The Bolsheviks were inspired from the very beginning by a belief in a radical transformation of the world. It was based on atheism and the shadow it cast (the unreflected underside): secular, political religiosity. Having come to power, the CPSU (b) declared war on the religions of the tsarist empire, primarily Orthodoxy. In place of the old one, a new, communist ritual arose with its “holy places”, from the obligatory “red corner” and wall newspapers to pompous holiday parades and the Lenin Mausoleum. The deification of the leader in Stalin's time was followed by the subordination of culture to the official style (socialist realism), and society to the party and its repressive apparatus. At the same time, no political religion of the 20th century is comparable to communism (and the October Revolution as its symbol) in attractiveness for Western intellectuals (Raymond Aron rightly called it “the opium of intellectuals”). Analyzing the reasons for such a powerful and lasting influence is the main task of this book. Using the example of texts by Bertrand Russell, Walter Benjamin, Arthur Koestler, Andre Gide, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht and other authors, various aspects of the communist doctrine, the religious potential inherent in atheism, and the transformation of predictions that claimed to be scientific into an object of faith and worship are examined. The book was first published in German in March 2008.