Karl Marx As a Religious Type: His Relation to the Religion of Anthropotheism of L. Feuerbach, by Sergei Bulgakov

Since this is the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, I've been trying to read more about the history of that time and the people who were involved or contributed to it in some way. Karl Marx, as the originator of Marxism, was definitely an intellectual contributor to it. 

In this short book, Russian Orthodox priest and philosopher Sergei Bulgakov analyzes the personality and background of Karl Marx based on his writings and the writings of Marx's contemporaries, and Marx's impact on the socialist movement. Bulgakov was a contemporary of Lenin rather than Marx; he was himself a Marxist in his youth and later returned to and was ordained in his faith. Bulgakov points out how important atheism, the materialist worldview, and the elimination of religion were to Marx (i.e. it was the main feature, not a side show). Marx saw socialism as a means to eliminate religion, rather than elimination of religion being a side effect of socialism eliminating poverty. Among other topics, Bulgakov also cites evidence of Marx's dictatorial and vindictive personality as observed by writings of his contemporaries and his treatment of them, his greater affinity for the ideas of Feuerbach rather than Hegel, and his attitude towards his own ancestral people, the Jews.

This book is available online here.