Stalin and Religion

Stalin vs. God

“At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiastical school, Comrade Stalin developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments,” wrote E.Yaroslavsky in Landmarks in the Life of Stalin. “He began to read Darwin and became an atheist. G. Glurdjidze, a boyhood friend of Stalin's, relates: "I began to speak of God, Joseph heard me out, and after a moment's silence, said: "'You know, they are fooling us, there is no God. . . .’”
Joseph Stalin came to power and kept his power by eliminating all who opposed him. At the height of his regime, any organization that might have offered a resistance was either controlled closely by the state, or was eliminated. Between 1930 and 1939, one of the only oppositions to Stalin’s authority was the Russian Orthodox Church, and it was one of the last organizations not under state control.
The Soviet...