Essay from the year 2001 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Leeds (POLIS), language: English, abstract: The Soviet debate of the 1920s surrounding religion was mainly based on the Marxist dogma with its materialist notion of religion, but it nevertheless involved a great diversity of ideas. The discussion shows a tendency to increasingly acknowledge the complexity of religion, thereby stressing the need for harsher measures. Under Stalin's totalitarianism, however, the controversial philosophical dicussion was bound to come to an end: it was replaced by another straightforward attempt to eliminate religion physically. The essay takes a close look at the evolution of a debate that shaped the religious policies of the Soviet Union.