Abstract
The purpose of this paper will be to study the role of different religious sectors in the democratization process in post-communist Europe, that is to say the role of religious faith, and of religious institutions in the overturning of communism and in the downfall of the Soviet Union. Many questions are raised by this subject: has religion helped to create a civil society? Is religion a mean to fight against communism? Is it because of religion that communism collapsed and that a democratic way of running a country formed ? To answer these questions, we will study how religion became slowly a vehicle of desovietization and detotalization on several counts; as well as the recent religious revivals which are a factor of nationalism and may help to the consolidation of democracy.
