Paul Gabel

I may have liked this book better if the author hadn't waited till about 400 pages in to make it clear that he's sort of annoyed at the Communist Party's failed efforts at igniting a glorious wave of atheism amongst the ordinary population. Generally speaking, the author ought to make it clear which side he's rooting for by, at least, the end of the first chapter, as far as I'm concerned.

I also docked a star for him having a side he was actively rooting for (the "unfortunately, they did a really bad job of this" asides got really old) and for focusing so heavily on the 1920s yet largely ignoring cult-of-personality issues.

It's probably good to have it, but I'm not likely to pick it up again unless I need lots of anecdotes about the decline/transformation of the Russian Orthodox organization in the 1920s.… (más)