RELIGION IN RUSSIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 77, 26 February 1930, Page 7

RELIGION IN RUSSIA

CONFLICTING REPORTS. PERSECUTION BY SOVIET. INVESTIGATOR’S STORY. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, Feb. 24. There are so many gonflicting reports regarding the extent of the antireligious campaign in Russia that it is most difficult to get a true summary of the real position. The first despatch from a British United Press special representative sent to investigate the position reached London to-night, his account embodying his observations in Moscow on Sunday. The correspondent says: “It was a day of contradictions, contrasts nnd perplexities. In practically all Moscow’s fifteen hundred churches (so far only 100 have been diverted to other uses or demolished), the usual services were held, although the congregations were depleted. He was surprised to hear at least one church bell ringing. “I attended the stately Cathedral of the Holy Saviour, the favourite church of the Tsar and Tsarina, close to the Kremlin, where the'o were five hundred worshippers as devout as any to be seen in London, Rome or New York. The small attendance no doubt was due in part to the atheist campaign, and in part to the fact that Sundays have become working days in the factories and shops running normally. “Afterwards I went by taxi to the anti-religious State Museum, which is devoted to charts, pictures and models depicting the theory of evolution, and the alleged relationship of Christianity and paganism. The visitors were mostly youths and children, who appeared to Ire keenly interested.” The correspondent detailed his journey throughout the city, where he saw commissary stores crowded with ration card holders. He then visited a crowded cinema, where he viewed an allRussian film, which, photographically and technically, was superior to the American article, a current news film, and a graphically-portrayed demolition of the St. Simon Monastery, once the abode of Ivan the Terrible. The correspondent ended the day in the crowded National Opera, where he saw a superb performance by the Russian ballet. “Throughout the day there was not the slightest indication that the people of Moscow -were disturbed or in any way influenced for or against the world-wide agitaton on the religious issue,” the correspondent concludes. BRITAIN CONCERNED. ATTITUDE DEFINED LONDON, Feb. 24. The Prime Minister, Mr Ramsay MacDonald, stated to-day that the Government was much concerned with what was going on in Russia, but had not got the facts. News from Riga should not be believed until corroborated. Many statements from there had proved false. Russia’s religious history was full of records of persecution. The members of his Cabinet had an inherited hatred of persecution and were not likely to be mdfferent thereto, but agitation inspired by politics as much as bv religious toleration .must not deflect the Government from pursuing the ordinary rules of international relationship. The tone and temper of the present agitation was hardening rather than softening the Russian Government’s heart and giving it the opportunity erroneously to persuade its own people that this was part of a conspiracy by other Governments to begin a war against the Soviet. His Government was not indifferent, but it intended to avoid any action which would add to the inflictions of Christians m Russia. AMAZINGLY PLACID. MEMBERS OF ORTHODOX CHURCH. Received February 26, 10.30 a.m. MOSCOW, Feb. 25. The Russian members of the Orthodox Church are amazingly placid under the Soviet’s anti-religious war. though there have been some violent reactions m scattered villages. Although thousands of churches were closed at Christmas, fifty thousand still remain, with thirty thousand priests officiating. The excitement in the outside world has merely stimulated the Press to comment that The indignation is a pretext to cover an anti-Soviet campaign. PEASANTS MASSACRED. BERLIN, Feb. 5. Russian newspapers published here disclose a Soviet campaign against the prosperous class of peasants, known as the Koulaks, who are openly anti-Bolshevist or allegedly secret counter-revolutionaries. At least forty are massacred daily,, while thousands are driven from their farms to face starvation. Their places are taken by engineers, doctors, journalists, artists and actors.