# Christianity in the "Atheist" Soviet Union?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 20, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730 "2015-07-20T21:50:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730/21 "2015-07-29T01:02:56Z")

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> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> I remember seeing on “60 Minutes” in the late 1970’s that the Soviet TV stations ran the most popular western shows (a family was shown watching “Kojak”) on Sunday mornings, to deter people from attending church.
> 
> I was a little surprised, having been raised in America during the Cold War. I thought they used more persuasive methods to keep people from church.

I remember “Flipper”. I don’t remember “Kojak”. There were only two stations - I would have remembered if it was shown.

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**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730/22 "2015-07-29T05:09:36Z")

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> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> I remember seeing on “60 Minutes” in the late 1970’s that the Soviet TV stations ran the most popular western shows (a family was shown watching “Kojak”) on Sunday mornings, to deter people from attending church.
> 
> I was a little surprised, having been raised in America during the Cold War. **I thought they used more persuasive methods to keep people from church.**

They’d perhaps concluded that honey was more effective than vinegar?

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730/23 "2015-07-29T05:36:12Z")

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What about non-formerly-Christian parts of the USSR? Like Azerbaijan was Muslim rather than Orthodox. I understand that Azerbaijan nowadays is mostly only culturally Muslim, which says to me that being religious was\* probably frowned upon. (Honestly, I should just ask my Azeri friend, but for one she’s too young to really remember life under the USSR, and two, it seems on topic here and I’m feeling lazy).

- or is, because the leadership now is of the “corrupt communist-party-derived familial dynasty” sort

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christianity-in-the-atheist-soviet-union/725730/24 "2015-08-03T21:27:56Z")

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After the war with Hitler began, Stalin had to play the Russian nationalism card (absurd, considering he wasn’t Russian and spoke Russian with a heavy Georgian accent), which entailed making peace with one specific religion: Russian Orthodoxy.

The tsarist motto was "Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality (i.e. nationalism). That worked for Joe Stalin just fine and it works for Putin today. To the extent that Orthodox Christianity ties in with fervent Russian patriotism, any Russian/Soviet leader can see its benefits…

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