And God Created Lenin: Marxism Vs Religion in Russia, 1917-1929 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781591023067)

This bookexamines in depth the conflict between Lenin's logic-driven efforts to stamp out religion and the churches' passionate attempts to save themselves from obliteration. It looks at both sides objectively and admits that they both presented strong cases. In this thoroughly researched yet accessible study, historian Paul Gabel offers a new understanding of the only effort in world history to upset the universality of religion.Besides the main conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the atheist state, Gabel also considers the tensions that this campaign against religion caused within the Communist Party. In addition, he discusses the bitter hatred dividing the Orthodox factions that refused cooperation with the government from those that tried to adapt the church to communism. Was the failure of Soviet communism to eradicate religion simply a matter of practical miscalculation, or was this effort, in light of the persistence of religion throughout history, ultimately unrealistic and doomed from the start? This is the key question that Gabel's fascinating, insightful narrative attempts to answer.

Author: Paul Gabel
ISBN-10: 1591023068
ISBN-13: 9781591023067
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2005
Pages: 627
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.17lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.40w x 1.58d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2006 pg. 30