to the gradual change in the attitude of the state towards religion as well as certain continuities which might serve to influence the future development of relations between them.

To this end I have first of all sought to provide a work of synthesis, bringing together the best of the existing literature on the subject whilst supplementing it with my own understanding based upon reinterpretation and new research. In particular I have focused to a greater extent than many works on official sources, and have been able to make use of some archive materials not available to previous writers. On occasion I have updated and revised our understanding of religious policy, although not all will agree with my conclusions. In such a short space it has been impossible to be comprehensive, and some parts of the country and some religious groups have received more coverage than others. But at the same time I have sought to present a more systemic account of policy which focuses equally on state and religious organisations, on central decision making bodies and on local implementers.

During the course of the study I have traced the evolution of religious policy since the time of Khrushchev's renewed assault on religion, foreshadowed in the brief 1954 campaign but launched with fresh intensity in the autumn of 1958.