"RUSSIA AS AN EXAMPLE"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 144, 21 June 1933, Page 15

"RUSSIA AS AN EXAMPLE"

(To the Editor.) SiiY-Biskop ■ Cherririgton obviously is not aware ot the real views of the Com-muaist-Party with regard to religion of ail kinds. Your correspondent, ''WA " contradicts the expression, "militant atheism, ,i Se d by -'Veritas." Here is an ' autuontative statement on the subiect taken from the "A.B.C. of Communism," by .bukhanu, a leader of the party in boviet Kussia. A chapter devoted to U>mmunisni und religion, quotes Marx's dictum that ''religion is the opium of the people/'. The "A.8.C." says "it is the task ol the party to make this truth comprehensible to the labouring masses." It assures "weak-kneed Communists," who may think that religion does not prevent them from being Communists, that "this train of thought is radically false, for religion and Communism are incompatible, both theoretically and practically." Further on it states that anyone who continues to cling to his religious beliefs ceases thereby to be a Communist." lv short, one cannot belong to a religious body and be a Communist. The above publication also asserts that one of the most important tasks of the proletarian state 'is to liberate children from the reactionary influence of their parents— and we must see to it that the school assumes the offensive against religious propaganda in the home. It is essential to wage with the utmost vigour the war against religious prejudices." .The whole chapter shows that the Coinniumst theory declares Communism to be incompatible with religion, and that Communist practice tries to make the theory eficctive.—"Wu are, etc., X.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE. "One of the Thirty Million"' writes:— Veritas' avers that 'the aim of Communism is to make the individual the chattel of the State, aud to reduce man to more economic value!' Under the capitalistic system man is already reckoned at his economic value. His value is reckoned according to the profits he can make for the individual who employs him. Far better to be a chattel for use to the1 State than a chattel to any individual for profit. Under a Communist State people are not considered individually but collectively. The, State docs not fuuctiou for the individual, but for the benefit of the- community at large. 'Vcritas' gays, 'Any truth contained.in the teachings of Communism has bceu taught for centuries by the Christian Church. If so, why are not such truths; practised Under the prosent system in this country? What people want at present is not spiritual welfare but material ■welfare. The Christian Church has done nothing'so far for the thirty million unemployed in capitalistic States, so § it is time those people turned to another system from which they will derive some material benefit." "L." says that the old religious order is not encouraged in Russia, but it is riot persecuted, and he states that the attendance of 2,000,000 people at the churches is evidence of this. Answering the suggestion that the individual is the "slave and •chattel of the State," the writer contends that the seven-hour days is not evidence of slavery. [This correspondence is now closed.— Ed.] ....