The political leadership and decision making

In examining the central policy making process we face many of the same problems as were noted in chapter 2 relating to source material. Some gaps can be filled in from documents contained within the Central Committee archives, but there remain many omissions, not least the absence of Politburo minutes which might enable us to determine the precise role of the leadership in this area. Nonetheless, a number of conclusions can be drawn from available sources.

In general it appears that the day-to-day fine tuning of policy in at least some areas – atheist propaganda, new rituals and elements of the control process – were left to subordinate bodies, including the ideological establishment, the Council for Religious Affairs and its commissioners, the KGB, or local organisations. Each of these bodies produced a steady stream of reports and documents for the Central Committee, but the majority of these appear to have been simply noted and filed. Typical of such documents was the lengthy report on non-Orthodox denominations produced by deputy CRA chairman A. I. Barmenkov in late 1969, which provided detailed statistical information, reported on the political loyalty of individual churches, and highlighted problem areas. These may have served to influence the fine tuning of policy, but in general this was done at the level of the Central Committee department. Within the Ideology Department a key figure appears to have been instructor E. I. Lisavtsev, whose signature appears on many documents coming to or issued by this department – albeit below those of the Secretary or section head present at the time.