Generations and Atheism: Patterns of Response to Communist Rule Among Different Generations and Countries.

The communist systems in Central and Eastern European countries had some common features, with atheism as the cornerstone of the political order, but they varied in many different aspects. Both political pressure and social change brought about not only the rise of secularism but also the rise of religiosity, particularly in the 1980s. However, the course of change and the impact of atheism on generations were quite different in each country. This is shown in the empirical analysis, which is presented in two parts. First, four countries are examined (Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) showing three distinctive responses to communist rule. Second, on the basis of the EVS 1999 data for 14 post-communist countries, three groups of countries are differentiated according to religious and non-religious legacies and the different generational impacts of the communist system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]