Our Lady of Fatima
and the
Demise of the Soviet Union

Pope John Paul II consecrating Russia and the world
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Millions of people—many of them Blue Army members—have prayed many millions of rosaries for the coversion of Russia for over 50 years.

Communism was overthrown, first by Poland and then other satellite countries, and eventually Russia herself. All without a shot being fired!

After Pope John Paul II, in union with the world’s bishops, including many Orthodox, consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984, things happened quickly. Sister Lucia said that God had accepted this consecration as complying with the request of Jesus. A year later, Mikhail Gorbachev became the head of Russia. He wanted freedom of religion, and by Christmas Day 1991, the U.S.S.R. was dissolved.

Along the way we have several unique proofs of the intervention of God and Blessed Mother, which we can easily see by the specific dates on which big things happened, and –of course—the results.

On December 1, 1989, President Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The Pope said, “Your visit enables us to look with greater confidence to the future of the communities of believers in the Soviet Union…the new perspectives which have opened up lead us to the hope that the situation will change…and that the law on freedom of conscience, soon to be discussed by the Supreme Soviet, will help to guarantee all believers the full exercise of the right to religious freedom which, as I have said many times, is the foundation of the other freedoms.”

On March 15, 1990, the Vatican established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and an archbishop was named to serve in Moscow.

In September and October 1990, the new law on religion was widely promulgated. The law abolished over 70 years of repressive (Lenin and Stalin) laws against religion.

The Holy Father himself told Bishop Pavol Hnilica, S.J. that he was convinced what was happening in Russia was related to the promises of Fatima. Another key factor was the request of then President of the USA Ronald Reagan to Fr. Robert J. Fox to dedicate the USA to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Fatima. This was done with the condition that it must be kept secret. Fr. Fox mentioned it in Immaculate Heart Messenger magazine years later.

On May 12, eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, Cardinal Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany, told the people, “Setting out from Fatima, Our Lady could begin her task of bringing Christ again to Europe. In Russia and in other nations of Eastern Europe, faith in Christ was practically forbidden. The people of East Europe, who had venerated Mary so much, were unable to give her even a little space because atheism had occupied all spheres of their lives. Therefore, Mary went forth from Fatima to help the troubled disciples of her Son in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Fatima is like the head of a bridge, as it were, which Mary uses to bear Christ to the peoples of the East, for it is He who in reality gives freedom to man. Europe will never forget this opening of the doors to Mary by Portugal. Departing from here, Mary could convert the European states in the east of this continent.”

Now, for some key specific dates, which are clearly attributable to Our Lady of Fatima:

October 13, 1990—First religious ceremony, since the Marxist Revolution in 1917, was held at the Cathedral of the Assumption inside the Kremlin. The cathedral had previously been used as a museum of atheism. The next day, the first Orthodox Mass was held at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square “in celebration of the Virgin Mary’s intercession to alleviate human suffering.” October 13, 1917 was the date of the miracle of the sun, witnessed by 70,000 at Fatima.

The Cathedral of the Assumption
inside the Kremlin

Mary’s presence, without question, thwarted the attempt by hardliners to restore communism in August 1991. Look at what happened on specific dates.

Readers may recall that Our Lady of Fatima appeared on the 19th, not the 13th, of August 1917 to the three shepherd children. The children had been forcibly abducted by the administrator of Ourem. Each of the children had thought the other had been boiled alive, as the administrator told them. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were willing to give up their lives rather than deny the truth of what they saw and heard from Our Lady.

The coup against President Gorbachev was launched on exactly the same day, August 19, in the year 1991, in an effort to restore hardline communism. The next day, August 20, the Pope in Hungary asked in a consecration of Hungary to Our Lady, for her to come to the aid of the nation, preventing former Hungarian communists from a retaliatory coup of their own, like the one started the day before in Russia.

The Russian coup collapsed on August 21, at 6:30 p.m., the eve of the feast of the Queenship of Mary. August 21 is also the feast of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland, the first Marian shrine Pope John Paul II visited after he became Pope.

The final dissolution of Marxism and Communism was set in motion August 22, which for years was the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary until it was placed alongside the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June. The feast of the Queenship of Mary is celebrated on August 22.

By the 24th of August, the Communist party was banned from all state bodies.

Later, on another key date, December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, President of Russia Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Byelorussia announced that they had signed an agreement setting up a commonwealth. On that day, the death of the old Soviet Union became a foregone conclusion, replaced by a commonwealth with religious freedom, with free elections.

The final act in the immense change in Russia took place on Christmas Day, 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as president of the U.S.S.R. That day, the hammer and sickle flag of the former Soviet Union was lowered for the last time, and the tricolor flag of Russia was raised.

Also on December 25, celebrated as the birth of Jesus, the Russian Parliament gave birth to the Russian Federation, dropping the Soviet Socialist Republic. The U.S.S.R. was dead! On the birth of Christ!

All of these changes took place between Pope John Paul II’s consecration of Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, March 25, 1984, and December 25, 1991—7 years and 9 months.

Even those who don’t pray the rosary, or don’t believe, would be hard pressed to call all of these dates coincidences. They are all, in truth, God-incidents. Divine Providence and Our Lady were at work for the desires of her Immaculate Heart and Jesus’ Sacred Heart.

“The underlying providential disposition that may be discerned through the remarkable concurrence of key events and dates is one of the principle themes,” wrote Timothy Tindal-Robertson in “Fatima, Russia and Pope John Paul II”. Mr. Tindal-Robertson did a great service in the 1990’s for believers and Our Lady with his important book, whose revised edition was published in 1998.

Father Fox, known everywhere as “America’s Fatima Priest” did a great service for the citizens of the United States of America, when, without any news about it, he dedicated, at Fatima, our country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, at the request of President Ronald Reagan. The White House had made it clear at the time that it would deny such a request was made if the press learned about it, Fr. Fox told me. It was Reagan who kept a great deal of pressure on Gorbachev.

Adobe Acrobat version of this document for viewing and printing