Was Stalin an atheist?

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Yes,
Stalin said "You know, they are fooling us, there is no God...all this talk about God is sheer nonsense" in E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1940

Supposedly Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin said (documentary "Mysteries of the Century: Kremlin Kids" ("Тайны века" - "Дети Кремля") 2003-03-19, 1 Channel 1 Russia), that Stalin told her Christ existed in the past.
Journalist: It is interesting, that from all Kremlin' residents, maybe, just Stalin believed in God...
S.Alliluyeva: In father's library, between other books, were few tomes of "Christ". It was history of Christ written by vox populist Morozov. I said to my father: "But Christ didn't exist!" and he answered "Oh no, Christ, surely existed."

However no copy of the interview has yet been found on the internet and further more belief that Jesus was a man is not the same as following his teachings. believing he was more than a man, or belief that God exists.

It's also worth noting that Stalin's supposedly calling Jesus by the title Christ is no more meaningful that a Protestant calling the head of the Catholic Church The Pope.

In 1939-11-11 in a calculated effort to reinvigorate the war effort (and keep the Nazi's from putting him on trial) Stalin canceled Lenin's instruction from May, 1st, 1919 for N 13666-2 "About struggle against priests and religion" and gave orders to People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) to release from custody already arrested priests "if activity of these citizens didn't harm the Soviet authority".

Stalin was not stupid as some think and he knew how to sow discord among his enemies in 1951-06-27 as part of these efforts he (among other things) gaved "Stalin's Prize" to English clergyman Hewlett Johnson.

And if there's any remaing doubt that Stalin was an atheist who deeply hated religion just days before his death, Stalin ordered certain religious sects to be outlawed and persecuted. Many religions popular in the ethnic regions of the Soviet Union including the Roman Catholic Church, Uniats, Baptists, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. underwent ordeals similar to the Orthodox churches in other parts: thousands of monks were murdered abused or forced to go into hiding, and countless churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, sacred monuments, monasteries and other religious buildings were razed.

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First answer by HisPowr4U. Last edit by CIowa. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 23 [recommend question].