Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

[bijou]

I was a bit bothered by the use of the term 'admits' as it might imply something slightly shameful, but the article explains more. 

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.
 
Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper.

"St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

...

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer". ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/wgorbachev119.xml

I'm sure President Reagan would be happy to know he was right after all these years.

[franksolich]

Actually, many Communists were hypocrites in this sense, even during the height of the the Soviet heyday of atheism.

This doesn't surprise me the least.

And for the record, those "millions" of "atheist" Communist party members who were soldiers during the second world war, were so for practical reasons, just as Gorbachev is, for other practical reasons.

If an ordinary soldier died, his family was not notified.

Such is the care and concern for the people in socialist paradises.

But if a member of the Communist party died, his family was notified.

On the eve of most major battles, enrollment in the Communist party skyrocketed.

Things are rarely as they seem to be.