“Within a remarkable short time totalitarian rule had been reimposed on half a continent using a combination of force and fraud. . . Although they were subjected to relentless assault from state-sponsored atheism, the Christian Churches remained the only licensed sanctuaries from the prevailing world of brutality and lies. Appropriately enough . . . they played an important role in the overthrow of Communism forty years later.”

—  Michael Burleigh

Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics from the Great War to the War on Terror, New York: Harper Collins (2007), p. 344

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Michael Burleigh 17
American historian and writer 1955

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