Religion and the Law: Eastern and Central Europe [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 75-86]

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BOHDAN R. BOCIURKIW
and their subordinates and followers to keep the religious fervor of the
flock within the bounds acceptable to the state. Through these politicallyreliable ecclesiastical leaders, religious organizations could also be mobilized
from time to time to endorse the domestic or foreign policies of the government and even to rationalize away the official restrictions on religion.
Like the earlier international covenants and conventions on human
rights, the Helsinki Accords have had little direct effect on the Soviet and
satellite policies on religion.6 The principal impact of the Final Act and
of the Western efforts to monitor the implementation of its human rights
provisions in Communist countries has been to provide a supranational
frame of reference, moral encouragement, and international resonance to
those individuals and groups who have since spoken out to publicize their
own government's violations of religious rights.
The breakdown of detente has sharply reduced Western capabilities
to influence Soviet and satellite policies on religion, and has exposed the
domestic critics of these policies to severe reprisals that, until the advent
of Gorbachev, offered little ground for optimism as to the immediate future
of religious rights within the Soviet bloc.
NOTES
1. See following table for statistical data on religious composition of the population
of East Europe according to the last official census returns.
Religious Makeup of East European Countries
(Percent compiled on the basis of the last census in each country which
included questions concerning religious affiliation)
Roman &
Eastern Ortho- ProtesYear Catholics dox tant Moslem Judaic Other
Poland 1945 95.0 1.4 1.6 -- (1) (1)
Czechoslovakia 1950 76.3 2.6 16.0 -- 0.2 4.3
Hungary 1949 69.7.4 27.0 -- 1.8 1.1
Romania 1948 6.8 80.0 6.1 1.0 (2) (2)
Bulgaria 1946.8 84.9 -- 13.3 -- 1.6
Yugoslavia 1953 31.8 41.5 1.0 12.3 -- 13.6
Albania 1945 11.8 19.1 -- 61.4 -- 7.7
GDR 1946 11.9 -- 87.5 -- -- 0.6
(1) Combined total 2 percent
(2) Combined total 5.1 percent
2. For the most extensive, if not complete, collection of Soviet laws, decrees,
resolutions, and instructions on religion, see V. A. Kuroedov and A. S. Pankratov (eds.),