Religion Under Communism

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Religion Under Communism

• Lenins government atheist but many Russians
  remain deeply religious
• Lenin feared the Orthodox Church would rally
  opposition to communism
• BUT did not want to openly attack it
• Allowed freedom of belief worship
• Attacked the wealth of the Church
• Church property seized by the state clergy
  forced to pay high taxes
• Religious instruction banned in schools

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Foreign Policy Under Lenin

• After 1917 Most foreign nations suspicious of
  communism
• Lenin sought worldwide revolution
• March 1919 Comintern ? Moscow with that intent
• After 1920 Lenin adopts a more realistic foreign
  policy
• Failure of German Hungarian revolutions ? not
  time for world revolution
• USSR policy to avoid conflict exception was
  Comintern

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Foreign Policy Under Lenin

• 1921 trade links established with Britain
  other countries
• Russia sought to protect itself by playing on
  differences with capitalist nations
• Signs the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany in 1922
• Agreed to cooperate economically

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The Emergence of Stalin

• Late 1921-March1923 strokes leave Lenin
  speechless
• Power struggle among 7-man Politburo
• Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev

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