CHAPTER 39 CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IRENA BOROWIK, BRANKO AN Č I Ć , AND RADOSŁAW TYRAŁA Introduction Reflection on atheism is of especial interest in relation to the Central and Eastern European region due to its past—empirical studies suggest that, for long periods in some countries, there have been more atheists than religious believers. Travelling through the post-communist countries of Europe today, however, one can come across many people changing their opinion about religion and atheism and personally converting, for instance from atheism to Orthodoxy or from atheism to Pentecostalism. Consider, for example, the case of Valentina, 1 who lives in the pleasant Ukrainian resort town of Alushta, at the southern end of the Crimean peninsula, right by the Black Sea. Ater the collapse of communism she became a very religious person, and began to ask the advice of her priest in all life decisions, even such banal ones as buying a washing machine (!). Everything that happened to her she interpreted in religious terms—for instance, con- struing a toothache, and her resulting swollen face, as a punishment for not having kept a strict enough fast the previous day. She prayed every day, long in the morning and long in the evening. Her nearby friends were religious and attached to the Church. Religion was now in the centre of her life and gave it a meaningful framework; undoubtedly it was a core issue for her new identity. More than once Valentina has been asked about the reasons for the popularity of atheism in the former Communist Bloc and, related to this, 1 Valentina, a 50-year-old woman, was interviewed by Irena Borowik in 1997 as a convert from atheism to Orthodoxy. he research concerned religious changes in Central and Eastern Europe ater the collapse of communism (Borowik 2000). Later on Valentina became friends with Borowik, visiting regularly and serving as a source of important information on changes going on in the Crimean peninsula. oxfordhb-9780199644650-e-Ch39.indd 622 oxfordhb-9780199644650-e-Ch39.indd 622 8/20/2013 6:45:04 PM 8/20/2013 6:45:04 PM