The Rise and Fall of the Russian Orthodox Church

In the 1980s, I smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union and met underground Christians. It was absolutely inconceivable in 1989 or with a decade afterwards that 70% of Russians nowadays identify as Russian Orthodox. Something similar happened on Mount Athos, which in the 80s, by all accounts, was very depopulated. You can go to a monastery in Romania now and you can again meet 20 something monks, 20 something nuns. There's a real energy there, which you just do not see here. And it's a new energy. It doesn't feel like a dying face. It feels like something's going on."