The prospects and benefits of building new cities on virgin land, made without the hindrances created by the traditions and prejudices of the past1, were repeatedly noted by the leaders of the Soviet state. When creating new cities, their key feature and main advantage, according to the ideologists of the cultural revolution, was the absence of historical memory, the past in any of its manifestations, including religious ones. This feature was supposed to contribute to a more active formation of a new way of life and a new type of person on the territory of the city - the Soviet person. Construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and the city of Magnitogorsk began as part of industrialization in 1929 in the steppes of the Southern Urals. Already in 1932, the city-forming enterprise created a complete production cycle for the production of metal. N. Milyutin, describing Magnitogorsk, noted that this is "the first purely Soviet city in the USSR, where we are not connected with the past, where we demonstrate to the whole world the will of the proletariat to a new social life." 2 The construction process of Magnitogorsk was held under the slogan of radical breaking of the old way of life. At the same time, in the new city, as it seemed, there was no need to rebuild existing orders and "break" traditions, it seemed that they could be created. This article attempts to examine the life of the population of the new industrial center through the prism of religion-

Howard E. 1. Cities of the future. St. Petersburg, 1911. p. 3.

Milyutin N. 2. The struggle for new life and Soviet urbanism//The city of the socialism and the socialist reconstruction of the life. M., 1930. P. 116.

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There are a number of important problems, namely, to determine what role religion played in the life of Magnitogorsk residents, to identify whether citizens performed traditional religious rites, and finally, whether the authorities managed to eradicate religious consciousness in Magnitogorsk.

The source base of the study is based on a set of archival materials identified and selected in central, regional and city archives, as well as a collection of interviews and photographs collected by the author during 2007-2012. In accordance with the specific classification, we have identified the following types of sources: legislative acts, office documentation, periodicals, and sources of personal origin, including memoirs, letters, and interviews.

The legislative acts that form the basis of the study include, first of all, the normative acts of the Soviet state. This group of sources makes it possible to identify key areas of state regulation of religious issues. Office work materials are presented as both archival and published materials. Organizational and administrative documentation, current correspondence of institutions and enterprises, minutes of meetings, accounting, reporting and control documentation, memos, references and correspondence on the state of anti-religious work in schools, clubs and other institutions of the city allow us to judge the implementation of a national policy on religion at the local level. A very informative and promising source for studying everyday problems is the periodical press3. Newspapers and magazines provide a significant amount of information about everyday life in the city, including attitudes to believers and religion in general.

3. In the course of her work, the author turned to a significant number of newspapers and magazines of regional, city and union significance. Among them: the newspapers Pravda - the central organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and Puti Industrializatsii-the organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, the magazine "USSR at the construction Site", professionally oriented magazine "Magnitostroy" - the organ of the party committee, construction committee and trust "Magnitostroy"; daily city newspapers: Magnitogorsk Worker-an organ of the Magnitogorsk City Committee of the CPSU and the City Council of Workers ' Deputies, Komsomolskaya Pravda na Magnitostroy-an assault newspaper of the Komsomolskaya Pravda editorial office at the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and Magnitogorsk Komsomolets-an organ of the Magnitogorsk City Committee of the party; newspapers aimed at a certain social group-Struggle for Metal - a newspaper of the deprived Svobody and ITR Magnitogorsk Correctional Labor Colony (ITK)," Gornyak "- the organ of the Party Committee of the CPSU(b), Rudkom and mining department of Magnitogorsk, as well as the newspaper-shturmovka"For metal".

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An extremely important and interesting source is the memoirs of old-timers of Magnitogorsk, both unpublished, from the author's collection and the collections of archives and museums, and published memoirs. The latter are represented by two groups of sources: memoirs of participants in the construction of the city and memoirs of people who visited Magnitogorsk at different times. Both groups of memoirs are united by the tendency of heroization in the presentation of material, pathetic description of the construction of a Metallurgical plant. But the first group of memoirs practically does not mention the difficulties and everyday problems that took place during the construction of the city, in contrast to the second category of memoirs, which indicate shortcomings and miscalculations in the organization of life of the first builders. Special mention should be made of the memoirs of the American John Scott " Beyond the Urals. An American worker in the Russian city of Steel " 4. The author worked in various areas of Magnitogorsk, lived together with workers and engineering personnel, and studied at the Magnitogorsk Municipal University. The special value of this book lies in the fact that J. R. R. Tolkien Scott tells not only about the triumphs of construction, but also points out the extremely difficult life of workers, special settlers, prisoners, foreigners and the privileges of nomenclature workers. Showing an objective picture of the city's life, the author points out a significant number of exiled clergy in Magnitogorsk, and an extremely negative attitude towards believers in general.

A significant amount of information collected by the IFZ editorial office in 1935-1936 has been preserved in the collections of GARF, RGALI and city museums. These are the memoirs of the first builders, Stakhanovites and drummers, unpublished manuscripts of writers involved in the creation of the "History of Magnitogorsk", as well as memories of eyewitnesses to the construction of a metallurgical plant and the city, collected by the writer E. G. Kazakevich, who visited Magnitogorsk in the late 1950s and recorded the memories and experiences of citizens. Descriptions of the life of Magnitogorsk residents in the early 1930s are preserved in unpublished manuscripts, notebooks, and notebooks of journalists and writers who visited Magnitogorsk in the early 1930s. These materials often contain references to various religious practices that were common among city residents, as well as ways to combat religion in Magnitogorsk. Conducted interviews

Scott J. 4. Beyond the Urals. American Worker in the Russian City of Steel, Moscow, Sverdlovsk, 1991.

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Interviews with old-timers in Magnitogorsk showed that despite government bans and various restrictions, respondents ' families continued to observe certain religious rites.

Turning to the problem of identifying religious practices in the city, it is necessary to analyze the composition of the city's population. The social structure of Magnitogorsk's population was quite diverse. Among the residents of Magnitogorsk were prisoners, special settlers, representatives of various social groups and nationalities.

The diverse ethnic composition of Magnitogorsk residents has been preserved throughout the entire period of the city's existence. The foundations of the national composition were laid in the early 1930s. According to A. Zverev, in 1930 Magnitogorsk was inhabited by Russians (83.7%), Ukrainians (6.8%), Tatars (2.7%), Belarusians (1.57%), Bashkirs (1.37%), Kyrgyz (1.1%), Nagaibaks (0.5%), Mordvins and "other nationalities" (0.5%)5. By June 1, 1932, the Russian population had increased to 91.7%6 [Table 1]. Such a diverse national composition left its mark on the everyday practices of citizens (mutual enrichment with cultural traditions, cooking, songs, etc.). The table shows that the Russian population remained predominant during the studied period, although its number changed slightly. In second place were the Ukrainians, followed by the Tatars. Other nationalities accounted for a small proportion of the total number of residents of the city. During the period under review, foreign workers from Germany, the United States, Poland, and Lithuania lived in Magnitogorsk. In 1931, representatives of these nationalities made up no more than 0.5% of the total number of citizens. A similar ethnic composition in general determined the ratio of confessions in Magnitogorsk. Most of the believers adhered to Orthodoxy. The second denomination in terms of the number of adherents was Islam. However, the hegemony of these religions did not exclude the presence of Catholicism and Protestantism on the territory of the city, introduced by foreigners, 7 as well as various sects. Sre-

Zverev A. 5. Na stroike giganta [On the Giant's construction site], Moscow, 1931, p. 70.

6. GARF. F. R. 5451. Op. 16. D. 832. L. 7.

7. A foreign colony on the territory of Magnitogorsk existed throughout the 1930s. Its number is quite difficult to determine, since strict accounting is required

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Among the latter, the city was dominated by Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists.

Undoubtedly, the diverse cultural and historical base, lifestyle, mental attitudes and traditions complicated relationships among Magnitogorsk residents and led to the emergence of conflict situations. Archival data and eyewitness accounts indicate the presence of conflicts among citizens, including on a national basis. However, they were quite rare. In general, people of different nationalities lived together in shared and roomed barracks, worked in the same brigade, etc. The causes of conflicts could be phenomena that lay in the everyday plane. In particular, many workers from national minorities who arrived for the construction of Magnitogorsk did not know how to use soap and toilet facilities and refused to wear padded jackets and cotton trousers even in winter, preferring national clothing. 8 This provoked "ridicule"from the rest of the working class9. Discontent was formed directly in the workplace. For example, teams of diggers mixed by nationality could not produce the required production rates due to the fact that many representatives of national minorities simply did not know how to dig the ground, "they never held a shovel in their hands in their lives"10. Traditional farming, in particular the preparation of national food, also caused conflicts.11 Representatives of national minorities were repeatedly beaten, bullied, and circumvented when giving out bonuses, manufactured goods, and clothing, 12 and when serving in medical institutions, 13. For example, at the 9th construction site "technician Fomin and foreman Chernov beat up a national laborer. On Ai-Darly Mountain, the national men's brigade got into a fight with the Russian brigade

it was missing. However, the Magnitogorsk archive still has a collection of personal files of foreign specialists and workers, which includes 777 Cases. At the same time, we have information that personal files were not compiled for all foreign citizens who lived in Magnitogorsk. One of these exceptions was the American worker J. R. R. Tolkien. Scott.

8. GARF. F. R. 7952. Op. 5. D. 309. L. 42, 42a.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., l. 42 a.

11. OGACHO. F. P-783. Op. 1. D. 97. L. 2.

Zverev A. 12. Decree. Op. p. 90.

13. MU MGA. F. 121. Op. 2. D. 16. L. 11.

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"Krasny Partizan" 14; the national worker Sagadeev, who set a world record for laying concrete, was beaten, and the best drummer of the Komsomol member Velichko was killed 15.

The local leadership considered these events as manifestations of perversions of the national policy of the Soviet government and the attacks of the class enemy, but we believe that the causes of conflicts lie in the different perception of what is happening and the different worldview of different groups of workers, as well as in the everyday plane. This can be confirmed by the facts of beating up Russian workers by representatives of national minorities. According to the workers themselves, " the Russian workers first mocked them. There was no national discord. There were some cases that individual national tribes were poisoned..."16. Cases of polygamy among Muslims also caused misunderstanding in Magnitogorsk. The memoirs of Kolbin, a construction participant, contain information that "when they [Muslims] came here to visit us, they also brought several wives with them."17. The multinational composition in Magnitogorsk caused certain difficulties, but it is impossible to consider them prevailing in the relations of citizens.

Table 1. National composition of the city of Magnitogorsk 18

1930 (%)

1931 (%)

1932 (%)

Russians

83,7

83,4

91,7

Ukrainians

6,8

8,1

3,2

tatars

2,7

2,8

-

belarusians

1,57

1,2

-

bashkirs

1,37

1,6

1,3

Zverev A. 14. Decree. Op. p. 90.

15. GARF. F. R. 5451. Op. 16. D. 832. L. 7.

16. GARF. F. R. 7952. Op. 5. D. 302. L. 45.

17. Ibid. d. 309. l. 47.

18. Compiled by: MU MGA. F. D. Op. 1, F. 16. Op. 1. Dash - there is no exact information.

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1930(%)

1931 (%)

1932 (%)

kyrgyz people

1,1

0.2

-

nagaibaki

0,5

0,3

0,6

Mordovians

1,4

-

Chuvash people

0,4

the Poles

0,5

0,2

2,95

the Germans

0,3

Americans

Latvians

other

The gender and age composition of the population of Magnitogorsk was characterized by a predominance of young people. A. Zverev, referring to the materials of the Magnitogorsk population census, noted that out of the total number of workers, young people aged 17 to 24 years accounted for 51.2% 19. This is not an overwhelming majority, but among Magnitogorsk residents, a significant number were people aged 24 to 33 years. A smaller part of Magnitogorsk residents were mature and elderly people.

These age parameters are typical for Magnitogorsk residents engaged in various fields of activity. For example, in 1931, engineers between the ages of 40 and 50 accounted for only 26%, 30 to 40 years-33%, 20 to 30 years-41% 20. The vast majority of cultural workers who arrived in Magnitogorsk under special agreements were under 30 years of age. Of these, 31% were specialists under the age of 23, 69% - from 24 to 30 years 21. Age of teachers in the city during the years 1930-1932.-

Zverev A. 19. Decree. Op. p. 70.

20. GARF. F. R. 7952. Op. 5. D. 230. L. 16.

21. GARF. F. R. 5451. Op. 16. D. 832. L. 82.

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trained from 15 to 20 years 22. As early as 1930, wives and children began to come from villages and other cities to visit the workers, and as a result, the number of minors in the city increased every year. Young people, children and teenagers are undoubtedly more easily influenced, which is why anti-religious work was carried out most actively among these categories of Magnitogorsk residents. However, not all young people were willing to give up their faith. The role of family traditions, the older generation, as well as social origin in some cases had a decisive impact on the formation of a worldview and attitude to religion.

Table 2. Social composition of the city's population 23

1930(%)

1931 (%)

1935 (%)

1938 (%)

worker

65,99

67,2

58,7

59,9

employees

22,7

15,9

21,3

18,6

senior citizens

0,29

0,4

0,49

0,57

students

11,02

6,4

19,5

18,25

MOS (junior maintenance personnel)

10

2,6

others

0,05

0,08

The social composition of the Magnitogorsk population and the ratio of various social groups are shown in Table 2-24.

22. MU MGA. F. 12. Op. 1a. D. 1. L. 8.

23. Compiled by: MU MGA. F. 16. Op. 1. D. 1-28. MOS and the category "other" in 1930 and 1935 were included in the group of employees.

24. The category of pensioners in the city was not numerous, but varied in the type of pension provision. So, on the territory of Magnitogorsk there were old-age pensioners, retired veterans of the Civil War, participants of the revolution and old Bolsheviks. All these categories of pensioners received pension benefits and had additional privileges in the supply sector. Disabled people, whose number did not decrease due to a significant number of injuries in production and construction, were used in the work of artels for the production of consumer goods. Despite the fact that it was raining in the city

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The predominance of workers in the city during the period under review was quite a natural phenomenon. Despite the decline in the percentage of workers in the city from 1930 to 1935 by 7.29%, this social group still remained dominant. Its reduction from the total number of citizens was explained by an increase in the number of children and adolescents, as well as the preservation of the necessary number of employees. At the same time, the main share of the city's amateur population 25 was made up of workers and employees, which was generally typical for the entire Soviet Union26.

These trends continued in the second half of the 1930s. Thus, in 1938, workers in Magnitogorsk still made up the majority (59.9%), and employees were represented consistently by about 1/3 of the total number of workers. However, most of the workers in the recent past were residents of villages, for whom the religious component of life has always been significant.

27 Prisoners of the Magnitogorsk correctional labor colony and special settlers made up a significant part of the population of Magnitogorsk in the period under review. V. N. Kucher's thesis that "the opinion about the participation of criminals in the construction of Magnitka is unacceptable" is absolutely unsubstantiated. So, in 1932, the city's population was 205 thousand people, including prisoners and special settlers-50 thousand people. or 24.3%28. Naturally, these data are rather approximate, since the number of these categories of the population fluctuated quite strongly. In particular, in November 1932, 6,000 people were held in the ITK, but in mid-December 1932 their number increased to about 13,000 people.29
Most often, religion was associated with the wives and mothers of workers, and with special settlers:

large-scale construction and labor were needed everywhere, and there were unemployed people in the city. Unfortunately, the number of citizens who did not work for various reasons is not reflected in the archive documents. Most likely, there were few unemployed people in the city. Thus, we can talk about the presence of natural unemployment in Magnitogorsk.

25. Amateur population - a population that has a permanent source of income (wages).

Demograficheskaya istoriya Rossii v 1930th gody [Demographic history of Russia in the 1930s]. A glimpse into the unknown. Moscow, 2001, p. 57.

27. The term "special settlers" was used until 1934.Later, in 1934-1944, they were called labor settlers, and from March 1944 - again special settlers.

28. Calculated by: AZAGS; MU MGA. F. 16. Op. 1. D. I. L. 2.

29. For a new person. 1934-January 16.

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After dekulakization, the elimination of the kulak as a class, they sent us kulaks, special settlers. Before that, there was nothing. After that, a ferment began among the workers, as some priests and deacons came here. They tried to organize underground prayers, underground services 30.

Indeed," special frames " appeared at Magnitostroy as early as 1930.Starting in 1931, the flow of special settlers increased significantly. In 1932, the Main Department of Magnetostroi had 40,000 employees.31 The total number of special settlers in the Urals was also large. In 1932, there were 484,380 special settlers registered in the region32, who were assigned to timber farms and enterprises of various industries. 40 thousand people were registered under the jurisdiction of Magnitostroi. Among the special settlers in Magnitogorsk, exiled kulaks predominated (50,496), of which 32,896 were so-called middle peasants, the rest (67,296) were well-off 33. All evicted kulaks were deprived of their voting rights, which were gradually restored. Among the special settlers there were a significant number of believers, 34 and even clergy directly. For example, the American worker J. R. R. Tolkien Scott wrote:

One day, on my way home from work, I witnessed a curious scene - a team of forty or fifty Orthodox priests, dressed in dirty, tattered black cassocks, was standing in front of me. All of them had long hair, some even reaching to their waists. They worked hard with spades and shovels, picking up a small mound. A snub-nosed country boy sat on a nearby hillock, an old rifle resting on his lap, watching them placidly. I asked one of the priests why he was here, but he didn't even answer me. 35
30. Ibid., l. 44.

31. GASO. f. R. 255. Op. 1. D. 867. L. 2, 8.; CDEA. F. 4. Op. 10. D. 238. L. 157.

Zemskov V. N. 32. Decree op. P. 122.

33. MU MGA. F. 46. Op. 1. D. 8. L. 36.

34. Memoirs of L. G. Chernopyatova, O. V. Bystrova and others.

Scott J. Beyond the Urals. An American worker in the Russian city of steel. Sverdlovsk, Moscow: Moscow University Press, Ural State University Press, 1991, p. 105.

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The memoirs of the American confirm the data from the archives. In Magnitogorsk, there were clergymen who secretly performed religious rites. So, Father Dimitri (D. I. Gerasenko) and his family lived in Magnitogorsk without officially registering, mastered worldly professions, but secretly, at the request of local residents, conducted baptismal rites, weddings and funerals.36 Clergymen of various faiths served their sentences in the Magnitogorsk correctional labor colony. In particular, Lutfulla Tuktamyshev, an imam-khatib from the village of Bolshaya Tsilna in the Budenovsky district of the Tatar ASSR, served an exile in the city from 1930 to 1937. In 1937, he was sentenced to 6 months of forced labor, and then shot 37.

However, in our opinion, the preservation of religiosity in the everyday life of Magnitogorsk residents depended not only on social or gender identity. The overall spiritual culture of a person, the traditions that existed in a particular family, the level of literacy, and social origin had a significant impact. Hereditary workers were more likely to abandon religious customs than recent peasants. Most of the natives of the village in the first months of their stay in Magnitogorsk continued to wear body crosses:

Sometimes you would see a peasant who had just arrived from the village cross himself, out of old habit; in the bathhouse, from time to time, you would meet an elderly man with a cross hanging on a string around his neck.38
Thus, the social and gender composition of the population of Magnitogorsk could both contribute to the eradication of religiosity in the city, and counteract it. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the religious substrate that existed on the site of the construction of Magnitogorsk before it began.

On the territory of the Southern Urals, there were 669 Old Believer and 657 Orthodox churches, 135 mosques and 424 chapels.39
Vremya voine i vremya miru [Time for war and time for peace]//Heritage. Magnitogorsk, 2012, p. 55.

Minnulin I. R. 37. Muslim clergy and power in Tatarstan (1920-1930s). Kazan: Publishing House of the Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, 2006. p. 131.

Scott Doc. 38. Za Uralom [Beyond the Urals], p. 238.

39. OGACHO. F. 274. Op. 3. D. 4414. L. 49-50.

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Most of them were closed and destroyed. In the Chelyabinsk region, the Nativity of Christ Cathedral (built in 1767), the Kazan-Bogoroditsky Church (1793), the Roman Catholic Church (1914) in Chelyabinsk were destroyed, the Cathedral of the Three Saints was blown up in Zlatoust, the central church of the Apostles Peter and Paul was destroyed in Mias (1815), etc. the sad results of massive pressure on the church. Ignoring the history and culture of peoples, their traditions, the ideological struggle with religion was replaced by a struggle with its carriers and attributes. The elimination of churches was presented as an important indicator of the decline in religiosity.

There were no culturally significant churches in the Magnitogorsk area, but there were villages with small churches around the city at a distance of 26-30 km. Although there were no churches in Magnitogorsk, and the authorities considered this as an opportunity to form an atheistic everyday life among the townspeople, Magnitogorsk residents themselves continued to attend church. In the village of Magnitnaya, 40 founded in 1743, the Orthodox population prevailed, there were several Muslim families, as well as families of Old Believers.41 In January 1930, the church of the village and the chapel were closed, and soon they were flooded due to the commissioning of the second dam. Believers began attending church in the village of Navarinsky, which was located 26 km away. from the city. In the memoirs of Kolbin, the organizer of cultural and mass work in Magnitogorsk, it is noted that some citizens got married and baptized their children.42 Naturally, such religious events did not receive mass distribution in Magnitogorsk. If the rites of baptism and wedding ceremonies were eliminated to a greater extent, then funerals, according to eyewitnesses, were conducted strictly in accordance with church traditions. 43
Funerals are considered one of the most conservative rites. This is confirmed by some sources on the history of Magnitogorsk. In particular, a family photo that has the following information:-

40. The village of Magnitny was located in the immediate vicinity of the city under construction. Currently, the city occupies the territory of the village. The church was flooded in 1931.

41. GAOO. F. 173. Op. 3. D. 5262. L. 45-52.

42. GARF. F. R. 7952. Op. 5. D. 309. L. 44-45.

43. Memoirs of L. G. Chernopyatova, born in 1937, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008.

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The funeral of Vasily Skvortsov has been announced. It shows that a prayer paper is placed in the hand of the deceased (one of the mandatory elements of a Christian funeral)44. According to researcher O. R. Nikolaev, "since the 1920s and 1930s, funeral photographs have increasingly appeared in the albums of ordinary people, although the scale of their distribution is limited ..." 45. Indeed, it was difficult to capture a particular moment of life in a photograph at the specified time, primarily due to the lack of professional photographers, technical difficulties, a total shortage, etc. To answer the question of why exactly at the turn of the 1920s - 1930s the population tends to preserve the moment of the funeral in the photo is definitely impossible. However, it can be assumed that in the context of the breakdown of traditional culture and the ritual paradigm, when special attention was paid to new Soviet funerals (for example, the funeral of a pioneer, communist, etc.), ordinary citizens sought to preserve important moments of family history not only in memory, but also in photographs. The genre of funeral photography emerged as a way to preserve tradition in the face of the threat of destruction of traditional rituals. This observation is confirmed by the memoirs of the poetess N. G. Kondratkovskaya, in which the author describes in detail the funeral of his mother:

Maria Alekseyevna drapes a diaper over the mirror on the chiffonier, then commands me, and I do everything she says... Here's a head wash, here are the hangers... We'll put our eyes on the heels of the ritual... The pillowcase should be filled with shavings... A feather and fluff is not allowed, only shavings... It is absolutely necessary to put on shoes. Nice gray slippers. And in the coffin, too... And I, having long forgotten how to do this, baptize my forehead... And Maria Alekseevna has already brought the old ladies, they are reading something... I gave them and Maria Alekseevna all the calico pieces and my mother's towels for the wake.

44. Archive Ruban Yu. Photo. Funeral of V. Skvortsov. 1935 In the course of our work, we have collected a series of similar photos.

Nikolaev O. R. 45. Traditional forms of peasant culture at the break of epochs: "buried well" (to the question of funeral photos)//Problems of history, philology, and culture. 2012. N 2. P. 360.

Kondratkovskaya N. G. 46. "Ah, if only I had one more life": autobiographical stories. Philosophical prose. Memories. Beloretsk: ONYX Publ., 2006, pp. 121-124.

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Memories of old-timers of the city and other sources of personal origin indicate that in Magnitogorsk there was an interweaving of traditional rituals with new Soviet norms. According to the text of N. G. Kondratkovskaya, it is not difficult to notice that along with ritual actions, it was necessary to strictly observe all the norms of Soviet legislation:

I have already come to my senses, I take my mother's passport, I have to go for a doctor at Ezhovka 47, take a certificate, then hand over my passport to the NKVD, then to the registry office, it's nearby. And order a coffin, a place in the cemetery, pay for the grave... It was a busy day. My husband ordered a coffin, unpainted, etched in brown. The driver, released after lunch, brought the coffin. The doctor gave me a certificate in absentia, she knew that my mother was dying. The passport was taken immediately, not detained, and at the registry office-the newlyweds gave up their turn to me... With the death certificate, my husband went to order a grave. Maria Alexeyevna was preparing dinner... There were four of us who saw my mother off: me, my husband, Yurka and the driver. We arrived at the cemetery already in the dark, there was no lighting there. They found the grave with a flashlight. The men took off the coffin, the lid, went to get shovels, crowbars, and began to make an inscription. There's not a soul in the cemetery - no one buries them at this time of year.

In general, religious practices in Magnitogorsk reflected the most stable ideas of the population about religious life. Given that there were no churches in the city, Magnitogorsk believers visited nearby churches in villages or set up "prayer houses" in dugouts, and then in their apartments. For example, Baptists in the towns of Shevchuk, Sapiok, Salepko, and Voginkov regularly held prayer meetings in their homes. It was more difficult to hold religious events in the barracks - there were too many prying eyes. At the same time, it is impossible to say that the dugout was arranged in a special way - the population had no actual opportunities to create a religious space. Most often, all the townspeople were limited to strengthening icons in the so-called red corner

The Muslim population of the city, according to the testimony of Kolbin, a cultural worker, and according to the memoirs of old-timers of Magnitogorsk, did not need churches, "they prayed right on the street,

47. Ezhovka is the name of a village in Magnitogorsk.

Kondratkovskaya N. G. 48. "Ah, if only I had one more life". pp. 121-124.

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on earth " 49. In Magnitogorsk, mullahs were elected among the Muslims, who performed the necessary rites. Reading the holy books (the Bible, the Koran, etc.) was an inaccessible religious practice. On the one hand, this was due to the lack of opportunities to read religious literature (neighbors, lack of lighting, lack of free time, etc.), on the other hand, books themselves were in short supply in the city. Such literature was banned in the city's libraries, and it was difficult to bring books in private. All new arrivals to the city passed through an isolation checkpoint, where both people and their belongings were sanitized. Therefore, it can be assumed that if the workers had any books, they were seized.

Fasting as one of the most important religious practices in the context of latent hunger was also extremely difficult. However, on big holidays such as Easter or Eid al-Fitr, the townspeople prepared traditional food 50. Even the rite of burial was impossible to observe in the first years of construction, because until 1932 there was no cemetery in Magnitogorsk. Burials were made in common graves, without installing any monuments, much less crosses.

During the period under review, Magnitogorsk actively fought against the religious consciousness of the population.51 The spiritual and cultural influence of religion on the broad masses was not consistent with the plans of the authorities, so the Bolsheviks saw one of the most important tasks in changing the old system of values, which was largely concentrated in religious teaching. The greatest destructive force in the struggle against the religious consciousness of the population was the Soviet education, which was built on the basis of Marxist ideology. Its tenets were most actively assimilated by the young people prevailing in the city.

Gorono demanded that the collectives of the city's schools "strengthen the anti-religious education of children and their parents "52," use the educational program anti-religious material more widely

49. Memoirs of L. G. Chernopyatova, born in 1937, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008; GARF. 7952. Op. 5. d. 309. L. 37-39.

50. Memoirs of O. V. Bystrova, born in 1927, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008.

51. Kul'tura i byt. 1932. N 8. P. 11.

52. MU MGA. F. 12. Op. 1a. D. 9. L. 107.

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and more regularly"53.It was noted that anti-religious propaganda and scientific and educational work were not carried out as actively as required by the "needs of the masses".54 In particular, in the Urals in 1932, out of 736 grassroots trade union organizations, only 34 had anti-religious circles, i.e., 4.5% of 55. The situation in new buildings, according to the management of the All-Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, required special attention. That is why "40 anti-religious people were sent to new buildings, including Magnitogorsk, to deploy mass anti-religious propaganda ..." 56.

Attitudes to religion often divided parents and children in the family. The latter, under the influence of the school, abandoned their religious worldview, which in turn gave rise to conflicts with their parents. According to official statistics, in the Urals in 1917-1921, 90% of all working-class marriages were church marriages; in 1934-1935, this number decreased to 2.4%. However, a variety of sources indicate a different trend: many citizens, even young people and children, did not easily give up their faith. The process of secularization of everyday life covered a significant part of the population of the country and Magnitogorsk, but it should be noted that a significant part of Magnitogorsk residents continued to actively participate in religious life. The performance of religious rites was still considered one of the obligatory features of life. The broadcasting of religious values and views in the family has not stopped, despite the anti-religious position of the state 58.

Anti-religious work was one of the main and constant activities of Komsomol and party organizations. The latter very often acted without regard for the feelings of believers, which in turn caused discontent, and in some cases protest. Thus, in Magnitogorsk, there were cases of physical violence against anti-religious people who came to the barracks to promote an atheistic worldview.59
53. Ibid., l. 106.

54. Kul'tfront Urala na vozvizhe [Cultural Front of the Urals on the rise], ed. by I. A. Perelya, Sverdlovsk: UralOGIZ Publ., 1932, p. 35.

55. Ibid.

56. GARF. F. R. 5451. Op. 16. D. 832. L. 3.

Postnikov S. P., Feldman M. A. 57. Sociocultural image. p. 257.

Isaev V. I. 58. Youth of Siberia in the transforming society. Novosibirsk: Institute of History SB RAS, 2003, p. 220.

59. Memoirs of A. I. Chesnokova, born in 1924, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008.

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The organization designed to bring the ideas of atheism to the masses was the "Union of Militant Atheists". In Magnitogorsk, he carried out active work. In particular, anti-religious evenings were organized by collectives of the metallurgical plant's workshops, where religion was presented to the audience as "a bloody nightmare in the history of mankind", and the main task of the evening participants was to tell about how he became an atheist.60 The SVB program also included talks on the following topics:: "Is it possible to believe the Bible", "Does the Holy Scripture teach good", "Class content of the teaching and class policy of the Church", dramatizations were carried out, historical and revolutionary material was voiced, funds were raised for the construction of the tank "Godless", the submarine "Militant Godless", the plane "Ural Godless", etc. 61. The work of the Magnitogorsk "Union of Militant Atheists" was approved at a meeting of the Presidium of the Uraloblsovet of the State Duma on November 1931. The experience of Magnitogorsk atheists was recommended to be extended to Kuznetskstroy and throughout the Urals.62
When analyzing a significant array of sources, namely, memories of Magnitogorsk residents about their rejection of religion, several typical plots should be noted. Among the reasons that pushed to abandon faith in God and religion in general, were, first, reading relevant literature and understanding that "religion clouds the brain"63. Magnitostroi worker Parenchenko at an evening dedicated to anti-religious work in the city, told his story:

In my speech, I would like to point out that before 1915 I myself sincerely believed in God. Beginning in 1915, I began to read many books on anti-religious issues, and I really became convinced that religion clouds the brain of a person and does not allow him to think.64
Secondly, the absence of the expected miracle. For example, the public opening of the relics, which turned out to be wax, charcoal, silk, bones, etc., and not the incorruptible body of a saint or the absence of a miraculous icon.

60. OGACHO. F. 234. Op. 1. D. 113. L. 27.

61. MU MGA. F. 10. Op. 1. D. 20. L. 124.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid., l. 6.

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the power of icons, or the punishing hand of the Lord for shooting clergymen, desecrating objects of worship, etc. Thus, the worker Volkov recalled the opening of the relics of St. Basil.:

I was present at the unveiling of Basil's relics... In fact, the scriptures say that the relics are an incorruptible body, but when a scientific commission from Moscow opened the grave, it could find nothing but two bones, a belt and a tuft of hair. Vasily himself was not there. All these facts have really convinced me that there is no God, and I am sure that I am following the right path, rejecting God and all the nonsense preached by the agents of the bourgeoisie - the priests.66
Worker Shchiptsov became convinced that God does not exist even during his participation in the First World War and in the Civil War: "No matter how much an ordinary soldier prays, no matter how much he believes in God, he does not escape his fate." Third, unseemly behavior of the clergy (non-observance of fasts, abusive speech, beatings against women and children). Magnitostroya worker Volkov told how during his service in Balflot, he heard from the housekeeper of the famous John of Kronstadt about "the tricks of this saint". The latter, according to him, collected huge amounts of money from parishioners for allegedly healing the icon, did not observe fasts at all, "then threw out another number. He liked one of the praying mantises, a beautiful woman. He used it for his own purposes"67.

Religious rituals are firmly embedded in the daily life of the population, and they have been performed for centuries. That is why the Bolsheviks offered alternative paraphernalia, made attempts to introduce a new Soviet ritual into life. In particular, Magnitogorsk held "red Easter "and"red christenings". The procedure for holding such celebrations is already described in the scientific literature and even perfectly illustrated in the cinema 68. However, it was impossible to organize such a celebration on the occasion of the birth of each child, so the birth of a child was registered in the registry office, after which some of the citizens baptized their children in the church. All this is poro-

65. The source is not clear about which saint it is.

66. OGACHO. F. 234. Op. 1. D. 113. L. 11.

67. OGACHO. F. 234. Op. 1. D. 113. L. 7.

68. The film "Dog's Heart". Red christening scene.

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It was waiting for a certain double ritualism: performing and outwardly accepting secular rites that were offered by the authorities, the population simultaneously performed traditional religiously colored events.

One of the main ways to influence the life of citizens was the introduction of new Soviet holidays and memorable dates. Often, new holidays were specially timed to coincide with traditional religious holidays and contrasted with the latter. It is widely known that the celebration of New Year and Christmas was persecuted, but the population stubbornly continued to celebrate New Year and Christmas holidays. As a result, it was decided to celebrate Drummer's Day on New Year's Eve. In Magnitogorsk, this holiday was held on a special scale. The celebration of Udarnik's Day in the city began to be celebrated in 1933. Officially, the purpose of this holiday in 1934 was declared "to check the state of socialist competition and udarism, to involve new workers... In fact, the townspeople were celebrating the coming of the new year in 1935. During the holidays, meetings of workers were organized, drummers were awarded, and welcome speeches were heard. The opening of a winter ice rink and ski stations, and the organization of winter sports events were timed to coincide with the celebration of the Day of the drummer. On Christmas Eve, there were massive "ski trips"in the cityToday, however, sporting events did not prevent citizens from celebrating Christmas with their families. Respondent O. V. Bystrova says that she and her parents always celebrated Christmas 71. In order to combat the religious tradition, the city authorities held meetings of the atheists ' activist group, which organized anti-Christmas events, throughout January.72
The city authorities fought for the birth of new traditions in Magnitogorsk, in particular, instilled in the city's population a culture of celebrating May Day holidays. In theaters, clubs and cinemas in Magnitogorsk, festive programs were presented: in 1934, May 2 was declared a day of rest for drummer workers and izotovtsy, for whom a special program was organized.-

69. Magnitogorsk worker. 1934. December 27.

70. Magnitogorsk worker. 1933. December 29.

71. Memoirs of O. V. Bystrova, born in 1927, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008.

72. Magnitogorsk worker. 1934. December 28.

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an extensive holiday program. Orchestras and choirs played patriotic songs in the streets and squares of the city ("Song about Stalin", "Marching"); a series of programs dedicated to May 1, the day of International Proletarian Solidarity, was broadcast on the radio 73. The culmination of the festive events was a solemn demonstration. Historian S. Y. Malysheva notes "the willingness and almost maniacal desire of the population to celebrate at the most inopportune times" 74.

Naturally, it is impossible to deny the recreational impact of holidays on the emotional state of a person, however, to assert that the" maniacal desire " of citizens through the holiday to get rid of overflowing emotions, in our opinion, is premature. In particular, the city's population was ambivalent about the celebration of May 1. The weekend was viewed enthusiastically by the townspeople, and the mandatory participation in the demonstration often caused discontent. Respondent A. I. Chesnokova recalls that mostly women did not want to spend time demonstrating, because "there was always a lot to do at home"75. Archival data indicate that there were also opponents of the demonstrations among the men. In each particular case, the person had his own reason. There were also mass refusals to participate in the festive procession. So, in the evening of April 30 and in the morning of May 1, 1932, the residents of barrack N and were left without water and refused to participate in the demonstration: "Let's first wash our faces and drink some tea, and then call us to the demonstration!"76.

In general, Magnitogorsk residents, as well as the population of the country, who were loyal to the Soviet holidays, did not associate the rejection of religious holidays with the introduction of new Soviet ones. Citizens adapted the new Soviet holidays in their minds, comparing them with the previous religious ones. Perhaps that is why respondent T. K. Patsiina noted that her mother always said: "It was a good holiday, like Easter." 77
73. Magnitogorsk worker. 1934. April 29.

Soviet holiday culture in the province: space, symbols, historical myths (1917-1927). Kazan: Ruten Publ., 2005, p. 19.

75. Memoirs of A. I. Chesnokova, born in 1924, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008 76. OGACHO. F. P-783. Op. 1. D. 12. L. 83.

77. Memoirs of T. K. Patsiina, born in 1946, recorded by N. N. Makarova in 2008.

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So, in the new industrial center of Magnitogorsk, citizens continued to perform cult activities not so much in spite of prohibitions from the authorities, but more often out of habit, without attaching a special religious character to their actions, relying primarily on centuries-old traditions. The presence of a diverse ethnic and confessional composition on the territory of the city preserved religious traditions. In general, anti-religious policies in the 1930s played a decisive role in destroying the religious consciousness of the population, clergy, and religious organizations. The existence of religion in society was maintained only at the level of certain rituals. The new way of life, the habits of the population, the shift work schedule, strict control led to the fact that religion became the lot of the elderly, and it was simply indecent for young people and middle-aged people to believe. Since the second half of the 1930s, archival materials contain virtually no information about the work of the Union of Militant Atheists in Magnitogorsk, the preservation of religion in the city, the organization of underground prayer services, and so on. It seems that this situation was not accidental. The religiosity of the population and the city was determined by purely external signs: the presence of churches and chapels, the performance of religious rites, and external attributes. Such an approach ensured a relatively peaceful existence for the faithful in the city, who retained their internal religiosity or professed extra-ecclesiastical confessions. The lack of churches in the city - the "flagship of socialist industrialization" and the model of a new "socialist hostel" - left Magnitogorsk out of sight of the party and Soviet bodies responsible for anti - religious propaganda, and therefore, in a sense, made the religious practices that remained there invulnerable.

Bibliography

Archive materials

State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF).

F. R. 5451 (All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions).

F. R. 7952 (State Publishing House "History of factories and plants" under the association of state publishing houses).

MU Magnitogorsk City Archive (MU MGA).

F. 9 (Gorplane).

F. 10 (Magnitogorsk City Council of People's Deputies).

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F. 12 (Magnitogorsk City Department of Public Education).

F. 16 (Magnitogorsk City Planning Committee).

F. 46 (Magnitogorsk City Prosecutor's Office).

F. 121 (Magnitogorsk City Health Department).

United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region (OGACHO).

F. 234 (Magnitogorsk City Committee).

F. 274 (Krasnoarmeysky district Council of Trade Unions, Miasskoe village).

F. 783 (City control Commissions of the CPSU (b) - RCT).

State Archive of the Orenburg Region.

F. 173 (Orenburg Ecclesiastical Consistory).

State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region (GASO).

F. P. 255 (Department of Foreign and Domestic Trade of the Executive Committee of the Ural Regional Council of Workers', Peasants ' and Red Army Deputies).

Documentation Center for Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk region.

F. 4 (Chelyabinsk Regional Committee of the CPSU (b)).

Personal archive of Yu. Ruban. Photo of V. Skvortsov's funeral, 1935.

Interview

O. V. Bystrova (2008).

T. K. Patsiny (2008).

L. G. Chernopyatova (2008).

A. I. Chesnokova (2008).

Periodicals Kul'tura i byt. 1932. N 8. Magnitogorsk worker. 1933-1939

For a new person. 1934. January 16.

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