Krishna Consciousness in Russia (ex: USSR)

It was very difficult for Srila Prabhupada to establish Krishna consciousness in Russia. In the days of the USSR religion was illegal and the communists particularly feared the Hare Krishna movement and singled out the Hare Krishna devotees for imprisonment and forced them to take mind damaging drugs and tortured them in so many ways. There was a world-wide protest against this treatment of the Russian Hare Krishnas and Mikhail Gorbachev freed the Russian devotees from the prisons and psychiatric hospitals. But even since then it has been very difficult to get Krishna consciousness seriously started in Russia.