146. Today marks an important day for St. Basil's Cathedral 

If you've ever visited Moscow, you probably were amazed to see Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. It is one of Russia's most iconic landmarks, comparable to India’s Taj Mahal. 

The cathedral, built over the grave of the revered local saint Vasily (Basil), is named after him and has nine onion domes, each symbolizing a different church. It is crafted to look like a rising bonfire flame. 

Constructed between 1555 and 1561 to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it was finally completed in 1683 with colors. 

Its significance can be understood from the fact that in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City. 

Following the Russian Revolution, when religion was officially dismissed as opium through state atheism policies, the church was seized from the Russian Orthodox community. 

Since 1928, it has functioned as a division of the State Historical Museum, in line with the Soviet Union's anti-religious campaigns.

Recall the days when the state, under the 1918 decree, took control of all church property, prohibited religious education outside the home, and removed the Church's state funding and official recognition—also started a government-sponsored program of conversion to atheism. Later, the League of Militant Atheists was founded to intensify this campaign. 

All places of worship were shut down or destroyed, and clergy from different faiths were arrested; many were also killed.

Now, the religious landscape, with the newly found ideology dictated by public opinion, has changed after a long separation from the cultural practices.

Imagine that in January 1924, following Lenin's funeral, Bolshevik leaders debated demolishing the church. Stalin initially supported this idea but eventually dropped it.

However, on December 24, 1990, Christmas Eve, the bells of St. Basil's Cathedral sounded for the first time since Lenin's death. 

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly liturgical celebrations and prayers to St. Basil have been reinstated starting in 1997. 

And atheism is nowhere to be seen. 

I believe rejection of the idea is a significant loss to humanity. It is an idea that the entire world should embrace, even if it means abandoning religion entirely.

Religion has no place elsewhere but to be cast aside and thrown into the closest sea.

Only then can a world – the much-imagined Utopian world – become a reality.

A world filled with happiness, harmony, and equality—a world where conflicts and war are absent.