HOW RELIGION FARES IN RUSSIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3132, 28 August 1922, Page 7

HOW RELIGION FARES IN RUSSIA.

(Mv Sasha Koiopotkin.)

The outstanding change in the psychology of European nations since the great War is the realisation that ideals count, that a purely materialistic h:»is and conception of life are useless, the failure of Communism as applied by the Soviet- Government is a definite prdol of this. The indignant masses rallying, round the Church to-day are the result of that starvation of the soul ol the Russian people to which they have been subjected for nearly live years. The current criticism heard to-diy from peasant and worker alike is “Pravdi net” —“There is no truth.’ This is. they consider, a tar graver accusation than “Poriadka net ’ “ 1 here is no order.” , , It may seem paradoxical to State that the Orthodox Church lias benefited enormously by these years ol Communist rule. Swaddled in red tape, and ruled to a great extend by mercenary opportunists, it needed reforming no less than the Government it served. The "wiser of its dignitaries realised this, as well as the need of closer contact' with tlie masses. 'I heir opportunity came in 11)20, when the Soviet Government exiled the bishops to their dioceses. Sermons were preached that Russian villages had not heard before, and the churches were filled to overflowing with congregations composed chiefly' of men. The bishops found tliunisclvcs protected hy the populu(ion. who threatened violence to the local Soviets when they saw real, or even imaginary, attempts to inconvenience the bishops. Another importantresult of this measure was to bring them into very close communion with the rank and iile of the priesthood. In M. Krassin’s reply to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the subject of the persecution ol priests in Russia, he states that “the vast majority of the clergy sides with the Soviet Power

and the laboring masses it represents. This is incorrect. The clergy are, on the whole, very democratic. They understand the peasants, and are far more "liberal" in their views, many of them even socialistic, than the higher dignitaries. But they do not, any more than the peasants, "side with the Soviet Power," though they probably would not be happy with a very reactionary power either. 1 have recently had occasion to speak witb a Soviet official—not a Communist, it is true, but an extremist and an athiest. He could talk of nothing hut the amazing growth of religious feeling among the working men, with whom his whole time is spent. I asked what would he the outcome. He drew his hand across his throat. "That—for us." The Government attack on . the Church is forging the link between peasant and worker. It will unite them in their grievances and discontent against the Soviet Government. And the Church, to which the masses have blindly turned in their seeking for the vague but imperishable ideal of brotherhood, that idea which the /Communists preached but'have failed to practise, will benefit, and will play its part in reuniting an ideatjst and Christian people.