destroyed the vast majority of churches and priests during the period 1918–1941. Indeed, the history of the Soviet Union is replete with accounts of the burning and dynamiting of huge numbers of churches. The facts are unsettling to put it mildly, and the point is clear: This violence and cruelty was carried out as part of an atheist agenda. The goal was to eliminate religion, and the acts of violence and brutality in pursuit of this goal were both numerous and horrific.[67] In China the record of violence