Persecuted Church

Soviet Attack against the Churches

On May 1, 1919, Lenin sent Dzerzhinsky, the head of the VČK, the following order:

"...we must put an end to priests and religions as soon as possible. Priests shall be arrested as counterrevolutionaries and saboteurs, and they shall be shot mercilessly, in all places and as many as possible. It is time to close down the Church” .

Churches were profaned and looted, thousands of bishops, priests, monks and other believers were killed, sent to jail and labour camps or exiled…