The Orthodox Church was re-established during Stalin's period and remained so during the rest of the period of the USSR, although it was never positively encouraged. Other churches, such as the Catholic Church in Lithuania or the Baptists, were repressed to the extent that although they could freely practice they were not allowed to educate or propagate their teachings in any meaningful way. Khrushchev deliberately embarked on a campaign of destroying shrines and other relics but other more cynical leaders were less directly oppressive. The Church, however, was either pressed into the service of the regime (e.g. the "peace" movement) or could only operate as a passive cultural organisation with access restricted to older people. Major cathedrals such as St Isaac's in Leningrad/St Petersburg, the gorgeous Lutheran churches in Riga and St Casimir's in Vilnius were made into museums or concert halls and although churches were still built in Lithuania during the Soviet period (Queen Mary of Peace in Klaipeda) they were more or less all expropriated by the state on completion.
Stalin however stopped the outright and complete suppression of religion which had been a bulwark of Soviet policy from 1917 until the outbreak of war (destruction of buildings, desecration of holy sites, imprisonment of clergy and so on). Given how cynically religion is used in this game (mainly as a diplomatic bargaining chip and a means to make people content or happy), I propose that this is what the game means when it says "Stalin has converted to Christianity".
BTW Jonathan...I liked that book too...who is the person writing in your signature?
I can think of plenty of real life examples of rulers using religion cynically.
E.g. Henry VIII of England and his successors: "We reject the Catholic Church, and we will start a separate church, closer to the teachings of christ. But who will lead this new 'Church of England'?
Hmmm... how about... ME?"
"And look at all those greedy Catholic priests with their big estates... we must confiscate them!
And keep them for the royal self!"
And then there was the way Vladimir of Kiev converted to Orthodox Christianity and made it the religion of Russia "because the costumes and ceremonies were more elaborate and impressive than Catholic or Muslim ones". Yeah, good reason for choosing what religion to believe in.
And then there was the way the Mongol Khans dealt with religion during the Mongol Empire - though at least they allowed freedom of religion, unlike most other rulers in those days. Heh, they allowed any religion - as long as subjects kowtowed to the Khan's rule without question.
Yes, indeed, the anti-Templar campaign, Catholic Inquisition and christian witch-hunts in general were great ways to get rid of your enemies, even if most of them were totally innocent of the charges, but were forced to confess by torture.
Oh, and the way christianity was used in the conquest of the Americas and the Philippines, to justify European invasion, rule and exploitation of the Indigenous people, and to justify the slavery of Africans. Very "noble" and "christian", indeed.
And the "crusades" were a good excuse for colonizing the Middle East, enabling European merchants to gain lucrative trading opportunities, and younger sons of nobles from Europe to gain their own feudal estates (at the expense of the Indigenous people of the Middle East of course - but it is "God's will", so it is a righteous thing!)...
And there are plenty more examples you can find for yourselves if you are interested.
