Die Forschungswerkstatt gibt Einblick in Institutsaktivitäten, die noch nicht abgeschlossen sind, oder die, wie im Falle von Tagungen, temporären Charakter haben. Analog zum Ausdruck „work in progress“ könnte man hier auch von „projects in progress“ sprechen.

Atheistische Propagandaplakate

Das Staatliche Museum für Religionsgeschichte in St. Petersburg wurde 1932 als Museum für Atheismus gegründet und verfügt über eine umfangreiche Sammlung von Exponaten zu den antireligiösen Kampagnen und Organisationen in der Sowjetunion. Die folgenden Plakate sind Teil dieses Bestands und wurden aus einem Korpus von vierzig Plakaten ausgewählt, die im Sommer 2020 im Neuen Augusteum der Universität ausgestellt worden wären. Diese Ausstellung war jedoch eine von vielen, die aufgrund der Covid-19-Pandemie nicht stattfinden konnten.

Die Idee, sie virtuell zu präsentieren und mit Plakatbeschreibungen zu ergänzen, entstand in einem Seminar über atheistische Plakatkunst unter der Leitung von Horst Junginger und Katharina Neef. Die Texte stammen von den Studierenden dieses Seminars. Darüber hinaus waren sie Teil eines internationalen Workshops zum Thema „Ästhetik des Atheismus“, der am 4. und 5. März 2021 online stattfand.

N. Terpsikhorov: Religion is Poison - Protect the Children

The poster portrays the diametry of religion and socialism. In the left foreground we see an old woman with the features of a witch roughly pulling a young girl by her blonde braid from a school building in the right background while pointing her fingers towards a church in the left background. The school is depicted as a stable modern building. The church on the other hand as a decaying old one. On the roof of the school stands a young healthy-looking man in uniform, holding up a trombone. Above him is the silhouette of an airplane. An old bearded man in church robes looks out of a stone window of the church while birds circle above the leaning church towers.
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Anon.: Against religious holidays, for a good work ethic

The poster displays a tall socialist worker who has little people by his legs. These “dwarfed” people represent the old order of the Sowjet Union. Some of them are trying to hold the worker back. He’s walking towards a factory in the background of the picture, so the face isn’t displayed. In the background, more workers are walking towards the factory, but none of them is hindered by the “dwarfed” people.
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Anon.: Down with the clergy and miracle healers!

The poster consists of three different sets of pictures, each being accompanied by a short text located underneath the pictures. The first set of pictures shows religious agents (an Orthodox priest and miracle healers) performing rituals or blessings directed at livestock animals which look sick and underfed. The second set of pictures first shows dead animals and animal skeletons lying on a field, being preyed upon by a dog and several crows, while the other picture in that set depicts two people burying a dead animal in a fenced-in area. The last picture finally shows farmers presenting their animals - which now seem healthy in contrast to the other pictures (their bones are no longer visible through their skin) - to vets for inspection.
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Viktor Deni: How the Priests Exploit the People

In this poster, one of the reasons for an anti-clericalist stance is depicted. A clergyman sits well-fed on a large armchair with a red fringed carpet underneath, joyfully awaiting offerings from the people. Two peasants bow before him. The woman (headscarf, cardigan and skirt) holds a chicken in her hand and a basket with eggs stands in front of her. The man (white beard, yellow and red dotted long shirt) assumes a humble posture. The bloated clergyman grins nastily, closes his eyes and holds his hands together in front of his stomach over a large golden cross.
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M. Rabinovich: Fight against Religion is Fight for Socialism

Two red-colored socialist workers, one of them holding a red flag, on which is written 'cultural revolution!!!' are driving a red-colored tractor on a diagonale from bottom-left to top-right against a group of protesting religious men from different traditions: an orthodox priest, a rabbi, a mullah, a sectarian Protestant; and a kulak. Behind the group of people, on the right corner, is a red-colored industrial city. On the bottom of the diagonale is a Russian inscription, read: 'Fight against religion is fight for socialism!!!'. Above the bold text you can see the emblem of the League of Militant Atheists: a gearwheel with a red star, a red flag, the initials СВБ, bearing the same inscription as the poster: 'Fight against religion is fight for socialism'.
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Vladislav Künnap: Tourist Garb ... and its Uncovering

This poster is split in two parts consisting of two pictures and text. The first illustration depicts a man who looks like a typical tourist in a big fluffy fur coat with two cameras in a snowy landscape. The other illustration shows the same man who is pinned on a border cabinet of the CCCP and a border guard of the Soviet Union who operates the cabinet. Out of the fur coat of the tourist are falling a lot of religious books. The sentences written on the poster says “the soviet borders are closed for this special kind of guests”.
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Religion - an Obstacle to the Five-Year-Plan

Plakat: Religion - an Obstacle to the Five-Year-Plan
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