Atheism in the Russian Enlightenment

In Enlightenment Russia, the influence of Christian apologetic tracts outweighed that of atheist writings. That is the contention of this article, which shows that atheist tracts found only the smallest readership in Russia, as exemplified by the limited circulation of d'Holbach's writings. The same was true of radical deist tracts: though Voltaire's moderate works were widely read and printed in Russian translation, they were uniformly altered to appear more Christian; demand for his most daring works was extremely modest. Still, Russian writers frequently found it necessary to attack atheism, godlessness, and unbelief, drawing heavily on Catholic and Protestant apologetic tracts. Imported in large numbers, they taught Russian readers to beware of the dangers lurking in the philosophes' writings.