Actually, Steve, it's not bollocks. I posted the link to the democide above. As to the avowed atheism of the USSR and PRC, check this: Wiki on State Atheism Marx, Lenin, and Engel's writings on religion and atheism are online--I didn't post any links because it is a PITA to read that stuff, and I really do like you.

I posted the number of deaths associated with Communism/Marxism etc. as a response to, "Marxism is the true path". I don't blame you, Dawkins, or Christopher Hitchens for any of those deaths;-)

I've been involved in civil rights, labor union, anti-war, and green politics for a long time, and was close to many who were associated with the "Old Left"--for the most part, they were selfless, idealistic social visionaries, who bridled at the the oppression they saw in the world. Krushchev's 1956 speech denouncing Stalin, and exposing his history of murder, brutality, and repression hit them hard, because they had supported the revolution and believed in what it stood for. They felt what we all feel when a dream becomes a nightmare.