The Religious Community and the Communist Regime in the Case of Montenegro, 1945-1955

Abstract

The paper analyses the relations of the Communist authorities with religious communities in Montenegro in the period 1945 - 1955. The paper separately problematises specific features of each confessional community in Montenegro (orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic), and establishes a typology of the expansion of regime control. The Communist Party did not use violent methods in the process of marginalising the religious community, but new authorities in Montenegro managed to marginalise its influence. By taking over the executive authority in the state, the Party began the process of marginalising the religious communities. The process of excluding religious communities from social life started. Their activity was limited to constitutional and legal provisions and later on prohibition of all forms of religious behaviour in public life. Results of the process of secularisation were much better than in other Yugoslav republics. Montenegro had 31.5% of the population atheists, and this was significantly more than the Yugoslavian average, which amounted for 12.5% of the population.