"It is impermissible and foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman possessing supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god." - khrushchev, reacting to stalin's attempt to deify himself as a god-emperor.

stalin did not seek to abolish religion so much as he sought to create a new religion of russian nationalism, with himself as the titular head.

near the end, he demanded that russian citizens say prayers to his images. he oversaw a massive campaign to replace images of jesus with images of himself. orthodox christians would not just have their icons seized - they would also be given replacement icons that had stalin's likeness on them. and, they would be expected to pray on a schedule, just like the church had them pray.

meet the new god: same as the old god.

you want to understand this most easily through the prism of animal farm. we've all read this. we all get the idea that the socialists became capitalists. in the process, they became religionists, too.

this is an example of a prayer to stalin that was said by russian workers over their icons:

O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who broughtest man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts. 

so, you want to avoid this argument that stalin was an atheist. he really wasn't.