State atheism was an official policy of anti-clericalism in the
Soviet Union and other
Marxist-Leninist states. It should not be confused with the policy of
state secularism, which is the areligion of government. The Soviet Union used the term
gosateizm, a
syllabic abbreviation of "state" (
gosudarstvo) and "atheism" (
ateizm), to refer to a policy of expropriation of religious property, publication of information against religion and the official promotion of anti-religious materials in the education system. Governments that have implemented official policies of
anti-clericalism oppose religious institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, including the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen.