MONTH IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20960, 25 August 1931, Page 6

MONTH IN RUSSIA.

r POWER OF PROPAGANDA. MAY DAY IN MOSCOW. ATTITUDE TOWARD RELIGION. Valuable opportunities of seeing for himself conditions in Russia were enjoyed last May by Dr. J. D. Salmond, -who returned to New Zealand yesterday by the Niagara. Dr. Salmond was recently appointed professor and director of religious education for the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, and for the past three years he' has been pursuing educational and theological studies abroad. Dr. Salmond's visit to the Soviet Republic was made under the auspices of the Russian State Tourist Department, which arranged for special parties to see the May Day celebrations. The party he was with contained a considerable number of Communists and Russian sympathisers, and on that account they probably saw more than most tourists would. Ho spent a month altogether in the country, chiefly in Leningrad, Moscow and Nijni Novgorod. "We were exceedingly well treated," said Dr. Salmond, "and the guides were quite willing to show us just what we asked to see." Headquarters of Atheists. One of the visitors' most vivid impressions of Leningrad was of the Hermitage or great art museum, where the wonderful art treasures of the nation Were displayed.

Among the notable buildings visited was a. huge and elaborately equipped working men's club that had cost £300,000 to erect; and an anti-religion museum housed in tlie beautiful Cathedral of St. Isaacs, where the old ikons and religious pictures still hung among caricatures of all the various religions of the world. There the Society of, Militant Atheists has its meetings. Speaking generally churches were well Attended and appeared to be carrying on much as usual, although it was noticeable that the congregations were mostly elderiy people and included few under 35 years of age. For the May Day celebrations in Moscow, Dr. Salmond's party were well placed at a central hotel. The city was ablaze with red posters and banners, and from street posts radios blared forth revolutionary songs and exhortations. More than one million people took part in this colossal demonstration, which was attended by 800 bands and by aeroplanes •"stunting" bravely overhead. " I did not see a single drunk man that day," said Dr. Salmond. " There is a big propaganda in the factories against excessive drinking as interfering with the Slfonomic reconstruction of the country." Vigorous Propaganda. Everywhere Dr. Salmond found vigorous and unceasing propaganda in picture halls, museums and educational institutions for the definite aims that the leaders of Russia have set before them. Every means is taken, to encourage those who devote themselves whole-heartedly to furthering the Five Year Plan, and the enthusiasm and devotion of the young people in that cause is wonderful. In summing up his impressions, Dr. Salmond said he could see three good sides in Russia of to-day. He admired the tremendous enthusiasm, especially of some of the Communists. In the second place the Russians had got rid of artificial class distinctions. They had been ruthless in suppressing, classes of which they disapproved in their aim to build a new society on a classless basis. Whether they would succeed remained to be seen. In the third place, it was to their credit that they had a genuine desire to give economic security to the common man.

On the other side their attitude toward religion was unscientific. Religion could not be ruled out by slogans, but the Christianity they were reacting against was the Christianity of the old Orthodox Greek Church/ which had been inextricably associated with the Tsarist regime. '.Again, the Russians despised evolutionary progress, and hence their opposition to the British Labour Party. They held that revolution was the only way. Dr. Salmond objected also to their attempt to crush individuality and regiment thought on the narrow materialistic basis cf Marx. " I feel that Russia presents a tremendous challenge, said Dr. Salmond. It is useless calling them names. We must confront Communism by something better, and as Professor H. Laski, of tho London School of Economics, has said, Christianity is the only system that can confront it successfully. The trouble is that there is little attempt being made to apply Christianity socially."