Conscience and Captivity

Eastern Europe is the blanket expression used for the eight very different countries which are bounded by the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union. These eight are Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. Although presenting very separate identities, they have the common bond in recent years of being under the influence or control of the USSR, or governed by authorities sympathetic to the creed of Marxism-Leninism. The ideology of communism suggests a complete separation of the Church and State, the practice is somewhat different. Janice Broun points out that there are two misconceptions, one proposed by Western evangelical groups, that all followers of a religion are persecuted and the other view, put forward by official Church delegations and the Christian Peace Conference is that the state does not interfere with the religious belief of its citizens at all. The reality of the situation is somewhere between these two ideas, for the practices of the USSR are not necessarily followed by those countries allied to her. For instance, as Janice Broun informs us, although six of the eight countries mentioned above are members of the Warsaw Pact and as Soviet satellites follow her lead, two countries, namely Albania and Yugoslavia have broken away to pursue their own course. Yugoslavia, perhaps through more regular contact with the rest of Europe, is more tolerant of religious practices whereas Albania is the world's first atheistic state.