re: #404 Olsonist

That is a bit simplistic. When Stalin didn’t want churches competing for minds and hearts, he banned churches. When he was his troops to die for a cause during WWII, he revived the Orthodox Church as a kind of state religion.

Yes, it’s simplistic, it being a brief comment on a blog. ;) But you’re right, he did make the tactical decision to appeal to religion and The Motherland in his regime’s existential crisis of 1941-43. Religion is true for the believer, false for the philosopher, and useful for the ruler.