Father Glev Yakunin, deputy chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet Parliamentary Committee for the Freedom of Conscience, speaking at a rally in 1990. Photograph: RIA Novosti/ Alamy.
Founded in 1977 by Orthodox priest Father GJeb Yakunin, Deacon Varsonofi and layman Viktor Kapitanchuk, it was created to defend religious freedom in the Soviet Union. Soviet authorities brutally repressed and pursued christians, advocating the control, the suppression and the elimination of religious believes and encouraging the spread of Marxist-Leninist atheism in the Soviet Union.
