The International of Proletarian Freethinkers (IPF) was an international atheist association of workers, founded on July 1, 1925, in the city of Teplice (Czechoslovakia). It included representatives of anti-religious organizations from the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, the USA, France, Poland, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Bulgaria, India, and others. IPF sections carried out mass anti-religious work among workers, peasants, women, and youth, linking the struggle against religious beliefs with the tasks of the socialist movement. The IPF published the journals "Der Atheist" (1927–33) and "International of Proletarian Freethinkers" (1931–36). In 1936, the IPF merged with the Brussels International of Freethinkers, composed mainly of petty-bourgeois strata, into a single Union of Freethinkers on the platform of a united anti-fascist popular front.
An anti-religious organization in the USSR—the League of Militant Godless of the USSR—was a mass voluntary organization of working people in the USSR that existed from 1925 to 1947. The formation of the League of Militant Godless was an expression of the anti-religious movement that unfolded in the country after the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 and during socialist construction, under the influence of the Communist Party’s ideological-educational and cultural-enlightenment work.
A major role in the emergence of the League of Militant Godless was played by the newspaper "Bezbozhnik" (1922–1941), around which a broad network of correspondents and readers’ circles took shape. On this basis, in August 1924 in Moscow, the Society of Friends of the newspaper "Bezbozhnik" (SFB) was formed.
In April 1925, the 1st Congress of the SFB took place, at which a unified all-Union anti-religious society was created, adopting the name "League of the Godless"; from the 2nd Congress (1929) it became the League of Militant Godless. The Central Council of the LMG was continuously headed by E. M. Yaroslavsky.
Lenin on religion.
Religion is the opium of the people. Religion is a kind of spiritual rotgut in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demands for a life in any way worthy of a human being.
One must know how to fight religion. This struggle must be linked with the concrete practice of the class movement aimed at eliminating the social roots of religion.
RESOLUTION OF THE 13TH CONGRESS OF THE RCP(b).
It is necessary decisively to eliminate any attempts to combat religious prejudices by administrative measures, such as closing churches, mosques, synagogues, prayer houses, Catholic churches, etc. Anti-religious propaganda in the countryside must take the form exclusively of a materialist explanation of the phenomena of nature and social life encountered by the peasant. Explaining the origin of hail, rain, drought, thunderstorms, the appearance of pests, soil properties, the effect of fertilizer, etc., is the best kind of anti-religious propaganda. Schools and the village reading hut should be made the center of such propaganda, under the guidance of party organizations.
It is especially necessary to ensure that the religious feelings of the believer are not offended, for victory over them can be achieved only by very long work of enlightenment, calculated for years and decades. Such caution is particularly necessary in the eastern republics and regions.
ARTICLE 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RSFSR.
In order to ensure genuine freedom of conscience for working people, the church is separated from the state and the school from the church, and freedom of religious worship and anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.
FROM THE RESOLUTION OF THE ALL-UNION CONGRESS OF MILITANT GODLESS.
In the period of socialist construction, inseparably connected with the ever-expanding offensive against capitalist elements in town and countryside, in the period of intense struggle for the cultural revolution, for the full triumph of a single revolutionary proletarian worldview, the counterrevolutionary political role of all religions and all kinds of religious organizations manifests itself with particular sharpness. All religions, whatever "renewal" and cleanup they may undergo, represent systems of ideas, moods, and actions deeply hostile to the ideology of the socialism being built and therefore are used in every possible way by the class enemies of the working people in the struggle against socialist construction and against Soviet power. Religious organizations, materially supported not only by capitalist elements within the USSR but also by foreign capital, are in essence a political agency and political apparatus of class groupings hostile to the proletariat within our country and of the international bourgeoisie.
In its agitation and propaganda work, the League of Militant Godless must, first and foremost, expose the political class role of religion, reveal the counterrevolutionary activity of all kinds of religious organizations attempting, in the interests of elements hostile to the dictatorship of the proletariat, to impede socialist construction in every possible way.
The League of Militant Godless, being not only a propaganda organization but also an advance detachment on the front of socialist construction and the new way of life, must take the most active part in local economic life and in campaigns carried out by the party and Soviet power, organically linking all its work with the practical implementation of the Five-Year Plan.
The Five-Year Plan must be a subject of study for every godless activist and be one of the foundations of anti-religious propaganda, one of the most important elements of its content, helping to reveal, in theory and in practice, the profound, fundamental difference between the old exploiting world—the world of religious prejudices, darkness, and ignorance—and the new world, the world of socialism, genuine freedom, and science.
FROM THE CHARTER OF THE LEAGUE OF MILITANT GODLESS.
I. The aims and tasks of the League.
1. The League of Militant Godless is a voluntary proletarian public organization whose task is to unite the broad masses of working people of the USSR for an active, systematic, and consistent struggle against religion in all its types and forms, as a тормоз of socialist construction and the cultural revolution.
II. On members of the League.
2. Any working person living within the USSR, as well as working citizens of the USSR living abroad, who have reached the age of 14, have broken with religion, and pay membership and international dues, may be a member of the League of Militant Godless.
NOTE: Persons who have not reached the specified age and are not dependents of those deprived of voting rights, but are not younger than 8 years old, may join the League without the right of a decisive vote and may form groups of young godless members.
12. Every member of the LMG is obliged to work actively in one of the League’s organizations, care about their political literacy, and be an active assistant to the Communist Party and Soviet power in the measures they carry out.
15. Members are expelled: first, in cases of violation of the charter; second, for committing offenses that undermine the authority of the LMG.
16. Every member of the LMG receives a unified membership card. Members of groups of young godless members receive a special membership card of a single standard.