The Militant Atheism in Lithuanian Soviet Marxism

The paper deals with the methodological contradictions characterized by Marxist atheism principles in Soviet Lithuania: it is shown that the concept of militant atheistic propaganda in Stalinist period, which was understood as the ideological struggle against class enemies, was slowly displaced by the Marxist critique and historical researches concerning religion, as one of the phenomenon belonging to superstructure (i.e. ideology). The theoretical sources of these views are presented concisely. It is argued that the militant atheism (I. Zaksas, A. Gaidys, J. Maciulis et al.) overestimates the principle of partisanship and epistemic roots of religion, denies any positive impact of religion on society and culture, focuses on practice of propaganda, and provides poor conceptual argumentation. The programmatic attempts to renew the principles of militant atheism are deliberated.