2. Religious organizations of believers of all cults are registered into religious societies or groups of believers.  Each citizen can be a member of only one religious organization (society or group).   A religious society is a local organization of believing citizens, not under eighteen years of age, of one and the same cult, creed, opinion or sect, of at least twenty persons, who unite for the common satisfaction of their religious needs. Believing citizens who, due to their small number cannot form a religious society, have the right to form a group of believers.  A religious society or group of believers has no right of existence as a juridical person.

4. A religious society or group of believers can commence its activities only after registration of the society or group with the appropriate administrative department of a local executive committee or municipal soviet, or the rural [volost’] executive committee or the municipal soviet of a city that is not the administrative center of a district [raion] or of a division [uezd].

5. For the registration of a religious society, its initiators, at least twenty in number, apply to the organs indicated in the previous (4th) paragraph, according to a registration established by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR.

8. The composition [list of members] of the religious society or group of believers,  as well as that of its executive and controlling organs and servants of the cult, is presented to the organ with which it is registered according to the time and form prescribed by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the R.S.F.S.R.

9.  Only those believers may be entered in the lists of members of religious societies or groups who have given their consent to it.

10. To satisfy the religious needs of believers who have composed a religious society, a special building, exclusively designed for purposes of the cult, may be received gratis for purposes of worship from local executive committees or municipal soviets.  In addition, believers who have formed a religious society, or a group of believers, may also use other premises for the purposes of worship, rented to them by private individuals or by local soviets or executive committees. The same rules apply to these premises as for special buildings of cult; leases for the use of such premises are signed by separate believers under their personal responsibility.  In addition, these premises must be satisfactory in the technical and sanitary sense.  Each religious society or group of believers cannot use more than one set of premises for worship.

17. Religious organizations are prohibited:  (a) from forming mutual aid associations, cooperatives, productive associations, and, in general, from making use of the property in their care for any purpose other than the satisfaction of their religious needs;  (b) from rendering material aid to their members; (c) from organizing special children’s, youth, women’s, or other assemblies; or biblical, literary, artisanal, or labor assemblies, groups, circles, sections, or those devoted to the teaching of religion or the similar; as well as from organizing excursions and children’s playgrounds, opening libraries and reading-rooms, organizing sanatoria and medical aid.   In buildings and premises for worship may be kept only books needed for the celebration of the cult.

18. It is prohibited to teach any religious creed in State, social and private schools and educational institutions. Such teaching may be permitted exclusively in special theological courses, opened by citizens of the USSR, with the special permission of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of RSFSR, and on territories of autonomous republics with the permission of the Central Executive Committees of the corresponding autonomous republics.

19. The region of activity of servants of the cult, of preachers and teachers, is limited to the residential area of the society served by him and the location of the place of worship. The activities of servants of the cults, of preachers and teachers of religion, who permanently serve two or more religious units is limited to the territory on which the believers are living who enter into these units.

20. Religious societies and groups of believers may organize local, All-Russian, and All-Union religious conferences and conventions on the basis of special permission in each case, obtained: (a) from the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of R.S.F.S.R., when the conference takes place on the territory of the RSFSR, or if it embraces the territory or two or more regions; and (b) from the corresponding regional administrative departments, if the conference is local.

22.  Religious conferences and executive organs elected by them do not have the rights of a juridical person ….

33.  Buildings of the religious cult are subject to compulsory unassessed insurance at the expense of the signatories to the contract, on behalf of 

45. The building of new places of worship may be permitted at the request of religious societies on a general basis and according to technical provisions, as well as in accordance with special regulations established by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs.

54. Members of groups of believers and religious societies have the right to make and collect voluntary contributions in their place of worship as well as outside it, but only among members of a given religious unit and only for the purpose of maintaining the buildings of worship, objects of the cult, engagement of servants of the cult, and the maintenance of their executive organizations.   All compulsory collections for the benefit of religious units are prosecuted according to the criminal code of the RSFSR.

Source: “Postanovlenie VTsIK i SNK RSFSR o religioznykh ob”edineniiakh,” Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krest’ianskogo pravitel’stva RSFSR (1929), no. 35.