Institution for communication between the Soviet government and religious cults - the Council for Religious Cults Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1944-1965)
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. X [XXV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Keywords: religious organizations, Council for Religious Affairs, Council of People's Commissars, Russian Orthodox Church, representative, believers.
Abstract: The normalization of relations between the state and religious cults appear on the agenda at the beginning of the war, when there appeared the idea of creating a special agency authorized to perform communication between the government of the USSR and the Moscow Patriarchate. Such organization became the Council for Russian Orthodox Church created by a special decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in August 1943 (the full name of the institution was the Council for the Russian Orthodox Church Affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR).
At the turn of 1943-1944 issues associated with other religions were solved by the same Council for the Russian Orthodox Church Affairs. The president of the Council believed that there is no need to create a separate institution for other religious communities; it would be sufficient to expand the scope of existing Council, which would be to reorganize as the Council for Religious Organizations Affairs.
However, the Soviet government decided otherwise. On May 19, 1944 it decided to organize a single body - the Council for Religious Cults Affairs to provide a link between the government and the leaders of religious cults, except the Russian Orthodox Church.
This article discusses the activities of the Council for Religious Cults Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers created for communication between the government and centers of worship in matters within the competence of the state. The article also reviews the activities of representatives of this Council accredited to the Council of Ministers of the Moldavian SSR in 1944-1965.
The item is the lower part of a leg of a festive table made of white and gray marble. In the upper part, it has a protrusion, similar to a Doric capital, on the horizontal platform of which a square recess is engraved, designed to fix the second part of the leg (upper). The lower part of the leg is made in an anthropomorphic style, and, in our opinion, there are two variants of identifying the depicted character...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The item is the lower part of a leg of a festive table made of white and gray marble. In the upper part, it has a protrusion, similar to a Doric capital, on the horizontal platform of which a square recess is engraved, designed to fix the second part of the leg (upper). The lower part of the leg is made in an anthropomorphic style, and, in our opinion, there are two variants of identifying the depicted character. The first involves the image of the head of the young Heracles (Heracles - Ἡρακλῆς) (beardless), the most favorite hero of antiquity, wearing on his head the skin of the Nemean lion - Λέων της Νεμέας, a vicious monster from Greek mythology who lived in Nemea and was eventually killed by Heracles. The first labor of Heracles, of the twelve set by King Eurystheus (his cousin), was to kill the Nemean lion and bring his skin to the king. It is also known from Greek mythology that the lion of Nemea took the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce the inhabitants of neighboring villages, who wanted to save the girl from danger. Upon entering the cave, a man saw the woman, who usually pretended to be wounded, and rushed to help her. When he approached her, the woman turned into a lion and killed him. Then the lion devoured the man, giving his bones to Hades - ᾍδης, the god of Hell, who lived in the kingdom of shadows. The second version of the anthropomorphic image interpretation suggests Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia in the second half of the 4th century BC, one of the most famous heroes of the Greek world, who sometimes is depicted as Hercules - wearing a lion's skin. Some researchers consider the custom of wearing the skin of a slain lion a sign of royal power. The word βασιλεύς itself, translated from ancient Greek, means "walking the path of the lion", that is, the king. This title was held by the Greek kings from the Homeric period, and later, starting from the 7th century AD - by the Byzantine emperors.
