MOSCOW’S ATTACK ON RELIGION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18760, 26 December 1930, Page 9

MOSCOW’S ATTACK ON RELIGION.

Blasphemous Play Produced ANTI-CHRISTIAN CAMPAIGN. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright RIGA, December 23. As part of the Soviet anti-Christmas campaign, a new anti-religious play entitled “The Virgin Mary,” is being produced in Moscow. Mary appears in a modern short gown. One of the chief characters is the “Archbishop Conartceray,” which is designed to cloak “Canterbury.” He and Mary provide the chief dialogue, which is described as the play’s principal attraction. RUSSIA’S BID FOR PROGRESS. POLICY OF SACRIFICE. PAST YEAR’S EFFORTS. Although the Soviet officials periodically attack the religious, the real objects of the leaders is economic. Russia entered the third “economic year” of her Five-Year Plan of Industrial Development on October 1 last. The manifesto of the Communist Party issued on that occasion gives a different picture of events from the above message, though it is admitted that the policy of the Soviet Government has been to enforce self-denial so that big constructural work may go on. “The third year of the Five-Year Plan will be a new and tremendous step forward to the industrialisation of the country,” says the manifesto, as reported in the “Manchester Guardian.” “In the year 1930-31 the planned increase of industrial production will equal the sum total of industrial production before the war. “The preliminary condition for the carrying out of this great economic programme, however, is the fulfilment of the industrial finance programme of the current year. “In the first ten months of the second year of the Five-Year Plan Socialist large-scale industry has increased its total production by 27 per cent., and thus reached a record growth for the whole period of reconstruction. In the same period the heavy industries, which are the basis of Socialism, have increased their production by 39.5 per cent. “Not up to Schedule.” “All these successes, however, must not conceal the fact that industry has not quite carried out the original plan. Industry lags behind the envisaged figure of 32 per cent. Particularly unsatisfactory is the fulfilment of the building programme, which was carried out by only 50 per cent, in the first three-quarters of the current year. The most important reason for the failure to carry out the plan was the lack of energy and initiative in the mobilisation of the resources of the country, an insufficient utilisation of the existing factory equipment, stoppages as a result of bad organisation of the raw material supply, a lack of systematic rationalisation, insufficient working out of factory plans, etc. The many cases of exaggerated orders for equipment to be imported from abroad without first attempting to obtain the equipment from Soviet industry, offer proof of the bureaucratic ideology of some of our economic leaders, and often represent the expression of opportunist disbelief in the possibilities of Socialist industry. “The changes which showed themselves in the economic situation also played a large role, particularly power and its tendency to change frequently its position. The tremendous development of Socialist, industry, the demand for new masses of workers, particularly those from the countryside, the development of the Soviet farms, and collective agricultural undertakings, and the increased harvests have caused great changes in comparison with the time when there was permanently a considerable number of unemployed workers in the towns, and the peasants had more than enough outside labour power at their disposal. Passive. “In this connection the economic Labour Union, and even party organisations have adopted a passive attitude and tolerated the development of the fluctuation of labour power. The organs of the Labour Commissariat continued to publish bureaucratic statistics concerning hundreds of thousands of unemployed, and continued to pay millions and millions of roubles in unemployment support, although all industrial districts were crying out for workers and totally failed to take any action against those who did not want to work. “The fundamental failure of the economic work was seen in the incapacity to organise and direct the rapidly growing activity of the working class. The Socialist competitive scheme has now entered on a new phase. The plans of production drawn up by the higher economic organs for the factories are now being examined, corrected, and extended by the workers themselves.

“This practise draws the masses of the workers into the work for the building up of Socialism and represents an important weapon in the struggle against the sabotagers. In many cases, however, the initiative of the workers has not been sufficiently supported by the party organisations and other factory organisations.” The manifesto admits that there has been hardship in the cities through the failure of the co-operatives (distributing stores) to distribute articles of consumption in such a way that the interests of factory workers were taken into consideration. In industrial areas, dairy farms, vegetable gardens on a large scale, and cattle-breeding undertakings, must be organised within reach of the big towns.