ABSTRACT
This book addresses the complex intersection of secret police operations and the formation of the religious underground in communist-era Eastern Europe. It discusses how religious groups were perceived as dangerous to the totalitarian state whilst also being extremely vulnerable and yet at the same time very resourceful. It explores how this particular dynamic created the concept of the "religious underground" and produced an extremely rich secret police archival record. In a series of studies from across the region, the book explores the historical and legal context of secret police entanglement with religious groups, presents case studies on particular anti-religious operations and groups, offers methodological approaches to the secret police materials for the study of religions, and engages in contemporary ethical and political debates on the legacy and meaning of the archives in post-communism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|92 pages
Constructing the enemyHistorical and legal contexts
chapter 1|21 pages
Shifting images of a harmful sect
chapter 4|15 pages
Turning religious practices into political guilt
chapter 5|17 pages
A coercive political environment as place of testimony
part II|81 pages
Anti-religious operations
chapter 6|17 pages
Soviet state security and the Cold War
chapter 7|28 pages
The secret police and the Marian apparition
chapter 8|16 pages
Acting in the underground
chapter 9|18 pages
Between simplification and absurdity
part III|62 pages
Methodological approaches to religions in the secret police archives
chapter 11|20 pages
Photographs of the religious underground
chapter 12|19 pages
Feasting and fasting
part IV|62 pages
Secret police archives in post-communism Politics, ethics and communities