In the Shadow of Godlessness: Soviet Atheists, Proletarian Freethinkers, and the Fate of Secularism in Interwar Europe

This essay examines how the transnational interactions of two secularist organizations, the International of Proletarian Freethinkers (IPF) and the Soviet League of Militant Godless (League), and their social contexts, shaped the meaning, direction, and fate, of secularism in interwar Europe. It shows that while Soviet atheism played a central role in European secularism, its actual reach and influence abroad was indirect and, ultimately, limited. It also argues that Soviet atheism’s most significant impact was the consolidation of an anti-secularist alliance against “Godless Communism” that cast a shadow long after the decline of atheism in the Soviet Union itself.