A story of the Easter Message

It is said that some years after Ukraine had come under Soviet control, a famous Communist intellectual (in some accounts, he is identified as Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin) travelled to Kiev at Eastertime. There the people had been forcibly gathered to hear the very best and brightest of atheistic communism.

The intellectual spoke for an hour, ending with brutal clarity.

"Therefore," he said, "there is no God; Jesus Christ never existed; there is no such thing as the Holy Spirit. The Church is an oppressive institution.... The future belongs to the State, and the State is in the hands of the Party."

As he was sitting down, an old priest near the front stood up and asked if he could say two words. The intellectual contemptuously agreed. The old priest turned back to the crowd and shouted:

"Khrystos Voskres!"
(Christ is risen)

The crowd shouted back:

"Voistynu voskres!"
(Indeed he is risen!)