From the Moscow Times:

A senior Russian Orthodox Church official on Friday said he  supported an effort to check Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin’s works  for extremism and called Lenin an “even bigger villain” than  German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, head of church relations with armed forces  and law enforcement bodies, said closer study of Lenin’s writings  could radically alter societal beliefs regarding the Bolshevik leader, who  he described as an “unscrupulous and utter cynic and villain”  in an interview with Interfax.

Soviet authorities ruthlessly suppressed religion, confiscated church  properties, and demolished holy sites over their decades in power,  leading many church officials to view them with bitter resentment.