For Church and State: Catholic Petitioning and Soviet Legitimacy in Lithuania, 1964–1979

Abstract When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1944, Soviet leaders expected the new republic to assimilate into established policies of state atheism. Instead, Catholicism remained the predominant religion among Lithuanians and retained its central role in Lithuanian national identity. My research investigates the tensions between Lithuania’s Catholic community and Soviet atheist ideology through the intersection of religious expression and institutional action. This paper utilizes bureaucratic documents and diverse correspondence to address two central questions: to what extent would Soviet administrators compromise ideology for stability, and what influence did Lithuania’s Catholic community have on an atheist state? Believers’ open engagement with Soviet administrators, as well as their belief that administrators might act on their behalf, signifies the priority of stable governance over ideological goals concerning Catholicism in Lithuania. This paper highlights the disparity between the rhetoric of Soviet administrators and the practical decisions implemented in the Soviet Union’s geographical peripheries.