There ya go. Why should it? A classic example. The reason is they wanted, in the Eisenhower years, to clearly differentiate themselves as tyhe US Gummint from them damned Godless Commies, who thought the answer was to suppress ALL religions.

A bad answer, actually, to a thorny problem that fortunately is no longer relevant. People I know who have been there say that the Russians are some of the most spiritual, but not necessarily rewligous, people anywhere, but I can't speak to that. Point is it is a classic example of mixing up the secular with the religous in ays that they might be better left apart.

A