Gorbachev remains an Atheist, but in leading the establishment of religious freedom laws in the former Soviet Union he demonstrated respect for all religions.

"Religion," Rand noted, "is the first enemy of the ability to think. ...yet before they learn to think [men] are discouraged by being ordered to take things on faith. Faith is the worst curse of mankind."

The fact is, Atheism is not opposed to religion, per se, but is at best (or at worst) indifferent to religion. Stalin was a Soviet first, an Atheist only incidentally.

Leon Trotsky (1879) It was on this date, November 7, 1879, that Russian revolutionist Leon Trotsky (Лев Троцкий) was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн) in Yanovka, Ukraine, the son of an illiterate but prosperous Jewish farmer. His parents sent young Lev to study in Odessa. He excelled there, read the writings of Karl […]