ABSTRACT
Making the development of religious life possible in a society depends on the constitution and legislation. Therefore, religion must arouse particular interest if both are rewritten—as they were in the Soviet Union in 1975 and in 1977 respectively. Article 52 of the new constitution, promulgated on 7 October 1977, though, merely paraphrases previous formulations in the Decree on the Separation of State and Church (1918) and in Article 142 of the 1936 constitution. Only the prohibition to incite religious hatred is new. According to official interpretations, this clause is directed against believers and others who allegedly reject socialist society and, under the cover of religion, slander the social order in the USSR and consciously disregard Soviet laws. 1
