vid

I think you would have a very hard time specifying your "stalin's crimes" in a exact way that court would have to, so that it covers only real crimes. Even some people sentenced for political charges were sentenced justly. There were real spies and real conspirators in USSR, just like they were anywhere else. Half of GULAG population were common criminals, sentenced for same charges which were often misused for political purposes. Just read what Solzhenitsyn wrote about these people. It wasn't so simple as to say "every arrest was wrongful", or even "every arrest for this particular article was wrongful".

If "scope over the whole country in terms of extent of influence" is your criteria, then in communist USSR you could hardly desire any more autoritative body than Congress of Communist Party of Soviet Union. In terms of real influence, it was far beyond Supreme Court, the Supreme Court was de-facto subordinate to it. And I am sure you have heard of
The so-called "secret speech" (which wasn't very secret, as we know) is just as positive and influential act as the USA Supreme Court ruling you quoted. Both were symptoms of liberalization period, and in both cases we need to differentiate between era that preceded and era that followed. You can't say "democracy segregated blacks" just as you can't say "communist regimes killed priests", without mentioning that it was only true during certain period of regime. THAT is the whole point azato2000 made. I don't see anything wrong with it, and whatever USA Supreme Court did in 1954 would hardly invalidate it.

mikainen

If Soviet Union "said" it was a crime then it was a crime in Soviet Union. Though I don't know if anyone got any jailtime for it. Bibles were confiscated and smugglers were given a warning or something like that.

antonina

Actually, several priests were murdered by secret services in communist Poland, at least ten as late as in 1980's, during Jaruzelski's Martial Law and later. The last one in 1989 - Stephen Niedzielak, who looked after the Katyń families and put forbidden memorial plaques on the wall of his parish church in Warsaw. Found at home with his spine broken. Official verdict: slipped unfortunately off his armchair or something. The 1980's here abounded in unfortunate slips and falls.

The most famous one was father Popiełuszko, friend of Warsaw factory workers and "Solidarity" chaplain (tortured to death, his decomposed body found in a lake near Warsaw).

Hope this isn't derailing the thread. The Soviet block being... Soviet, it addresses the OP, I think.

dagul

When it comes to severity of the act, the segregation of blacks from whites in no match to killing priests in the name of prohibition of religious freedom. It's like comparing oral defamation with murder.

dagul

That is a law that violates basic human rights which is the right to practice religion and that is horrible.

dagul

I do not know anything about that but if that really happened then no wonder Kim Il Jung had been worshiped as god by North Koreans as imposed by their communist government. Wow, the government imposed cult in a communist country while prohibiting other religions is totally a disgrace.

Pavel

Oh, truly Polish patriots exult at such riddle instances.

pnoozi

Theistic religions compete with the cult of personality around Lenin, Stalin, etc. An almost identical situation exists in modern North Korea.

mikainen

Yes it is. Soviet Union wasn't the best place in the world in the light of human rights.

Maribat

I lived in that time. Religion was not banned, it was minimized if I may say that, but not banned. Can you tell me, is it possible for a person to declare himself an atheist (a christian) in your country?