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Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union (view source)
Revision as of 07:31, November 3, 2014
, 07:31, November 3, 2014→See also
In the three Eastern European countries that were included in the WVS survey on belief in God, a drastic rise could be witnessed of respondents who answered this question in the affirmative. In Hungary, the percentage of believers in God jumped from 44% to 58% from 1981 to 1990, even prior to the collapse of the former [[Soviet Union]]. In Belarus, the number of people who believe in God nearly doubled over the course of the 1990s, from 36% to 68%, while in Latvia this figure almost quadrupled, from 18% to 67% in the same time period. Similar trends held true when it came to the importance of God, where there was a sharp rise in all three countries.<ref>[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228395238_A_Global_Resurgence_of_Religion ''A Global Resurgence of Religion''?] by Assaf Moghadam, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University</ref>}}
In the three Eastern European countries that were included in the WVS survey on belief in God, a drastic rise could be witnessed of respondents who answered this question in the affirmative. In Hungary, the percentage of believers in God jumped from 44% to 58% from 1981 to 1990, even prior to the collapse of the former [[Soviet Union]]. In Belarus, the number of people who believe in God nearly doubled over the course of the 1990s, from 36% to 68%, while in Latvia this figure almost quadrupled, from 18% to 67% in the same time period. Similar trends held true when it came to the importance of God, where there was a sharp rise in all three countries.<ref>[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228395238_A_Global_Resurgence_of_Religion ''A Global Resurgence of Religion''?] by Assaf Moghadam, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University</ref>}}
== Soviet atheism ==
See also: [[Soviet atheism]] and [[Militant atheism]] and [[Atheism and communism]] and [[Soviet Union and morality]]
[[Vladimir Lenin]] wrote regarding atheism and communism: "A Marxist must be a [[materialism|materialist]], i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the [[class struggle]] which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm</ref>
The [[persecution of Christians in the USSR|persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union]] was the result of the violently atheist [[Soviet]] government. In the first five years after the [[October Revolution]], 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were murdered, many on the orders of [[Leon Trotsky]]. When [[Joseph Stalin]] came to power in 1927, he ordered his secret police, under [[Genrikh Yagoda]] to intensify persecution of Christians. In the next few years, 50,000 clergy were murdered, many were [[torture]]d, including [[crucifixion]]. "Russia turned red with the blood of martyrs", said Father Gleb Yakunin of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]].<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html</ref> According to Orthodox Church sources, as many as fifty million Orthodox believers may have died in the twentieth century, mainly from persecution by [[Communists]].<ref>[http://www.serfes.org/printerVersion2.asp?URL=/orthodox/memoryof.htm In Memory Of The 50 Million Victims Of The Orthodox Christian Holocaust by Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes]</ref>
In addition, in the atheistic and communist Soviet Union, 44 anti religious museums were opened and the largest was the 'The Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism' in [[Leningrad]]’s Kazan cathedral.<ref>http://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-anti-christmas.html</ref> Despite intense effort by the atheistic leaders of the Soviet Union, their efforts were not effective in converting the masses to atheism.<ref>http://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-anti-christmas.html</ref><ref>http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/jssr/2004/00000043/00000001/art00003?crawler=true</ref>
== See also ==
== See also ==
*[[Atheism and Karl Marx]]
*[[Atheism and Karl Marx]]
*[[Desecularization]]
*[[Desecularization]]