Religion has held a unique place in Soviet society: it is the only officially tolerated form of divergent ideology. Successive constitutions since 1917 have guaranteed "freedom to perform religious rites." In this volume, eleven authors survey the history and current situation of religion. They look at the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian bodiesóProtestant, Catholic, and Orthodoxóand also at Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. They describe the laws and the government agencies used to repress and persecute religious believers, how various religious bodies have responded to repression, and the prospects for reform under the initiatives of Mikhail Gorbachev.
