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Is (or was?) Communism a Religion?

Jim Riley

1st April 2009

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Today (the podcast will be available within the next day or so) Laurie Taylor on Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed talks to Russian academic and author, Mikhail Ryklin, who argues that communism was a religion.

That’s an interesting question in itself and it raises the further tricky issue of exactly how you define a religion.

There are various answers for this in sociology, but just to give you some clues, here are a few ingredients to get you started.

A religion, some argue, should have:

A ‘holy’ book

A set of beliefs

Some saintly type figures

Rituals

Now decide what you think. Was or is communism a religion?

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Jim Riley

Jim co-founded tutor2u alongside his twin brother Geoff! Jim is a well-known Business writer and presenter as well as being one of the UK's leading educational technology entrepreneurs.

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Is (or was?) Communism a Religion?

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