Ancient Wisdom and Pagan Spirituality

Last edited Fri Dec 23, 2011, 09:31 PM - Edit history (1)

in a gulag?
"The League of the Militant Godless (LMG), under Emelian Yaroslavsky, was the main instrument of the anti-religious campaign and it was given special powers that allowed it to dictate to public institutions throughout the country what they needed to do for the campaign [40].
After 1929 and through the 30s, the closing of churches, mass arrests of the clergy and religiously active laity, and persecution of people for attending church reached unprecedented proportions.[62][65]. The LMG employed terror tactics against believers in order to further the campaign, while employing the guise of protecting the state or prosecuting law-breakers. The clergy were attacked as foreign spies and trials of bishops were conducted with their clergy as well as lay adherents who were reported as 'subversive terroristic gangs' that had been unmasked[66]. Official propaganda at the time called for the banishment of the very concept of God from the Soviet Union[67]. These persecutions were meant to assist the ultimate socialist goal of eliminating religion[68][67]. From 1932-1937 Stalin declared the 'five year plans of atheism' and the LMG was charged with completely eliminating all religious expression in the country[67].

"During the purges of 1937 and 1938, church documents record that 168,300 Russian Orthodox clergy were arrested. Of these, over 100,000 were shot."
[70]


http://www.scribd.com/doc/40973100/Persecution-of-Christians-in-the-Soviet-Union-The-Anti-Religious-Campaigns