Understood. As has been mentioned previously, it's a very complex issue, and not amenable to one simplistic explanation: we're addressing raw beliefs, and power-bases in a dictatorship, and ideological demands, and I think that while we might disagree on the proportion this or that reason carries weight, we each understand in this discussion that the several factors had a part to play. I'm enjoying the to-and-fro'.
I lean towards power-base as a big reason for the hostility the Bolsheviks displayed to religion, and yes, the ROC's cooperation with the tsars was a big, if only semi-official, reason for Bolshevik enmity.
I lean towards power-base as a big reason for the hostility the Bolsheviks displayed to religion, and yes, the ROC's cooperation with the tsars was a big, if only semi-official, reason for Bolshevik enmity.