The Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults (russian: Совет по делам религиозных культов) was a government council in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

that dealt with religious activity in the country. It was established in May 1944. The council, established at the

Council of People's Commissars The Councils of People's Commissars (SNK; russian: Совет народных комиссаров (СНК), ''Sovet narodnykh kommissarov''), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (Совнарком), were the highest executive authorities of ...

(later Council of Ministers), was set up to oversee all religious confessions aside from the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

, which had its own council, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was also charged with the responsibility of managing relations with non-Christian religions and the Soviet state. For example, the Soviet Union had discontinued formal diplomatic relations with the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

following the installation of the Soviet Government. The council would have been responsible for responding to the actions of the Holy See, even when the USSR did not officially recognize the Holy See's statehood, and was instrumental in the Soviet campaign against various religious groups, including

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The membership consisted of members from each Soviet territory and was headed by a chairman and was divided into divisions regarding particular denominations, for example

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

, Roman Catholicism, and Islam. The council was combined with the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church in May 1965 to form the

Council for Religious Affairs The Council for Religious Affairs (russian: Совет по делам религий) was a government council in the Soviet Union that dealt with religious activity in the country. It was founded in 1965 through the union of the Council for the ...

.Ro'i 2000, 12.

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* Konstantin Zaitsev (19 May-16 June 1944) * Ivan Vasilyevich Polyansky (1944-1956) * Aleksei Aleksandrovich Puzin (1957-1965)

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