The fall of the Soviet Union left a religious vacuum in many parts of the former Soviet Union. As far as I know it was never illegal to worship as much of the Bolsheveks in the bathroom non sense would lead one to believe but you were not likely to get anywhere in the communist party if people knew you believed in god. Now in Western Ukraine there is still the Orthodox Church but there is a very aggressive Armageddon type of Christianity that is popular. As popular as it is in some ways it seemed pretty fragile to me. After seeing one of their Armageddon movies and talking to a room full of them it was apparent that they had been told by the westerners that the reason America had become a rich country was because we believed in Christianity. I told them my ideas about why America became so rich, starting with an effective genocide of the American Indians that left no ethnic conflicts like the Soviet Union and the Balkans had to deal with. It was entirely different than talking to Armageddoners in America they listened intently and several started asking more critical questions of the church. A ten minute talk really caused a huge dent in Church ideology. As I said I suspect although it is popular now I am not so sure it will have a lasting hold. In Budapest Islam is definitely taking hold with the Hungarian youth and the war in Iraq is incredible advertizing for Islam. It is attracting the educated and committed. Just the opposite of Ukraine. The Armageddoners in Ukraine are all poor. Islams growth in Budapest is noticeable every time I pass through. I am just talking about Europeans and slavs. I am not even counting already growing and existing Islamic population in the region. It makes a lot of sense to me that the thugs in Moscow would do something like this to counter Islams growth.
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