Monuments of History and Culture in the System of State-Confessional Interaction in the Post-Soviet Period (on the Example of Karachay-Cherkessia)

This article is devoted to an important, very complex and controversial issue in the sphere of stateconfessional relations the return to religious organizations of once nationalized religious buildings and other religious property. In the Russian Federation, unlike some other post-Soviet countries, they categorically refused to restitution of nationalized property, however, they made some concessions regarding religious organizations, recognizing the possibility of returning buildings and religious utensils. Several government decrees were issued that regulated this process, and a Commission on Religious Associations under the Government of the Russian Federation was created specifically to coordinate these issues. In 2010, Federal Law No. 327-FZ “On the transfer of religious property owned by state or municipal property” to religious organizations was issued, in accordance with which, in the case of official treatment by a religious organization, any religious property is subject to transfer, regardless of the form of ownership. However, to put into practice the right granted by the state turned out to be quite difficult. A large number of problems arose, which were difficult to solve. As a rule, religious buildings often housed museums or other institutions that needed to be translated somewhere. The question arose about the safety of the property being transferred, which could inevitably suffer from regular use. Under the conditions of Karachay-Cherkessia, the church’s attempts to return the temple complexes of the 10th century met with stiff resistance not only from the museum management, but also from the public, who considered the monuments, primarily, as the cultural value of their people. This article shows how this problem was solved in the KCR in the post-Soviet period. The article is based on documents from the archive of the Authorized Head of the KCR on relations with religious organizations, copies of which were kindly transferred to the author.

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