Why St Nicholas works wonders for Russians

The Soviet Union turned its back on religion but modern Russia, under Vladimir Putin - the former KGB officer - has made religion, nationalism, patriotism and conservatism cornerstones of the Russian state, reports BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg.

One hundred years ago, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin dismissed religion as an "abomination".

"Any religious idea, any flirtation with a god," he wrote, "is the most inexpressible foulness, the most shameful infection."

Ironically, after Lenin's death, his successors turned him into a god-like figure, with Lenin portraits and statues, and his embalmed body enthroned in a temple-like mausoleum on Red Square.

Encouraged by this dizzying personality cult, for decades Soviet citizens flocked to Moscow from across the USSR to pay homage to the late great Bolshevik. They would spend up to eight hours queuing outside the mausoleum, waiting for their chance to file past Lenin's wax-like corpse.