Religio-Nationalist Subcultures under the Communists: Comparisons from the Baltics, Transcaucasia and Ukraine

In several republics of the former Soviet Union, the close association between national oppositions and national churches can be understood in terms of an intermediate form of social organization called religio-oppositional subcultures. These are patterns of private social relations that are withdrawn from public life in the communist state. They draw upon the popular merger of nationhood, language and national church, and were typically associated with secular dissident groups. Despite concerted repression and intense atheistic mobilization by the communist party, these patterns of relations not only held fast but eventually expanded their oppositional role in the last decade. By tracing variable patterns of the church-nation-opposition merger in the Baltic states, the Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia, this article offers explanations for differences in the role, scope, and course of development of religio-oppositional subcultures.