Persecution of religious groups by the Soviet state was no secret. Soviet ideology was explicitly materialist and anti- religious; the state made no apology for its repression of religion.

Here, for the first time in English, are the actual documents tracing that repression, clearly revealing the struggle between religious forces and the Russian communist state. Religion in the Soviet Union provides access to the archival materials, translated by the editor, in which bureaucrats debated policy, issued orders, and struggled with the problems religious believers caused the Soviet...