Evaņģēliski luteriskās baznīcas sovetizācija – Latvijas un Igaunijas piemērs (1946–1949)

Latvia and Estonia occupied by USSR in 1944–1945 experienced drastic changes regarding religious politics. The aim of this article is to look at these changes – both internal and external – and compare them through transnational approach. Lutheran evangelical churches of LSSR and ESSR went through similar process of adaption to Soviet politics, Latvian church being somewhat of a pilot project of Cult and Religion Council’s strategies in Latvia and Estonia. The paper introduces the relations of LELC and EELC with the Soviet power in different aspects within the period from 1946 to 1949, describing the roles of the CARC commissioners and the archbishops of LELC and EELC in the Sovietization processes, comparing changes of churches in the conditions of soviet socialism. The activities of churches and archbishops under the supervision of CARC were limited, raising fears and distrust in the clergy and members of the congregations, thereby discrediting the role of Lutheranism in the newly made Soviet community. The new, CARC approved Constitutions of LELC in 1948 and EELK in 1949, could be considered a breaking point in Sovietisation of Lutheran church with archbishops Gustavs Tūrs and Jaan Kiivit leading the newly made Soviet Lutheran churches under the antireligious conditions.