I'm going to go. Yes, yes, a ras, if yes a ras. Welcome to the Russian rulers history podcast.

Episode 97, the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last time, we recounted Krustjoff's trip to America,

the downing of the U-2 spy plane

with the controversy that surrounded it, and Nikita's embarrassing behavior at the United Nations.

There is one thing I failed to mention in previous podcasts on Cruz Joff, and that's one that I'm going to rectify right now.

And it's his fanatic persecution of religion, a pogrom far more vigorous than even under Stalin.

There was a revival of religion that was necessary during World War II to rally the people,

but with the war over, it wasn't needed by the communists and was viewed as a threat to their authority

especially by Nikita Krustruff.

As Jeffrey Hosking put it in his book, Russia and the Russians, a history,

quote, between 1958 and 1964, the Russian Orthodox Church lost some 40% of its parishes and about three quarters of its monasteries.

Closures were especially frequent in Western territories and in regions occupied by the Germans during the war.

Other denominations heavily hit by the campaign included the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Adventists, and the Baptists, while the Jews lost about a third of their synagogues and the Muslims more than a fifth of their mosques. Unregistered groups like the Pentecostals,

Jehovah's Witnesses, and the various true Orthodox congregations were banned outright.

Now when Khrushchev returned to Moscow in late October 1960 he was confronted with an internal crisis, an agricultural one.

Even though he was warned repeatedly that his Virgin Lands program was a colossal mistake,

he believed he was right and his beliefs were bolstered by the first two harvests in

1958 and 59, which were excellent.

The 1960 harvest over all of Russia, and in particular the Virgin lands the

1960 harvest over all of Russia and in particular the Virgin lands was the worst since Stalin's times

and this was due to some terrific drought conditions.

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