SOVIET RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 16

SOVIET RUSSIA

RELIGICftIS TEACHING

GREATER .TOLERATION

'So:shrewdly has'the Church in Russia adapted itself to new conditions in the struggle for survival that antireligionists and militant atheists have no easy time winning converts to their ideas, writes the Moscow correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." They have complained bitterly in recent months of the persuasive methods by which the clergy maintain their hold over considerable sections of the population. At a conference on antireligious propaganda held by the Comiwuuists of Yaroslavl, a city near Moscow, one priest was reported to have said: "We must explain that Christ was of proletarian origin, the son of a carpenter. His mother was a simple toiling woman; linked by her social origin to the proletariat and'the toiling peasantry. Jesus Christ was the great Socialist-Communist, the ghostly father and predecessor of the Communist Party." To the Soviet atheists, Christ's faith in the supernatural and failure to offer practical means' for achieving the social justice which' he, preached make him the antithesis of a Communist. Thus,, to. advocate religion on the ground that Christ was "the great Socialist-Communist" is, they say, to enlist support for anti-Commun-ist doctrines by plastering on them a bold Communist label.

The Bolsheviks of the . Yaroslavl meeting were irate at learning, that in the neighbouring ■ Rybinsk region 35 per cent, of the autumn harvest had been lost because collective farmers there celebrated no fewer than sixtyseven religious holidays, during the summer, to the neglect of their work. To combat such activities 550 persons in Yaroslavl are to receive' special training as anti-religious propagandists. The case was reported not-long-ago of a priest who had daubed, red paint on the cross of his church's spire, in order to show ostensible loyalty to the Soviet regime and thus attract a congregation. Other clergymen' have refused to serve peasants who are not members of collective farms.

Mohammedans have so far been less affected by atheist teachings than the Christian groups. In Adjaristan, lor example, a Mohammedan district of the Caucasus, the mullahs half-emptied the Government schools of their pupils by organising religious seminaries which met at precisely the same hours. So strong was the mullahs' hold over the people that "their manoeuvre was finally overcome only by installing religious sections in the curriculum of the secular schools. The mullahs were invited to become instructors • here. Pupil.1:' who read tlie Koran one hour were taught in the following class that there is no Crod. The outcome of the experiment is not yet known. ANTI-RELIGIOUS MUSEUMS. Anti-religious museums, familiar to every visitor to Russia, are the most popular form of atheistic propaganda. A special exhibit of this type just organised in Leningrad is devoted to Spain, and attempts to show the reactionary role of the Church" there. Examples of ecclesiastical brutality, fanaticism, and backwardness are shown. The Spanish Catholics are depicted, as guardians of feudalism and monarchy.' The wealth and power of- the Jesuits is stressed. Photographs of an archbishop in the. company of. General Franco, priests manning rebel.machineguns, or officiating at rebel celebrations are displayed. A large central anti-religious museum is to bo built soon in Moscow, to replace, the one formerly located in the Strasnooi Monastery, which is being demolished in the reconstruction of the city. The revival of interest in atheist propaganda is apparently a reflection of the renewed freedom for religion which has made its appearance,in the past year or two. Certainly a more tolerant attitude has been adopted towards believers and churchgoers than in the past, though no change has yet been made in the legal status of religion. It is still against the law to teach religious doctrines except within the home. ■ Nevertheless, the abusive and rowdy jeering at religion of a few years ago has gone. Churches are no longer being closed. In fact, many are undergoing renovation. - On a recent trip to Kiev, capital of the I -saw some interesting developments in this. direction. Remarkable specimens of ancient Byzantine art, concealed • under layers of eighteenth and nineteenth . century paintings, are being restored to their original condition in the Cathedral of St.- Sophia. Built by Yaroslavl, Russia's second king, in A,D. 1000, this cathedral had been a place of worship for hundreds of years until it was closed in 1934, in order that archaeologists might make a detailed study of it. STALIN'S REBUKE. Many zealous young Communists have objected to the enfranchisement of priests, sanctioned in the new Constitution, on the- ground that it is a dangerous measure of freedom. They have been assured that to withhold the franchise would be to martyrise the clergy in the eyes* of many and thus win fresh sympathy for them. In his speech opening the Extraordinary Congress of Soviets the other day, Stalin sharply rebuked those enthusiasts who recommended amending.the new Constitution to forbid religious services. This would have violated the spirit of th,e document, he said.