Why We are Mad At You by an Atheist

[humblebum]

119. We have been through this many times before, and even in the face

of overwhelming evidence you cling to denial. There are no exact numbers, as has been stated many times, due to the incredible scope of these events over 70+ years and vast distances and numbers of remote villages and towns. Many are able to be documented accurately. We do know that there were 96000 local groups of Militant Atheists, with about 3.5 million members, and that each group was responsible for rooting out churches and believers. And we know that 80 to 90 percent of that congregations that were destroyed had members who were executed or died in prison. So the numbers are significant. We know that from opened archives, eyewitness accounts, and some film clips and photos. So for you to deny the facts is ridiculous, mendacious, and a total grandstand on your part.

Just one incident:

During the purges of 1937 and 1938, church documents record that 168,300 Russian Orthodox clergy were arrested. Of these, over 100,000 were shot.

Alexander N. Yakovlev (2002). A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia. Yale University Press.
pp. 165

And that is just clergy in one 2 year period. Do you think it stopped there and that only clergy were killed? There were many more purges, and many, many more shot, and many many more that died in the gulags.