Socialism and Religion

Socialism and Religion was a short article written by Lenin on the attitude of socialism to religion. Written on December 3, 1905, and published in Novaya Zhizn No. 28 on the same day. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 12 of the second revised edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the landlord class collaborated with religious forces, and the bourgeoisie also attracted religious masses. This posed a serious threat to the development of the proletarian revolution. There were also differences in the attitudes towards religion within the working-class political parties. The Russian bourgeoisie deliberately incited religious hatred in an attempt to divert the attention of the proletariat on economic and political issues, so as to disintegrate the fighting spirit of the proletariat and weaken its power. Lenin wrote this article to publicly announce the socialist and Social-Democratic Party’s basic attitude towards religion, to help the masses to understand the nature of religion and the root cause of their own oppression, and to educate the masses to arm their minds with scientific world outlook to strive for a better life in the real world.

Lenin revealed the social roots of the existence of religion. He pointed out that modern society is entirely built on the exploitation of the masses of the working class by a tiny number of landlords and capitalists. Such exploitation and oppression will inevitably cause and produce political oppression and social humiliation of the masses, and make them become vulgar and ignorant in their spiritual life. Among various kinds of spiritual oppression suffered by the masses, religious oppression is the most typical one.

Lenin revealed the function of religion and pointed out that religion is of great importance to the ruling class in capitalist society. Since religion teaches people to be patient, obedient, and good in this life and persuades them to place their hopes on the kingdom of heaven in the next life, religion covers the exploitation of the exploiting classes. Some famous arguments have been put forward, such as: “Impotence of the exploited classes in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to the belief in a better life after death”, “religion is the opium of the people” etc.

Lenin explained the relationship between socialism and religion. He pointed out that, as far as the state is concerned, religion is a private matter, and everyone has full freedom to believe in any religion or not believe in it. But as far as the Party is concerned, religion is not a private matter, the state should not have relations with religion, religious groups must not have connections with governmental authority, and that they must realize the separation of politics and religion. Lenin expounded on the fundamental difference between the Social-Democratic Party and the bourgeois parties in their attitude towards religion. Lenin argued that the party program of the Social-Democratic Party was entirely based on the scientific and materialistic world outlook. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, often starts from rationality and leaves the class struggle to raise the question of religion in an abstract and materialistic way. Lenin has argued that religious oppression is the product and reflection of economic oppression within the society. Therefore, the proletariat must vigorously propagate the scientific world outlook, resolutely fight against the religious fog to liberate the thoughts of the masses, and unite them to build a genuine socialist country.

Lenin pointed out that “religion is the opium of the people”, put forward the proposition that “religion is not a private matter for the Party of the socialist proletariat”, and made it clear that the principle of “separation of politics and religion” must be implemented in socialist countries, which was an enrichment and improvement of Marxist outlook on religion.