Hi Lorianne, I see you say the Russian Orthodox Church sided with the communists.
Did you know that the slaughter of Russian Orthodox Christians was perhaps the biggest martyrdom in the entire history of Christianity, done at the hands of the communists? According to documents over 100,000 Clergy alone were shot dead.
Stalin pounded the table screaming that more must be done to crush the church.
Nearly all Bishops were killed, most priests monks and nuns were killed. A majority of Churches were destroyed.
So might there be some missing context in your statement?
I would not say that most priests and nuns were killed by a large number of them were. My understanding is that if clergy and religious people stayed quiet and kept a low profile they were overlooked. After all, they could not kill everyone. I don’t have the stats.
Records that have been released in the last 5 years or so show that the ROC higher ups were working with the KGB to identify many of these people who were ‘sent away’ to forced labor camps where they were starved, frozen and/or worked to death. The was that those who survived would be re-educated.
The ones who were shot got off lucky.