Soviet anti-religious propaganda poster: Girl wants to go to school, while grandma is forcing her to go to church. It reads: “Religion is poison. Protect the kids.”
“During war (WWII) many soviet soldiers were wearing cross necklaces, although they knew nothing about Christianity. What they knew was that their fathers believed in God and therefore they didn’t part with those crosses. Even during their occupation of Romania, although they behaved like mad hoards and were holding orgies, most of the time they displayed a respectful attitude towards church.
In a village from Baragan province, a lonely Russian soldier was riding a horse on the danubian plain. He encountered a funeral procession. Crosses and religious banners, priests in their vestments, the deceased mourned by women, religious chants and the piety of the whole congregation made such a profound impression on him that he asked:
- If I die, will I have this kind of burial?
- Certainly, if you’re a Christian, someone replied.
- I know that my grandparents baptized me when I was a child. I know nothing else about God.
- That’s enough, he was told, in order to be buried like a Christian.
The Russian was deeply moved. His soul vibrated. The vision of eternal life opened within him. Without hesitation he pulled out his revolver and shot himself in the head. Despite the lack of discernment of his action, we can see in it the desperation of Slav soul robbed of faith in God.
As a matter of fact, the suicide became a wide-scale phenomenon in Russia during first years of revolution, because people, hopeless, were seeking refuge in death. It required the state to intervene with some serious measures to halt the process. When suicide rate was restricted, alcoholism remained the main form of protest of Slavic nation against Marxism.”
“The revolution of scientific materialism remains a total and categorical trauma for the slav spiritual heritage. All of the thinking, all the spiritual order, all the values, all traditions, faith, even nature itself were turned upside down. Shock was close to madness, to desperation and to death. Shock that was lived by the revolution generation extended psychologically until nowadays and will continue indefinitely, being characterized by the anguish born out of lie, disillusion, misery and terror. For the revolution wasn’t only a damage to the thinking process, but it proved to be a farce on all levels and in all fields.”
“In these dire circumstances, the slav soul continued, despite everything, to look for God. And if this nation will ever obtain complete religious freedom, then, starting from faith, it will restructure all the hierarchy of values of the soviet society. The slav soul is demanding religious freedom and promises that it will give in return to humanity an authentic, unaltered and living Christianity”
Ioan Ianolide. Return to Christ. A document for the new world.
Encounter with orthodox christianity 