Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Communism to Christianity during an interview for the documentary, “Valaam,” Russia's state-owned media outlet RT reports.
"There were such severe years of militant atheism (during the Soviet period) when priests were killed, churches were destroyed. But at the same time a new religion was being created — Communist ideology, which is very similar to Christianity, in fact,” he said.
“Freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice — all of this is enshrined in the Holy Scripture, it's all there. And what about the Code of the Builders of Communism? This is a sublimation, it's really just a primitive excerpt from the Bible, nothing new was invented.”
Putin also likened Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square to the veneration of the relics of saints.
Lenin, the founder of the Russian Communist Party, was the leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the architect, builder and first head of the Soviet state. His tomb is situated in the center of Moscow.
"Look, Lenin was put in a mausoleum. How is this different from the relics of saints for Orthodox Christians and just for Christians,” Putin asked. “When they say that there's no such tradition in Christianity, well, go to Athos and take a look, there are relics of the saints there, and we have holy relics here."
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