Marx's antipathy towards religion in general and towards the Jewish religion in particular was shared by Lenin and the entire Bolshevik leadership. They all viewed religion as the primary and most harmful form of alienation, the opium of the people. Nonetheless, in this as in many other areas, the Bolsheviks were compelled to take the multi-national and multi-religious reality of Russia into account after their 1917 victory. The pragmatic Soviet solution to this conundrum was the constitutional separation of religion from the state and of the schools from religion. It was established – at least in constitutional theory – that religion was the citizen's private affair and that all religions were equal before the law.

The Stalin period

The first and most important law in this sphere, that of 20 January 1918, enumerated in detail the rights and obligations of the religions in the state. Its major articles proclaimed the nationalisation of church property; forbade religious congregations from maintaining educational, health and welfare institutions; prohibited religious instruction in the public schools or the establishment of any form of religious school. Finally, it declared that no religious association could enjoy the rights of a legal entity.

The second law regulating the relations between religion and state – one still in effect – was passed on 8 April 1929 in the RSFSR and later in all the other republics of the Soviet Union.