STUDENTS' CALVARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 228, 26 September 1934, Page 3

STUDENTS' CALVARY.

ANTI-RELIGION IN RUSSIA. JIISS GRUSHENKOVA'S STORY. A vivid address on the anti-religioai activities of the Soviet Government in Russia was given by Miss Natalie Gruslienkova, a former lecturer at Leningrad University and now a member of the Russian Missionary Society, at the Auckland University College Hall last evening. "It is compulsory for all students to attend the most repulsive anti-religious meetings," said Miss Gruslienkova, "and they are often given tickets to attend blasphemous films and plays. Under the Soviet regime the universities are purged of all students who are regarded as having 'doubtful' doctrines. In 1924 and 1925 students numbering 03,000 were expelled because they were religious, because they held different political views from those of the Government, or because they belonged to a class that was not liked.

"Expulsion means that a student w barred from all employment, as well as being prevented from going to another university to complete his course, even if that would take only a month. As a result many commit suicide, as the future holds nothing but misery and hardship. Some students are exiled to prison camps. I know one woman medical student who was sent to prison for endeavouring to give spiritual help to a fellow student. While in prison she was subjected to a 'frightening' process, which drove her insane. Then she was released. Another student, a man, was thrown into a dungeon for being a Christian, and was later sent to a prison, camp in the north, where he is still a prisoner." Miss Gruslienkova said that these were only a few individual cases of the many who suffered separation from their loved ones, confiscation, hunger, thirst, torture and even death for their religious convictions.