RELIGION IN RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17802, 29 August 1929, Page 11

RELIGION IN RUSSIA.

GROWTH OF SECTARIANISM ATHEISM IN THE BCHOOLS. (From a Correspondent.) MOSCOW. Atheism has become almost a State creed in the “ Holy Russia ” of the Tsars. Under the Constitution the Soviet Government recognises the two principles of freedom for all forms of religious faith and separation of Church and Slate. But renunciation of all form of religious belief is a condition of membership in tlie ruling Communist- Party and its junior organisation, the Union of Communist Youth, and no effort of agitation and propaganda is spared to wean away the peoples of tile Soviet Union from all religious practices. One may distinguish two elements in the Communist hostility toward religion. There is first the theoretical conviction that any religious interpretion of life, no mater how liberal or rationalistic it may be, is incompatible with the teachings of Marxian materialism, which, for Communists, possess dogmatic authority. Then there is the practical political consideration 1 that the Russian Orthodox Church, which was so closely associated in many ways with the Tsarist regime, could not be expected to maintain a very loyal attitude toward a revolutionary government which, besides sweeping away Tsarism, dispossessed the Church of its landed wealth and cut off its subsidies from State resources. During the first years of the Revolution this political consideration was uppermost in the minds of the Soviet leaders. Heavy blows were directed against the Orthodox Church, many of its bishops and priests were imprisoned, and some were .executed on charges of counter-revolutionary activity. But the sectarians, or dissidents from the Orthodox Church, who were subjected to persecution In prewar times were as a general rule left alone, although their pastors were subjected to the same disabilities as the Orthodox priests in being deprived of civic rights. Lately, however, there has been a change; and it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that the main spearhead of the intensified antireligious campaign of the last year has been turned against the secretarians, among whom the two most numerous groups are the Baptists and the Evangelical Christians. While attendance at the services of the Orthodox Church has unquestionably declined, in comparison with pre-war figures, the secretariats have been growing in membership by leaps and bounds, especially among the peasantry, and also in some working-class cities and regions, notably, in Leningrad and in the Dpnctz ooal basin. iAn (active anti-religious agitator with whom I talked declared: — “ The secretarians are our mostdangerous enemies, because they have discarded the more superstitius forms of refigon and do not teach things that may be easily disproved by science and commonsense.” Membership Trebled.

It is estimated that there are now , almost a million members of various dissident sects .which represents ap- ! j proximafely treble the pre-war mera- ■ bership. When families and sympai thisers are included it is calculated that the secretarian movement in Russia affects several million persons. A recent law regulating the activity of religious societies in the Soviet Union, contains two or three provisions which strike at the heart of two main aspects in the extension of sectarian activity; the sending out of missionaries from central headquarters and the extension of church activity into educational, recreational, and benevolent fields. One clause of this law provides that “ the region of activity of ministers of cults, religious preachers, , etc., is limited to the place or resi- ! dcnce of the religious unit which they serve and the place of existence of the corresponding house of worship.” This is pretty definitely aimed at itinerant preachers and missionaries. Under another paragraph of the law religious organisations are forbidden : (a) to create mutual aid funds, co-operatives, productive societies, and, in general, to use the property in their possession for any ends except the satifaction of religious needs; (b) to render material support to their members; (c) to organise special meetings for children, young people, women, and for prayer and in general to organise meetings, groups, courses, departments, etc., for Bible study, literature, manual training, and religious education and also to arrange excursions and children's parks, to open libraries and reading-rooms, to organise sanatoria and medical aid. Another indication of the new more active anti-religious policy of the Communist Party is the movement to make the schools of the country not only' non-religious, as they have been ever since the Revolution, but definitely anti-religious in teaching. “ A God-seeking People.” How will it .end, this first conscious effort to make a large national atheistic The issue would seem to depend largely upon how far religion is the product of such mechanical influences as habit, authority, tradition, early training, and how far it is a spontaneous psychological and spiritual need of human nature. Obviously, so long as the Communist attitude toward religion remains unchanged (and there is no reason to anticipate any abatement of the fundamental hostility, although there may be alternations of mildness and severity in method) religion will have no external basis of support. The influences of State, school, and society, which in other countries are generally either favourable to religion or at least neutral, will be cast solidly against it. But in so far as religion Is a matter of mature individual faith and decision it will quite probably be strengthened rather than weakened by the 1 period of trial and official disfavour ; through which it is passing. The Russian philosopher Soloviev described his countrymen as a “ Godseeking people.” and there is much in Russian literature that would tend to i support this characterisation. It will i not he surprised if among those who ] turn away, unconvinced or unsatisfied, 1 from the Communist promise of “a paradise in this world ” old religious tendencies, both mystical and rationalistic, will he strengthened and new < ones will arise. (