TO END RELIGION

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 10

TO END RELIGION

Soviet’s Five-Year Plan

RUSSIA WITHOUT GOD The Soviet Government’s determination to exterminate all religion, all belief iu the Supreme Deity, and all sacred teaching, is expressed in a Decree now being put into effect (wrote a special correspondent of the London “Morning Post” recently).

This Decree, signed by Stalin, Bekhterof, Jarrosiavsky, Kogan and Lobatchevsky, approved by the Supreme Council of- the Communist Party and ratified by the High Commission of the Soviet Republic, came into operation on May 15 last. It fixes five years for the “liquidation of all religions” as from that date, and provides an annual timetable for the progressive accomplishment of its unholy ends.

To appreciate the full significance of this measure, it must be noted that it is not only Christian faith which is assailed, but all faiths. The people therefore most affected in Russia along with the Christians are the Jews and the Mohammedans.

As persons of Jewish origin have been notoriously conspicuous in the building up of the Bolshevist - State, and as the condition of the Mohammedans of Russia (totalling about 30 million souls) affects the Soviet’s relationship with Turkey, the publication of the terms of the “Five-Year Godless Campaign” decree has been marked with discretion. In Rusisa itself everyone knows the terms of the decree, but care is taken that a transcription of the actual document is not available. It is left to certain atheistic agencies to explain in detail the terms of this decree to end religion. Propaganda in All Countries. The official Soviet Press refers to the plan only in generalities. From other Bolshevist sources, however, the following details are gathered of the programme at present being developed not only in Russia but in all countries of the world by Bolshevist propagandists. In the first year of the Five-Year Plan provision is made for the closing down of all religious schools, seminaries, and theological courses. During this period everybody connected with or known to be in the service of any religious cult is placed in the category of those to whom a Government ration card is denied; that is, they are deprived of all means of subsistence. It is now over a year since this repressive measure has been in operation, so this part of the plan refers to a “fait accompli.” The plan does not include for the first year the' immediate closure of churches, nor the official liquidation of ecclesiastical associations. These are reserved for later.

In 1933 the “active irreligious campaign must be redoubled so as to ensure the definite abolition of religion in the home and in the officially registered associations of believers,” i.e., in the old nionasteries. This work, it is contemplated, • will be completed by October, 1933.

The printing of books, reviews, pamphlets, and manuals of a religious nature will be forbidden. Those responsible for the manufacture of objects intended to serve religious purposes or usages will be most severely punished. In the course of the year there will be launched propaganda with the special object of instilling the principles of reasoned unbelief in the masses. At least 150 films dealing with Atheism are to be prepared for free circulation. “Atheist Cells.” The third year is dedicated to the development of “Atheist cells.” During this phase provision is made for the deportation of such remaining “servitors of the cults” as have not already renounced their religious functions and beliefs. By< May 1 of this year the definite and final closure of all churches or temples of . worship and the dissolution of all ecclesiastical associations must be completed in all populous centres. In the fourth year all churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and houses of prayer must be placed at the disposal of the Government institutions in order to be transformed into cinemas, clubs, and “other places of reasonable recreation.”

In the fifth year closure of churches and religious buildings must be completed in the rural areas. May 1, 1937, is supposed to see a Russia with God driven out.