Communism versus God

I have been reading some old texts (books, for those of you under 25) about the birth of communism in the former USSR. Here is something rather hysterical I have discovered: atheism was considered the ONLY possibility of uniting the world, a pacifying force where everyone would be equal as opposed to those 'enslaved' by religion which created hatred, war and dissent. Ha, ha, ha, look at Putin's Russia now. Why didn't communism and an absence of God work, you think?

A church, circa 1060 AD, England. Photo copyright SvD.