Stalin nor Lenin ever said they were Atheists. This is an indisputable fact.
So how then is the rejection of a specific ideology a cause for genocidal behavior? After all, atheism is simply a lack of the theistic ideology. It is, of course, not a factor at all. Or as Richard Dawkins likes to point out, Stalin and Hitler both have mustaches. Should we condemn all men with mustaches as mass murderers?
“Being killed by an atheist is no more being killed in the name of atheism than being killed by a tall person is being killed in the name of tallness.” ~Austin Cline
“In debunking atheism and using the tu quoque or "you too!” argument to point fingers in the opposite direction whenever religious atrocities are raised, defenders of theism often bring up the notion that some of the most destructive and genocidal ideologies in history, Communism, Nazism and “Pol Potery,” were “atheistic,” because their leaders were “atheists.” ~Acharya S
‘Hitler, Stalin, Mao = Atheist mass murderers? This logical fallacy is called “Post hoc ergo propter hoc”, and that Latin phrase means “after this, therefore because of this,“. What does this really mean? Well its a way of pointing out that sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that something is responsible for causing something else, when in reality there is no connection at all. For example, if I step out into my yard and cut the grass and it then starts to rain, “Ah ha, evidence … quite clearly cutting grass causes rain”.’ ~Dave Gamble
~Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924)
Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years (1917–1924), as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a socialist economic system.
Lenin was baptized on 28 April 1870 at the local church of St. Nicholas into the Russian Orthodox Church.
Later in life, Lenin opposed religion and church leadership. He supported the spread of Atheism because he felt that it would help his Social-Democracy, Marxism and materialism. See his writing on this subject.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm
Although Lenin “MAY” have become Atheist later in life, he never officially proclaimed it so.
~Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953)
Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953.
While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party. This included Leon Trotsky, the Red Army organizer, proponent of world revolution, and principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929.
Instead, Stalin’s idea of socialism in one country became the primary line of the Soviet politics.
Stalin was Christian - He was Georgian Orthodox.
Stalin was named after St. Joseph and grew up in a religious family where it was planned that he would become a priest.
~Stalin received an 11 year christian, religious education to become a priest:
1. The Gori Greek Orthodox priesthood school (1888-09-01 - 1894) where he was an Altar Boy.
2. Georgian Orthodox Tiflis Spiritual Priest Seminary in Tbilisi (1894-09-01 - 1899-07-29).
Stalin’s Mother was Ketevan Geladze (“Ekaterina” in Russian, and familiarly known as “Keke”)
Ketevan was Georgian Orthodox Christian.
The identity of Josef Stalin’s father has been a mystery for over 130 years.
It is said that his father was Besarion Vanovis Jughashvili.
Stalin’s ancestry leaves some doubts about his real father. Several versions exist:
http://www.hubertlerch.com/modules/Stalin_Childhood_and_Youth.html
Stalin claimed to be the son of a priest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/books/chapters/0418-1st-monte.html
Stalin himself supposedly claimed that his father had been a priest, and he was purportedly “damaged by violence” while being “raised in a poor priest-ridden household.”
http://freethoughtnation.com/were-stalin-hitler-and-pol-pot-atheists/
Was Stalin’s Father a Rothschild Banker?
http://www.henrymakow.com/stalin_was_not_a_rothschild.html
Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (later known as Lana Peters), was the youngest child and only daughter of Stalin.
Alliluyeva was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church on 20 March 1963.
Later, she turned to the Greek Orthodox church and is also reported to have thought of becoming a nun.
In Cambridge, England, in December 1982, on the feast of Santa Lucia, Advent, Alliluyeva converted to the Roman Catholic Church.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/02/17/stalin-the-catholic/
Was Stalin really a Catholic and did he train to be a Jesuit priest?
“Practically every right-wing dictator of the period had been born and brought up a Catholic – notably Hitler, Franco, Petain, Mussolini, Pavelic, and Tiso (who was a Catholic priest).” – John Cornwell - Hitler’s Pope (1999; p. 280)
http://vaticannewworldorder.blogspot.com/2012/03/stalin-practically-every-right-wing.html
http://one-evil.org/content/people_20c_stalin.html
http://zaidpub.com/2011/11/03/stalin-castro-the-jesuit-connection/
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showpost.php?p=217864&postcount=3
http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/06/vatican-holocaust-pope-pius-xii-adolf.html
Stalin was taught some very communistic philosophy from the bible:
The following is a exert from http://www.infidels.eu/Violence
Bible: NT: Matthew:19:23-24 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Bible: NT: James:2:5-6 “Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court?”
Bible: NT: James:5:1 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.”
Bible explains that, if you want to be real believer, you must resign your possessions and give them to the poor.
Bible: NT: Luke:12:33 “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”
Bible: NT: Mark:10:21-22 And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
Sometimes people think that communism(collective, shared property, no private property) was atheistic idea and that “communist= atheist”. But communism was promoted in Bible as model of ideal society for believers. Christ followers in Bible lived as true communists by having common property as “ideal society” dreamed by USSR communists.
Bible: NT: Acts: 2:44-45 And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.
Bible: NT: Acts: 4:32 Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common.
Bible: NT: Acts:4:33-35 And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need.
Believers forget also, how property was and still is managed in Church and monasteries, where is no private property. Monks, nuns and many Christian priests live by sharing property, avoiding private possessions and being rich, as pure communists and they promote such way of life - pure communism in all its glory. Are they atheists? Church and monasteries adopted and realized “atheistic” ideas of common-shared property thousands of years before revolution in Russia (1917) even started.
Believers throw accusations easily. They name believers as “atheists” without any shame, if these persons did bad things or were communists - of course, doing bad is not “compatible” with Christianity :).
~Stalin had a religious wedding
With help of classmate Michael Tshakaya from Priest Seminary as godfather in wedding, Stalin and his first wife Ekaterina Svanidzemarried secretly in Tifli’s church of St. David in 1904.
(The documentary “Stalin. Part Two. Life in the revolution”, directed by Elena Tikhonova, 2003. )
Stalin told to his daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva-Stalin that Christ existed.
“Mysteries of the Century: Kremlin Kids” 2003-03-19, Channel One Russia
Journalist: It is interesting, that from all residents of Kremlin, maybe, just Stalin believed in God…
S.Alliluyeva: In father’s library, between other books, were few tomes of “Christ”. It was history of Christ, written by vox populist Morozov. I said to my father: “But Christ didn’t exist!” and he answered: “Oh no, Christ, certainly, existed.”
In a bigger Interview with Russian magazine “Version” and second Russian TV channel RTR (РТР) (1998) Svetlana spoke more about her father’s belief in God. She said, that Stalin told her the history of Christ. And she thinks that he was believer. Nadezhda shot herself in 1932. It is symbolic, that her name Надежда means “Hope”. Stalin’s daughter said that after mother’s death, Stalin lost everything human in him.
~Was Stalin an atheist?
Theists usually point to a spurious “quote” from a book written about Stalin that claims he said the following:
“You know, they are fooling us, there is no God…all this talk about God is sheer nonsense”
(Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, by E. Yaroslavsky, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 194)
I find that evidence very weak.
It is a suspicious, chopped up, and rearranged one sentence quote from a 191 page discontinued book from 1940 and an unknown E. Yaroslavsky?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=E.%20Yaroslavsky&ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank
The full 1940 quote from that book was:
At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiastical school, Comrade Stalin developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments. 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… .'
“I was astonished at these words, I had never heard anything like it before.
”'How can you say such things, Soso?’ I exclaimed.
“'I’ll lend you a book to read; it will show you that the world and all living things are quite different from what you imagine, AND ALL THIS TALK ABOUT GOD IS SHEER NONSENSE,’ Joseph said.
”'What book is that?’ I inquired.
“'Darwin. You must read it,’ Joseph impressed on me"
Note in the selection cited, that faith in Darwin and his "book” contrasts markedly with faith in a supreme being.
Seems more like creationist propaganda than facts.
It is a fact that the Stalin and the USSR rejected Darwinism and thought it was biased in favor of capitalism; they called it “the whore of capitalism”.
The facts debunk the E. Yaroslavsky book claims.
~Stalin rejected Darwin’s theory
Although many blame Stalin for doing what he did because of atheism, why not blame him for his lack of education or rejection of Darwin’s theory of evolution?. In fact, most 20th century proponents of communism rejected Darwinian evolution and believed it was biased in favor of The Bourgeois and Capitalism. For them Darwinism was eugenics, Nazism and capitalism. They went on to denounce genetics and Darwinism together as “the whore of capitalism” (продажная девка капитализма) and tried to supress further research into it. They have been convinced by Trofim Lysenko, that both Darwinian evolution, and the very idea of Mendelian genetics ran counter to party doctrine. In short Stalin oppossed Darwin’s theory in favor of Trofim Lysenko’s Lamarckianism. ~freethoughtpedia.com
Sorry, not convinced by that spurious quote.
A second piece of theist “evidence” to paint Stalin as Atheist:
Dimitry V. Pospielovsky claims that Stalin was an Atheist in his book: A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice, and the Believer, vol 2: Soviet Anti-Religious Campaigns and Persecutions, St Martin’s Press, New York (1988) p. 89.
An unsourced claim by Dimitry V. Pospielovsky, 30 years later is not reliable evidence. Where did he get the information that nobody else has? Is it opinion or a guess?
Is Dimitry V. Pospielovsky a christian?
Dimitry V. Psopielovsky publishes with St. Martin’s Press. That would be an indication of bias. St. Martin’s is actually a christian press.
~Here some other book quotes about Stalin:
Stalin “denied categorically to prescribe atheistic literature to his personal library, fastidiously calling it ”“antireligious waste-paper (junk)”“.
("Secret life of Stalin : By materials of his books and archive : According to Stalinism” by Ilizarov.B.S. 2004)
Stalin: “May god give you New Year every day.” (p. 434)
Stalin: Certainly, we are not very good Christians, but to deny a progressive role of Christianity at a certain stage it is impossible. This event had very large value, because it was a turn of Russian state to merge with the West, instead of orientation to the East. (p. 435)
Conversation comes to an end, when Stalin wishes success and speaks: “May god help you!” (p. 440)
Source: I.V.Stalin “Works”; Volume 18; Tver: Information-publishing center “Union”, 2006, p. 433–440
~Acharya S Quote:
“Josef Stalin’s "very religious” mother named him after St. Joseph, and wanted him to become a priest. Stalin himself supposedly claimed that his father had been a priest, and he was purportedly “damaged by violence” while being “raised in a poor priest-ridden household.” As a youth, Stalin spent five years in a Greek Orthodox seminary, after which he purportedly renounced his religion. In his later years, Stalin apparently embraced Christianity once more. As Stalin biographer Edvard Radinsky remarks, “During his mysterious retreat [of June 1941] the ex-seminarist had decided to involve the aid of the God he had rejected.” Radinsky likewise chronicles a number of religious comrades in Stalin’s immediate circle. It is evident that, whether for good or bad, religion played a significant role in Stalin’s life.“
Joseph Stalin was an incredibly complex person who made understanding him even more difficult by suppressing information about himself. The claim that Stalin was X, is extremely difficult to establish as there exist so few documents.
Stalin was sent by his mother to the christian seminary (Eastern Orthodox) in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, to study to become a priest.This was not out of the ordinary as nearly all primary schools were administered by the church. Then he attended seminary at Tbilisi. There are many stories about him leaving seminary, some with scandal, some with conspiracy. Regardless, he "left” seminary at the end of his final year. There are accounts that he was ordained as a priest, and others that he was not. These accounts are so specious because Stalin silenced many of his former classmates and teachers, in fact he did not like it known that he came from Georgia at all. Little is known about Stalin’s life until the age of 44 when he became the head of the Communist Party.
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm
~Theists - Apologetics
Apologists often point to people like Stalin, trying to make a point about atheism:
Stalin was an evil murderer. Stalin was an atheist. Thus, Stalin’s atheism has something to do with him being an evil murderer. Therefore, atheism causes evil.
The point of the argument is to try establish that it’s wrong to be an atheist, because if too many people are atheists, bad things will happen.
~Counter Apologetics
Besides the association fallacy employed between atheism and Stalin, to claim that he was an atheist is overly simplistic.
As the de facto ruler of the USSR, he initiated many purges. Many clergy were killed and this is often cited as Stalin’s anti-christian mark. However, like Henry VIII he did not simply remove clergy, he replaced them. He established a new national church of Russia, which of course answered to him. He considered the church very important to extending control from Moscow to the satellite nations. Stalin’s church was called the Russian Orthodox Church or The Moscow Patriarchate; and the suppressed church was called the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. They have a bitter history.
Stalin was many things, a former theologian, the head of the national church, and one of the most brutal dictators ever. His own views on religion are difficult to guess. Many scholars think of Stalin as a ruler who envisioned himself as a god.
Furthermore, there is the concurrent claim that the USSR was an atheist nation. While the Communist Party suppressed religious fervor, it did so only out of jealously of loyalties. The Communist Party demanded loyalty to itself above all others, even above God. Russia has always been an intensely religious nation. They consider the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church to be equal to the Vatican’s Pope; or even above the Pope.
To claim that Russia became atheistic overnight in 1917 only to emerge deeply religious in 1989 is incredibly ignorant.
Gorbachev explicitly affirmed his atheism, but he nonetheless campaigned for religious freedom and was very friendly toward believers.
http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Stalin_was_an_atheist
“Stalin was raised a Russian Orthodox Catholic, but stopped practicing. Despite frequent christian claims that he was an atheist (intended to show how bad atheists are for killing millions), he never said he was atheist during his life – they imply that because of their (mistaken) understanding of communism as an "atheist” doctrine.
As far as I know, nobody ever asked him about his religious beliefs, and he never said. Nobody around him probably had the courage to ask, people who pissed him off wound up in the gulag or dead.
In any case, his rule was about political power, and he didn’t do what he did *because* of either atheism or christianity.“ ~WellTraveledProg
~Russia’s christian history:
Christian faith came to Russia as its state religion when the first Russian state, Kiev Rus, was officially converted to Christianity in the year 988 by its top ruler, Grand Prince Vladimir - and it remained the country’s official religion until 1917!
In 988, the Christianization of Kievan Rus’: Vladimir destroyed the pagan idols of Kiev and urged the city’s inhabitants to baptize themselves in the Dnieper River. Vladimir, now the Rus ruler of Kiev-Novgorod, a kingdom that extends from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea (the largest European state), marries the sister-in-law of the Byzantine emperor Basil II, converts his people to Christianity (the Greek-Orthodox brand of Christianity) and builds the first church (Church Of the Holy Virgin), while the Patriarch of Byzantium appoints a primate of Russia who is a Greek.
Argument: Stalin had faith, but not religion
Some evidence suggests Stalin, although not following a particular religion, may have been spiritual (had personal faith, but did not practice a religion).
English historian Simon Sebag Montefiore studied Stalin’s hobbies and personal library, what Stalin liked to read, what kind of marks he left in his books. He found that Stalin liked to quote long quotes from the Bible. Stalin left such mark about God in the book by Anatole France "Last pages. Dialogues under a rose. About God”: “Don‘t know traces, don‘t see. There is no Him for them.” (“Следов не знают, не видят. Его для них нет.”). It seems that Stalin thought he knew God’s traces and saw God, not like others.
Stalin wrote poems in Georgian language. They are so good that were being published in local magazines. Few fragments sounds so (translation from Georgian to Russian language by L.Kotiukov (Л. Котюков), Newspaper “Duel” N10(101)1999-03-09. “Poet Josef Dzhugashvili” (Газета “Дуель”, “Поет Иосиф Джугашвили” N 10(101) 1999-03-09. Б.М. Гунько)):
(…) In his burden and song like the beam of the Sun, lived great truth – DIVINE dream.
(…) But people who forgot GOD, with darkness in their hearts, instead of wine served poison to him in the cup.
And told to him: “Damn you! Drink this cup to the bottom!… And your song is alien for us, and we don’t need your truth!”
The above poem is probably a reference to Socrates who history says was made to drink poison from a cup because he “introduced a foreign god into the city gods.” “More specifically, Socrates’ accusers cited two ‘impious’ acts: ‘failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges’ and ‘introducing new deities.’ as noted in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates - Socrates was not an atheist.
http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Was_Stalin_an_atheist%3F
Stalin invoked God in his personal speeches:
"Afraid of God, Ignulov, and don‘t mix Marxist explanation of interaction with clerical explanation.” - “Pravda” №102,10 1923-05-29, I.V.Stalin “
"It is not without reason told, that God takes brains from whom He dooms to die”. - Speech on 5-th All-Union conference of A-ULYCL 1927-03-29, I.V.Stalin
These Stalin’s quotes shows, that religious education escorted Stalin all his life and may have influenced his later decisions.
The following is from: http://www.infidels.eu/Violence
Letter to Aleksey Kosygin (1948-10-22)
C.(omrade) Kosygin! Gifts from lord-God are sent to you (I am an executor of His will). It would be necessary to send more, but there is shortage in reserve. Pay attention to fish, - it is called “whitefish”. Good, (people) speak, fish.
Dmitry Petrovich Savchenko (military journalist) - “Civil "marshal Zhukov” of The Great Victory", 2005-04-08 “The Independent Newspaper”
~Stalin’s main sidekicks were also believers.
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953)
Chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Stalin, also could be believer. His son Sergo Beria wrote about his father:
Sergo Beria. My father - Lavrentiy Beria
CHAPTER 1. THE BEGINNING OF THE WAY
I still will return to memoirs about our family for now and would like to tell about the father a little. He was born on March, 17th (30), 1899. Dreamed of architecture and was good artist itself. I remember one story already, connected with my childhood. I didn’t become the believing person, though with deep respect I concern religion. And then, the boy, I was the militant atheist and once have broken an icon. Ridiculously, certainly, to speak about any MY belief, most likely, it was result of the education received at school. In a word, grandmother Martha was very disappointed. She was the believer and till the end of life helped both to church and parishioners. Having come back from work, my father condemned my atheistic heat and… has drawn a new icon. I have remembered that conversation for a long time. “It is necessary to be respectful to another’s belief”.
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky (1895-1977)
Son of priest (as his mother was daughter of priest too) - Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II, as well as Minister of Defense of USSR from 1949 to 1953 (under Stalin) was believer too.
Russian News
Sergey Labanov
December 19, 2008
“Stalin paternally cared about Russia”
According to priest Vasily Shvets, Stalin prayed also. In Stalin’s environment at this time (since 1939) there was a former czarist general, the chief of the Staff B.M.Shaposhnikov. On this high post he was changed, by his own advice, to a believer too, the son of a priest, A.M.Vasilevsky. Marshal G.K.Zhukov believed in God also.
2002-04-26, Friday; Man and Society
Alexander GOROHOVSKY
“FACTS” (Moscow - Kiev)
“Stalin paternally cared about Russia”
Slava Andreevna Shaposhnikova (daughter-in-law of USSR marshal B.M.Shaposhnikov):
Vasilevsky too, I think, was the believer, but never showed it. Once he has helped our family, and I have decided to thank him - have told him, that I can secretly help to make a communion ceremony. He long thought, and has then told: “Now I can’t accept this gift”. And after death of Alexander Mihajlovich, his son Igor with the spouse Rose have addressed to me with the request to chant fo the burial service over the died father, as it is necessary for orthodox ceremony.
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (1902-1988)
Secretary of the Central Committee also was a believer. He went to church regulary and at the end of his life become priest in church near Moscow
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (1875–1946)
The nominal head of state of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946. From 1926 he was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where he was one of the inner circle of party leaders around Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Archpriest Leonid Konstantinov, prior of Nikolo-Iosafovsky cathedral
After the war, Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva and Georgi Malenkov were baptized, confessed and received Holy Communion All-Union’s elder Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.
Another source about Kalinin: Memoirs of A. P. Artsybushev in the book “Lift up your hearts”. Archpriest Vladimir Smirnov (spiritual children about the spiritual father). M. 2004, P. 67.
Stalin’s friends and comrades talk about Stalin:
From: One hundred and forty conversations with Molotov: from diary of F.Chuev 1991 ISBN 5-85255-042-6
Felix Ivanovich Chuev: The chief marshal of aviation A.E.Golovanov spoke to me, that after rout of Germans near Moscow Stalin told: “Allow us God to finish this war in 1946”. [p. 31]
Shota Ivanovich Kvantaliani: Why even Molotov? Even Stalin, even Voroshilov and Molotov - three sang! All of us were choristers in church. Both - Stalin, and Voroshilov, and I. In different places, of course. Stalin - in Tbilisi, Voroshilov - in Lugansk, I - in the Nolinsk. (…) So we three sang. “Let your pray will come to fruition… ” - and so on. Very good music, church singing [p. 123]
Felix Ivanovich Chuev: Our commanders told me, that Stalin before battle, addressing, usually spoke: “Well, give the God!”, or “Well, help the Lord! ”. And writer Vladimir Soloukhin, who served during war in the Kremlin, told: “Joseph Vissarionovich went out on a porch. At the left - patriarch Aleksy, on the right…” - “Probably, Molotov?” - I have asked. - “…Metropolitan Krutitsky and Kolomna,” - without blinking answered Vladimir Alekseevich. - “And why are you laughing? He (Stalin) respected priests. Seminar education affected...” [p. 269-270]
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov: It is necessary to say, Stalin also was not the militant atheist. Certainly, first of all, he was the revolutionist and continued Lenin’s line against popovschina*. [p. 269]
Stalin “hated” religion so much, that in 1951-06-27 he gave "Stalin’s Prize" to English clergyman Hewlett Johnson. Various prizes under Stalin and Soviet authority received and other priests.
Stalin’s “pure atheistic” funeral.
The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church - Metropolitan Nicholas (Николай), Archbishop Nikon (Никон) and archpriest Nikolai Kolchitsky (Николай Колчицкий) - part of the honor guard at the coffin of Joseph Stalin.
Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate (JMP), 1953, №3, p. 5; №4, p. 3-4 (Журнал Московской Патриархии (ЖМП), 1953, №3, стр. 5; №4, стр. 3-4)
~Funeral Speech by most holy patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Aleksii before requiem on I.V.Stalin, told in the patriarchal cathedral in day of Stalin’s funeral (1953-03-09).
“(…) We, who gathered for a pray about him, can not pass with silence his always benevolent, sympathizing attitude to our church needs. Any question, with which we addressed to him, has not been rejected by him; he satisfied all our requests. And a lot of good and useful, thanks to his high authority, has been done for our Church by our Government. ”
Memory of him for us is unforgettable, and our Russian Orthodox Church, mourning over his leaving from us, escorting him to last way, “in a way of all word”, with a hot pray.
In these sad for us days, from different directions of our Fatherland from bishops, clergy and believers, and from from Heads and representatives of Churches, as orthodox and heterodox, from abroad, I receive mass of telegrams which are informing about prays about him and condoling with us on the occasion of this sad loss for us. We prayed for him when the message about his heavy illness has come. And now, when there is no more him, we pray for the world of his immortal soul.
Yesterday our special delegation, composed from high ordained metropolitan Nikolay; the representative of the episcopate, clergy and believers of Siberia of the archbishop Palladium; the representative of the episcopate, clergy and believers of Ukraine of archbishop Nikona and archpriest Nikolay, has placed a wreath to his coffin and has bowed on behalf of Russian Orthodox Church to his dear body-remains.
The pray, fulfilled with Christian love, reaches the God. We believe, as our pray about deceased will be heard by the Lord. And to our loved and unforgettable Joseph Vissarionovich we devoutly, with deep, passionate love proclaim eternal memory.“
~Great Atheistic Stalin Paintings and drawings:
So, Stalin’s love to religion was not just right before his death, but started much earlier. Some people say, that Stalin revived religion just because Hitler in Germany planed to attack Russia (therefore it is strange, why Stalin didn’t believe, that Germany attacked USSR borders for some time after attack happened and argued that it is just propaganda by enemies). Or, maybe, he told stories of Christ to his daughter Svetlana because he afraid of Hitler too? But even if so… it seems, that Stalin understood power of religion and… if you want to send people to death ant kill others… the best help for that purpose can provide… religion. When people know, that Heaven is waiting for them after death, - they can die with smile on their face. For positive contribution to religion and recreation of church in Russia, some groups even started initiative to declare Stalin as saint.
Documentary film "How Stalin died”, 2008, Russia, director Sergey Kostin, presenter Armen Djigarkhanyan:
“Farewells with Stalin were organized in temples too. The first requiem for family was in church of Resurrection of Slovushchy on Filippovsky street. It was ordered by Vasily Stalin. The second was official in the Elohovsky Cathedral, served by patriarch Aleksy himself. Requiems for communistic leaders in Soviet Union churches were served never before.”
Russia was a christian run country until their civil war. The religious persecutions were a power struggle between government and religious rule. It was a war over power. The (christian) Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), controlled EVERYTHING and they fought to maintain that power.
Just because a few dictators figured out that religion was bunk, doesn’t make their factual findings negative. Each dictator wants total control, just like church leaders do. There can only be one ultimate total ruler. Of course, these two dictatorships always clashed for power. This does not somehow make the church the hero. It is 2 evil powers clashing.
~See our related blogs:
Adolf Hitler was a christian Nazi who murdered 5.9 MILLION jews to avenge a christian lie about the imaginary jesus who is an evidenceless fraud and christian fabricated god!
Pol Pot and Mao Zedong were not Atheists.
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