ABSTRACT
In period following the reoccupation of Bessarabia by Soviet forces from August 1944 up to Stalin’s death in March 1953 Inochentists were targeted alongside other religious minority groups in a new wave of anti-sectarian repression. This happened against a backdrop of widespread famine and starvation amongst the rural population in Soviet Moldavia in 1946–1947 and a concerted Sovietisation campaign, including collectivisation, atheist education in schools, the closure of churches and monasteries and the general Russification of public life. Following an overview of Soviet anti-sect repression during this period, this chapter explores the image created through Soviet propaganda materials and in the public media of the Inochentist underground. Recently declassified state security personal files allow us to trace the relationship between these propaganda materials and actual cases investigated by the authorities. The image produced by the Soviet regime is contrasted in the final section with testimonies of Archangelist women from villages in Southern Moldova, describing the lived reality of young members of the underground in the late 1950s and 1960s.
