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Many in the West and beyond seem to have a large misunderstanding on how religion was handled in the USSR and other communist countries (on both sides). Ridding of reactionary institutions is not the same as attacking the religious individual.

Stalin to Hoxha on how to combat reactionary religious institutions:

"You should never put the struggle against the clergy, who carry out espionage and disruptive activities, on the religious plane," Stalin said, "but always on the political plane. The clergy must obey the laws of the state, because these laws express the will of the working class and the working people. You must make the people quite clear about these laws and the hostility of the reactionary clergymen so that even that part of the population which believes in religion will clearly see that, under the guise of religion, the clergymen carry out activities hostile to the Homeland and the people themselves. Hence the people, convinced through facts and arguments, together with the Government, should struggle against the hostile clergy. You should isolate and condemn only those clergymen who do not obey the Government and commit grave crimes against the state. But, I insist, the people must be convinced about the crimes of these clergymen, and should also be convinced about the futility of the religious ideology and the evils that result from it."

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/stalin/meet3.htm

Photos: Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, awarded by the Soviet Government with medals "For the Defense of Leningrad".

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Muhammad Ali on his visit to USSR:

“I’m very impressed by a meeting with Leonid Brezhnev. I find it hard to find the words… I am a simple American boxer, but I was honored to meet Mr. Brezhnev. I used to hear that the Russians are always threatening Americans, but I am convinced that this is not true. Brezhnev is a supporter of world peace”. Leonid Brezhnev, who during the WW2 fought against Nazis, gave Ali the book “The small land”. Ali called this gift “the best in his life”. “I’ll ask my friend Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to translate this book for me”,

It’s hard to believe, that such a peaceful country wants war. And Brezhnev, I never thought he was such a quiet and calm person. It is difficult to imagine that he can be the person who would start a war. I have not seen a hitchhiker on the road, and I have not seen a single beggar on the streets of Soviet Russia. I had never felt so safe: no risk of being robbed. I was told that there is no freedom of religion in the Soviet Union, but Muslims, Christians and Jews worship freely here. I think the relationship between our people is bad just because of false propaganda”.

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Muhammad Ali on his visit to the USSR in 1978

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Muhammad Ali on his visit to USSR in 1978