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They didn't take any action to actually PROMOTE atheism, they just forbade the practice of organised religion of any kind and forbade the open practice of religious belief. In the early days of the Soviet Union, Lenin quoted Karl Marx as saying that 'religion is the opiate of the masses'- that is, that it was used by the ruling classes as a tool to keep the working masses subdued by claiming that social inequality was a God-given fact that had to be put up with and was ordained by Divine Law, which was used to brainwash the people by the priesthood and the Church. It is, indeed, true that Tsarist Russia DID attempt to put such a message across by allowing the Orthodox Church to become dominated by corrupt Patriarchs and anti- revolutionary priests, but this was by no means universal and many within the Russian clergy were appalled at the inequality endured by the starving masses, supporting the idea of revolution and Socialist reform. This included Father George Gapon, who led the huge demonstration march in 1905 that resulted in 'Bloody Sunday', when over a thousand workers were shot dead by Tsarist troops. When revolution came in 1917, many within the Russian Church felt it to be inevitable in order to attain reform that could not be achieved by any other means, but when this led on to the Terror they believed the revolution was getting out of hand and going too far. Democratic socialism, yes, but not intolerant Dictatorship. The Orthodox Church's opposition to Bolshevik excesses resulted in the banning of all organised religion and to the destruction of many thousands of churches across the USSR, some of which were very beautiful- many others were allowed to remain standing on the grounds of them being 'architectural and cultural heritage monuments', including the famous St.Basils Cathedral in Red Square and several fine places of worship in the Novgorod area. The Orthodox Church was driven underground, overt religious practice was banned, the teaching of religion was forbidden in schools and universities, and the authorities proclaimed the Soviet Union to be an officially atheist state. Under Stalin, anyone found practicing religion even quietly at home on an individual basis was liable to be tortured and executed, or sent to the dreaded gulag labour camps in Siberia- however, post-Stalinist rulers took a more moderate line, being inclined to turn a blind eye towards covert believers and even to tolerate organised worship in small groups, on the strict understanding that they were being watched by the State and that any attempts at subversion inspired by religious practice would lead to the arrest of those involved. The era between Stalin's death in 1953 and Gorbachev's Perestroika reforms of the late 1980s saw an increased tolerance of religious practice by the Soviet State, who saw it as a harmless piece of superstition unless anybody tried to take it too far and undermine the authority of Communist rule. If anyone DID cross the tolerance threshold, they would be imprisoned, and in extreme cases tortured, but such practices became increasingly rare from the late 1960s onwards. Many Soviet officials and members of regional and even national Government were themselves secret believers, and the policy of turning a blind eye and 'keep it to yourself' increased. The Orthodox Church and it's Patriarchs were ignored as being harmless, deluded relics of a bygone age, kept an eye on by the KGB but generally not seen to be a serious threat to Soviet rule- a bit like Jesus Christ used to be viewed by the Romans. Final official prohibition of religious worship came in the final couple of years of Gorbachev's rule, when freedom of religion was openly permitted under his Glasnost reforms.

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Q: What action did communists take to promote atheism in the USSR?
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