From 1917 to 1940 in Bolshevik Russia, 75,000 places of worship were destroyed and 600 bishops, 40,000 priests and 120,000 monks sent to camps. At the time of the German invasion, during the Second World War, faced with a rout, Stalin nevertheless called upon the Church and promised a partial renaissance in exchange for “absolute loyalty.” The persecution started up again under Khrushchev, in 1959.

Since many places of worship were closed or destroyed by Communist authorities, true believers had to adapt, e.g. by improvising this confessionnal in Czestochowa, Poland in 1976, to a pilgrimage site dedicated to the Black Virgin.

Starting in 1987, several actions bore witness to the opposition movements’ increased determination and combativeness, particularly Christian ones. These included the protest vigil against police intervention at the Temple of Zion in East Berlin in November and the demonstration organized by the “Kirche Von Unten” (“The Church from Below”) movement, Friedrich Schorlemmer, a former priest from East Germany, participated in founding. He later joined Democratic Awakening, one of the two main opposition movements that sprung up in the fall of 1989.

From the 1920s to 1989, Soviet authorities treated both Islam and Orthodoxy as no more than cultural traditions, imposing drastic conditions and strict limitations on them. This turned all practicing believers into potential suspects or non-citizens. Yet the authorities were never able to entirely eradicate semi-religious/semi-cultural acts, like this adhan from the minaret of one of Baku’s mosques.

From 1917 countless places of worship in the Soviet Union were either destroyed or turned into movie theatres, factories or warehouses. The point was to free the masses from their “opium” in the name of a state-sponsored atheism taught from a young age.

Despite state harassment, the Church’s influence grew – as did its role in creating national unity – in Poland in the 1970s. The voyages of the new Polish pope, John-Paul II, encouraged this trend. His famous “Do not be afraid” message, pronounced during his first papal address, on October 22, 1978, resonated throughout Poland like a veritable order. “You must carry into the future the whole of the experience of history that is called "Poland" the Pope advised, in June, 1979, once again, to the crowds in Krakow. “Do not be afraid of the toil! Be afraid only of thoughtlessness and pusillanimity!” MUTE

Despite persecution of the clergy and the occasional definitive closing of places of worship, religious life went on, even offering an antidote to the prevailing totalitarianism. The authorities weren’t fooled, and they perceived a form of dissidence in the continuation of religious practice. Therefore, places of worship were placed under strict police surveillance, which was usually carried out by the STASI, the East German secret police. MUTE

Protestant churches in East Germany had signed a Concordat with the Communist regime, so they kept their distance from any dissident movements for many years. But by 1987, several actions bore witness to an increased determination and combativeness on the part of the opposition movement, which was making headway within the clergy. This bishop’s call for the population to exercise its freedom of speech is a clear example of religious authorities tipping over the line towards political resistance.

Soviet authorities considered believers as marginally suspect, which explains, among other things, why parents were afraid to have their children baptized. The persecution and harassment didn’t entirely prevent religious practice from being perpetuated, although it was forced to become clandestine or limited to within the family.