Talk:Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union

Sources and figures

There are only two sources that place numbers on deaths and neither are rigorous or reliable. One is a non-peer reviewed word document that you need to use the Wayback Machine to even access, and that source itself cites other sources without ever naming them. The other source cites a non-peer reviewed article by an anthology published by a Christian bookstore. Neither of these are credible historiographic sources and none can point to anything like archival documentation. As the discussion above alludes to, there isn't even a consideration of who is or isn't a Christian in these broad estimates of Soviet death. Until a credible source can be found, I believe these numbers should be removed. - Bjmunise (talk) 01:37, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Agreed. I've removed the challenged claim. I'm also adding boxes for neutrality and poor/biased citations. This article has quite a lot of problems, and I'm not sure where to begin other than alerting editors to it. It may require a rewrite. - LesbianTiamat (talk) 18:31, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

I am restoring the sources in a separate section since they are reliable sources. User:Bjmunise is incorrect. James M. Nelson source is Springer (academic publisher), Todd M. Johnson source is from an academic institution (University of Notre Dame) and is an editor of the World Christain Encyclopedia (Oxford university Press), and Yakovlev is from Yale University Press. These are are not random sources. Should be careful of not removing properly cited material WP:REMOVECITE. Ramos1990 (talk) 03:17, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

"since they are reliable sources"

Neither are accredited historians and both have obvious biases. Calling these reliable sources makes a mockery of academic study. 204.63.40.47 (talk) 14:48, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

I deleted the passage. Why? Johnson's claim is that over 20,000,000 Christians were killed. He provides no footnote for this to investigate further. But if we take the estimate from the Black Book of Communism, which is higher than almost any current scholar would agree, that only gives 20,000,000 as the total victims of the USSR, period, whether Christian or not. Johnson's number is not supportable when compared to other sources in any way, shape, or form.

As for Nelson, 12 million is still absurdly high to claim as victims of Soviet persecution of Christians. I followed the footnotes, and the claim that his source (`Bergman, S. "Twentieth-Century Martyrs: A Meditation," in Martyrs: Contemporary Writers on Modern Lives of Faith.) makes is that "The Orthodox communion of saints, determined by a less technical process than that carried out by the Roman Catholic church, includes hundreds of thousands of such martyrs and estimates as many as 12 million Christians to have perished under the most recent atheistic regime." This page is about persecution of Christians in the USSR, and the source only says that hundreds of thousands were martyred for their faith. The 12 million number would seem to simply be victims of the USSR, who coincidentally happened to be Christian but that isn't why they were killed. It isn't a number that is relevant for this page, as at best will cause confusion for the reader, and more generally should be seen as intentional and disingenuous conflation to advance an agenda contray to what the source actually states. 96.241.74.184 (talk) 15:30, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

These sources are from academic publishers and these are estimates by researchers. Personal opinions on academic sources is not enough to remove properly cited material. Ramos1990 (talk) 17:28, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

Fine... I have added additional sources to call into question the legitimacy of those claims, as well as linking to the Wikipedia page on Excess mortality in the Soviet Union. As you agree "academic sources is not enough to remove properly cited material", that should be perfectly agreeable and we can allow the competing, cited information speak for themselves. 96.241.74.184 (talk) 19:10, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

I am not sure why we are not using books written by specialists on the Soviet Union here. These figures do not match modern estimates. In particular, 20 million Christian martyrs in the Gulag alone is quite a wild estimate. Mellk (talk) 19:24, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

As long as the information is attributed per WP:ATT, various estimates are fine to include. Those that are currently in the article meet WP:RS. Anupam^Talk 20:59, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

"Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources, making sure that all majority and significant minority views that have appeared in those sources are covered"

If that is the standard, then those sources should be removed. I'm not going to waste my time any more debating this, but the sources do not reflect *significant* minority views in scholarship of Soviet history. The absolute headache it will require of me to prove that to you though is why Wikipedia will never be a reliable source, because "Personal opinions on academic sources" *IS* enough to prevent factual information from being included if those opinions come from an editor with the willpower to prevent it. This page is a joke, and will continue to be so. 96.241.74.184 (talk) 02:38, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

As long as the information is attributed per WP:ATT, various estimates are fine to include. Currently the information is attributed to "some sources", which is terrible attribution. If the article is going to include this claim we should attribute it properly.
But in fact WP:ATT says claims not supported or claims that are contradicted by the prevailing view in the relevant academic community ... should be supported by the best sources, a high bar which I am not convinced the disputed claim meets. None of the sources are written by people with academic credentials in history, or published in academic history publications. Given the 12-20 million range is apparently the historical consensus for total excess mortality in the Soviet Union (and the sources cited for that claim look much stronger than those for the Christian victims claim!), it is hard to see how that is compatible with 12-20 million being the number who were persecuted for their Christianity. Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 16:32, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

The 12 million figure specifically comes from Susan Bergman (BA in Art; PhD in 20th century poetry), who (per the IP above) says that it's an estimate by the Orthodox church. How is this a reliable source? Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 16:37, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Given that it can be shown with reliable sources that the given claims are completely unreasonable, it's probably fair to remove them. Mrfoogles (talk) 00:23, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Relevant discussion at

→ Talk:Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc#reddit suggest numbers are somewhat on the high side

Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 16:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Solzhenitsyn's estimates and Russia's census % of Christians

Nobel Laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, after decades of research, estimated 60 MN died under Communism as he mentioned in May 1983 in his Templeton Address [1]. Given the percentage of Christians in Russia was around 80% in 1920 per the Russian Census, it seems the 12 MN to 20 MN figure may even be an underestimate. Because 80% of 60 MN is 48 MN. If even half were slain out of hatred for them because they were Christians (which traditional Christian theology, both Catholic and Orthodox, requires for proof of martyrdom), the 12 to 20 MN estimate discussed in the sources earlier seems reasonable. Solzhenitsyn also after detailed research into the subject is clear many were hated and persecuted because they were Christians. Thoughts on this? Thanks. NishantXavier (talk) 03:12, 23 December 2024 (UTC)