At present, the problem of relations between religious confessions and state has reached a new level. This is due to changes in both public and political structure of the nation, as well as in patriotic values. The period of 1920s - early 1940s, associated with the era of socialist transformation undertaken by the Soviet authorities in the field of confessional and national relations, stands out among other scientifically significant stages of the history of relations between the government and faith-based organizations. Analysis of the scholarship on the issue shows that there is an abundance of works on religious policies in the Middle Volga region during the Soviet era and yet there remain much controversy and ambiguity. This inevitably prompts one to examine the nature of historical sources on which the scholarship draws. In view of the special significance of studying the documents of the Communist Party it is necessary to analyze documents in the fonds of the Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk) Province Committee of the AUCP (b), Ulyanovsk District Committee of the AUCP (b), Melekess City Committee of the AUCP (b), Ulyanovsk Town Committee CP AUCP (b), as well as fonds of the uezd, volost and district committees of the AUCP (b) of the State Archive of the Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region, former archive of the Ulyanovsk Obkom of the CPSU. The article uses methods of classification and textual criticism (attribution, dating) and offers a source study of regulations, documents of management and record keeping of the AUCP (b), press and memoirs. Variety and versatility of the sources on the history of anti-religious policies in the Ulyanovsk province the Middle Volga oblast (krai) - the Kuibyshev krai (oblast) and availability of a large number of secret documents allow researchers provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of the developments.
