The educa-
tional campaign against religion in the U.
tional campaign against religion in the U.
Soviet Union - 1952 - Soviet Civilization
.
.
All opposition be-
tween the classes must cease and harmonious collabora-
tion must be established between the various classes. "
Such statements are naturally anathema to the Marxists
of Soviet Russia. -
The economic foundations and connections of the
Russian Orthodox Church are important to note. Up
till 1917 it was the wealthiest single organization in all
of Russia, exploiting scores of thousands of peasants on
its immense estates and owning large blocks of the most
profitable stocks and bonds. At the time of the Revolu-
tion the bank account of the Church amounted to about
8,000,000,000 rubles (equal to $4,000,000,000 in 1917)
and its annual income to about 500,000,000 rubles. In
addition, there was the enormous capital value of its
20,000,000 acres of land, its cathedrals, its churches, its
monasteries and the gorgeous gold and silver decorations
of these religious edifices. And all of these assets were
being continually augmented by very substantial financial
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
grants from the Government. In short, the Church itself
was a great feudalist-capitalist institution in the old
Russia, with its fundamental economic interests every-
where intertwined with and dependent upon the Tsarist
system of political oppression and economic exploitation.
The Orthodox Church within the U. S. S. R. and the
Catholic Church outside it have been the two religious
institutions which the Soviets have most feared and op-
posed. But on principle they are against all religions, in-
cluding Protestantism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Bud-
dhism, Confucianism, Taoism or any other. A reformed
and liberal Church does not seem, either, an acceptable
solution to the Communist. His position is that since
religion is necessarily tied up with a belief in the super-
natural, it cannot be reformed so as to become a good
influence in the world without ceasing to be religion.
In this respect it is unlike education, for example, which
can clearly be bent to the purposes of a socialist regime.
The Marxist also considers most confusing and harm-
ful the widespread habit of redefining religious terms,
like God, immortality and religion itself, so broadly and
vaguely that they lose all distinctive meaning. He is
likely to think that this is a theological trick to retain
for religion the support of the more educated and sophist-
icated groups. In 1913 Maxim Gorky, for instance, re-
defined God, as "a complex of those ideas, worked out by
tribes, by nations, by humanity at large, which arouse
and organize the social emotions, and which serve to
unite the individual with society and to curb zoological
individualism. "10 Under such a definition God ceases to
be an independent supernatural being or Creator and
becomes synonymous with the higher ethical and social
ideals of men. This meaning of God enables even out-
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AN[D RELIGIOH
right atheists to believe in him. Though Gorky was sym-
pathetic to the Left, Lenin criticized him severely for
his "God-building" and accused him of playing into the
hands of the clerics.
3. Soviet Practice in regard to Religion
There are three main documentary sources for the
understanding of the Soviet policy toward religion. The
first of these is the Government decree of February 5,
1918, entitled "Separation of the Church from the State
and the School from the Church. " Its thirteen sections
are as follows:
1. The Church is separated from the State.
2. Within the territory of the Republic the passing
of any local laws or regulations limiting or interfering
with freedom of conscience or granting special rights or
privileges to citizens because they belong to a certain
faith is forbidden.
3. Every citizen has a right to adopt any religion or
not to adopt any at all. Every legal restriction connected
with the profession of certain faiths or with the non-
profession of any faith is now abolished. Official acts
shall make no mention of a citizen's faith.
4. State or semi-official public functions are not to be
accompanied by religious ceremonies or rituals.
5. Religious performances may be carried on freely
insofar as they do not disturb the public order or en-
croach upon the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take the necessary
measures to preserve order and safeguard the rights
of citizens.
6. No one can decline to carry out his civic duties on
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the ground of his religious views. Exception to this rul-
ing may be made by special decision of the people's court
provided one civic duty is substituted for another.
7. Religious oaths are abolished. In case of necessity
a solemn promise will suffice.
8. All civil acts are performed exclusively by the
civic authorities in charge of the department for the regis-
tration of marriages and births.
9. The school is separated from the Church. The
teaching of religion in state and public schools, as well as
in private schools where general subjects are taught, is
forbidden. Citizens may study or teach religious subjects
privately.
10. Church and religious societies are subject to the
same laws and regulations as private societies and unions.
They do not enjoy any special privileges or subsidies
from the State or from local institutions.
11. The levying of obligatory collections or imposi-
tions for the benefit of church or religious societies is
forbidden. These organizations are forbidden also to
coerce or punish their members.
12. Church and religious societies have no right to
own property. They do not have the rights of a legal
person.
13. All property in Russia now owned by churches
and religious organizations is henceforth the property of
the people. Buildings and objects that are needed for
religious services revert to the free use of religious organ-
izations by special decree of the local or central govern-
ment authorities.
The second source is the Article in the Soviet Consti-
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RELIGIOH
tution which I cited earlier:* "In order to ensure to
citizens freedom of conscience, the Church in the U. S.
S. R. is separated from the State, and the school from the
Church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of
anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens. "
The third source, which I shall quote later, is the state-
ments of policy issued by the recently created Council
on Affairs of the Orthodox Church.
The two documents which I have quoted above make
clear that while there is complete freedom of conscience
and worship in the Soviet Union, the Church no longer
receives any financial backing from the Government.
Equally important is the fact that it must confine itself
to strictly religious activities. It is not permitted to organ-
ize charitable associations, hospitals, orphan asylums,
playgrounds or, of course, parochial schools. One of the
first steps the Soviets took in 1917-18 was to secularize
the 40,000 elementary schools run by the Orthodox
Church. As in the United States, religious instruction
is not allowed in the State schools of the U. S. S. R. , al-
though such instruction is legal in special religious semi-
naries for older students; and parents can teach what they
choose about religion to their children at home or send
them to the homes of priests and ministers for religious
education. Religious rites are allowed for births, mar-
riages and funerals at the home, the church or elsewhere,
according to the desires of the family concerned.
What these various regulations mean is that the relig-
ious function in Soviet Russia has been separated from
other functions and is required to stand on its own feet.
As I saw again and again at first-hand on my trips to the
? See p. 80.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Soviet Union, the Russian churches are open, and full,
for worship, prayer and meditation; the colorfully clad
priests are chanting and swinging incense; the Orthodox
choruses, famed the world over, are singing as of old.
To what extent pure religion, unconnected with other
community activities and relying upon its own moral
and spiritual qualities, can maintain popular support,
remains to be seen.
Concerning this situation the Reverend William
Howard Melish, Jr. , who has been fighting a courageous
battle for religious liberty as Associate Director of the
Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, has made an
enlightening comment in his pamphlet, Religion Today
in the U. S. S. R. "On first acquaintance," writes Dr.
Melish, "it seems to many Americans that religion has
been robbed of its rightful sphere of operations. It is
severed from the educational system and from the admin-
istration of public philanthropies. But let us frankly face
this question: Why did the Church in our society feel
drawn to pioneer in education except because there was
so little of it? To build hospitals except because there
were so few? To care for the orphans and the aged except
that no one else would bother? The Church entered these
fields in Western society because there were human needs
crying to be met!
"But suppose that there had been an adequate pro-
vision within our society to care for educating all its
members, healing the sick, providing for the orphans
and the aged, assuring work for the unemployed? The
Church would not have felt constrained to enter these
areas. It would have sought to serve another function.
In such a society it would have undertaken to stimulate
the knowledge and worship of God so that character
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AMD RELIGIOH
would be built, life be infused with healthy purpose, and
the social structure constantly leavened by the creative
faith of the Church's sons. In the Soviet Union the com-
munity undertakes to perform these many social func-
tions. . . . Religion in Russia is simpler, more elemental,
more spiritual. The Church is freed of innumerable
responsibilities and philanthropic chores, the infinite
raising of money for this and for that. "11
Today in Soviet Russia no church owns any land or
building. This is not due to discrimination against relig-
ion, but to the fact that all land and edifices, as distinct
from dwelling houses, have become publicly owned. It
simply means that the property of the Church, like that
of the nobility, the large landowners, the banks and the
private industries, has become socialized. During the
terrible famine of 1921-22 the Soviet Government took
over from individual churches for the relief fund surplus
articles of gold, silver and precious stones which it
claimed they did not need for the practice of their cult.
This humanitarian measure stirred up bitter opposition
within the Church, though a large section of the clergy
approved the move.
In regard to places of worship, the Soviet Government
lets religious congregations have the necessary buildings
rent free and now tax exempt, although they were for a
long time subject to high local taxes. Because, however,
the Church possesses no revenue-producing taxes and
receives no State subsidies, the salaries of priests and all
other expenses must be provided for, as in America, by
voluntary contributions of the faithful, fees for services,
and the sale of candles and other religious articles.
Actually, this same situation prevailed in Tsarist
Russia for all of the non-Orthodox sects, since the Gov-
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
ernment rendered them no economic assistance. Today,
all religions in the U. S. S. R. are on an equal basis finan-
cially and legally, so far as the State is concerned. Gov-
ernment discrimination in favor of the Orthodox Church
and against the other religious bodies is ended. The
Mufti of Soviet Islam, the religious head of Soviet
Mohammedans, is on record as saying: "The Soviet
regime has done one thing which we Moslems will never
forget. It has accorded us religious liberty and civil
equality. "12
Whereas in the old days, atheists were unmercifully
hounded, there is now freedom of conscience for both
believers and unbelievers. Although the religious-mind-
ed Government of the Tsars made a point of persecuting
anti-religious individuals, the anti-religious-minded Gov-
ernment of the Soviets makes a point of not persecuting
religious individuals. It is true that the Soviet Republic
has used firm governmental pressure to eradicate harmful
religious customs left untouched by the Tsars, such as
the sacred polygamy of the Moslems and the self-mutila-
tion practices of certain esoteric religious cults.
There can be no doubt, either, that the Soviet author-
ities have thrown all of their influence behind the diffi-
cult, long-term task of eradicating the hold of religion on
the population. In view of the Government's control
over education and the organs of public opinion, it can-
not be said that in the struggle between religion and anti-
religion the Church is on a fair and equal basis with the
State. Unfortunately the 1936 Constitution by implica-
tion ruled out freedom of religious propaganda, meaning
that the faithful were not at liberty to carry on prosely-
tizing in an organized way outside of the churches them-
selves. Curiously enough, the Orthodox Church itself
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RBLIGIOH
was in favor of this provision, since it gave it an advantage
in competing with the missionary fervor of the Protestant
sects. As we shall see, the 1936 ruling is now no longer
in effect. *
The Communist theory is that the establishment of
a socialist system which does away with man's major eco-
nomic and social ills will gradually dry up the roots of
religious belief. But the Soviets have not been content
to sit by and await this ultimate result; on the contrary
they have vigorously attempted to speed up the process
and have put into effect over the years the widest variety
of anti-religious education and propaganda.
The educa-
tional campaign against religion in the U. S. S. R. has
taken advantage of every conceivable device that might
help overcome the superstitions of workers and peasants.
In addition to teaching anti-religion and the philosophy
of Dialectical Materialism in the schools and higher
educational institutions, the Communists have utilized
anti-religious books, magazines, newspapers, motion pic-
tures, plays, lectures and radio broadcasts.
Noteworthy in the larger cities are the anti-religious
museums, several of which I went through during my
visits to Soviet Russia. These museums are just as much
pro-science as anti-religious and stress scientific discov-
eries, such as the evolution of man from lower species,
which educated people in Western Europe and the
Americas have long since accepted as true. There are
also exhibits exposing the myths of the Bible, the mir-
acles claimed by the Church and its saints, and the anti-
social practices of various cults, such as their opposition
to education and science and their encouragement of
drunkenness and of the treatment of women as inferiors.
? See pp. 150-151.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Not the least important of the teachings in these museums
are those directed against superstitious beliefs which
hinder the extension of health measures for the preven-
tion and cure of disease.
The stronghold of religion in the Soviet Union, as
in all other countries, has been in the rural districts
where the population is likely to be less culturally ad-
vanced than in the cities. In the U. S. S. R. scientific and
anti-religious education have been absolutely essential in
the agricultural regions on account of the socialist pro-
gram to mechanize and collectivize the farms. Because
the peasants depended to so large an extent on primitive
religious beliefs, it was decided that the most effective
form of enlightenment lay in explaining the origin of
hail, rain, drought, thunderstorms, the appearance of
insect plagues, the properties of various soils, the action
of fertilizers and so on. The Soviet Five-Year Plans for
agriculture would have been doomed to failure had the
peasants continued to rely upon their age-old supersti-
tions.
Much of the strenuous opposition to collective farm-
ing came from priests who thought, quite rightly, that
this new system of agriculture would tend to diminish
their influence. They told their flocks that the establish-
ment of collectives was contrary to the wishes of Divine
Providence and those who joined them would suffer dire
punishment from the Almighty. Professor Hecker writes
that he once "enquired of a peasant why he was so op-
posed to collective farming, which promised so many
advantages. His bizarre reply was that it was opposed to
the will of God; for had God desired collectives, he would
have created not the individual Adam and Eve, whom
he had put into the Garden of Eden, but he would have
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AND RELIGIOH
created a collective and instructed them to work the
garden as a group. "13
In the urban as well as the agricultural districts the
Communists have insisted on reducing the inordinate
number of celebrations of Saints' Days and Church feasts
formerly taken for granted. The Soviet Government has
at the same time established various secular holidays
such as November 7, the anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution, and May 1, the International Day of Labor.
The effort has also been made, with some success, to
transfer to New Year's Day the non-religious, festival
aspects of Christmas, with children receiving presents
around "New Year's trees" and with much ado over a
personage known as Grandfather Frost.
In general the anti-religious campaign in the U. S. S. R.
has been carried on with far more forbearance than hos-
tile and exaggerated reports in the foreign press would
indicate. Common sense and political strategy have been
guiding factors in this matter, since obviously the Com-
munists have not wished to give unnecessary offence to
backward elements in the population. At its Thirteenth
Congress in 1924 the Soviet Communist Party declared:
"Special care must be taken not to offend the religious
sentiments of the believers, which can only be overcome
by years and decades of systematic educational work.
This last point is to be borne particularly in mind in
the Eastern Republics and districts. "
Another Communist Party pronouncement, made
several years later, counseled: "Anti-religious propa-
ganda in the village must have the nature of a quiet,
cautious talk, a deepening propaganda influencing the
minds of the hearers. With no less caution it is necessary
to carry on anti-religious propaganda among the workers,
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
particularly at present when there is observed a consider-
able influx of peasantry into the working class. " These
official statements call to mind the warning given in 1928
by Anatole Lunacharsky, Soviet Minister of Education:
"Religion is like a nail; the harder you hit it, the deeper
it goes into the wood. "14
Certainly, however, there were periods and places
in which Lunacharsky's good advice was not followed.
Some of the policies and activities of the Union of Mili-
tant Atheists, in its heyday, so affronted the religious
feelings of Church members that they became more
passionate than ever in their allegiance to the old beliefs.
This anti-religious organization, formed in 1925, was
responsible for many scurrilous and offensive attacks on
religion, including the most crude and derisive posters,
and at times outright hooliganism. The churches, how-
ever, never lost the right of appeal to the Soviet courts
against excesses on the part of anti-religious enthusiasts.
For example, in 1936-37 the courts tried 157 complaints
by individual churches and granted damages in 78 per-
cent of these cases. And in 1939 a group of anti-religious
offenders received sentences ranging from six to eighteen
months for rowdyism on Easter Day outside a church in
Yaroslav.
The Union of Militant Atheists reached its height of
organizational strength and influence about 1932 when
it reported 5,500,000 members as compared with an
anticipated membership of 17,000,000. Much of its use-
ful work on behalf of the new socialist society was accom-
plished in the rural sections of the country where, as I
have said, religious superstitions were a real obstacle to
the achievement of collectivization among the peasants.
After the marked success of the collective farm movement
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RELIGIOH
in 1933 and 1934, the membership of the godless organ-
ization steadily declined. And anti-religious education
in the Soviet Union became more mellowed and mature.
During the same period the Second Five-Year Plan,
1933-38, got into its stride and the Soviet leaders felt
reasonably certain that the underlying economic founda-
tions of socialism would be completed in short order.
The standard of living was rising and tensions were
easing. With the Constitution of 1936 came the restora-
tion of full civil rights and voting privileges to the clergy
as well as to former Tsarist officials and former capitalists.
In 1940 the Soviet Government, after experimenting for
about a decade with a six-day week and a rotating free
day in the urban centers, restored throughout the nation
the seven-day week with Sunday as the rest day. One of
the reasons for this experiment had been the hope of
weakening the hold of Sunday as a religious holiday.
The Union of Militant Atheists in vain protested the
Government's action in re-establishing the old system.
When the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union in the
summer of 1941, it was the confident expectation of
Hitler and Goebbels that religious groups throughout
the U. S. S. R. would welcome the Germans as liberators
and help to overthrow the Soviet Government. On the
contrary, although a few isolated churchmen in the occu-
pied districts of western Russia did become traitors to
their country, Soviet religious leaders and believers in
general quickly rallied to the support of the Soviet re-
gime. On the day of the invasion the head of the Ortho-
dox Church, the Metropolitan Sergius, issued a message
to all the parishes, stating in part:
"The fascist robbers have fallen upon our homeland.
Despising treaties and promises, they have suddenly
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
descended upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citi-
zens is already wetting the land of our birth. 15 . . . Our
Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the
people. Together with the people she stood trials and
shouldered burdens and rejoiced over successes. She will
not desert the people now. We, the pastors of the
Church, at this time when our motherland calls all to
heroic deeds, would indeed prove unworthy if we re-
mained silent and just watched what was happening
around us without encouraging the faint-hearted, with-
out comforting the distressed, without reminding the
hesitant of his duty and God's will. 16 . . . The Church
of Christ gives its blessing to all Orthodox for the defense
of the sacred borders of our homeland. May the Lord
give us victory. "17
The Orthodox Church and other religious bodies
in the U. S. S. R. maintained this attitude during the dark-
est days of the Nazi onslaught. Instead of opposing the
Government, priests constantly offered up prayers for
it and for the valiant Soviet armies in the thick of battle.
Religious congregations were zealous in subscribing to
the national Defense Fund. And the Government author-
ized, after being petitioned, two "all-church" tank col-
umns, which were equipped through contributions from
the Orthodox Church and the Armenian-Gregorian
Church respectively. In 1942 the Moscow Patriarchate
of the Orthodox Church published a handsome, illus-
trated volume entitled The Truth about Religion in
Russia. This book exposed the horrors of Hitler's cru-
sade against the Soviet Republic and the myth of Nazi
friendship for religion. It also explained the constitu-
tional guarantees of freedom of worship and expressed
the Church's satisfaction with them.
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AXD RELIGIOH
The Government responded cordially to the moral
and material support which religious organizations gave
to it during the war. It is significant that The Truth
about Religion in Russia was printed on the presses of
the Union of Militant Atheists. In the previous year,
1941, the leading publications of the Union had been
suspended on the grounds that there was a paper short-
age. Soon thereafter the atheist organization became
quite inactive, if not altogether dormant. In 1943 Prem-
ier Stalin, Foreign Minister Molotov and three Orthodox
bishops held a conference at the Kremlin on the relations
between Church and State. As a result of this conference
the Orthodox Church was able to hold a Congress of
Bishops later in the year at Moscow and to elect the
Metropolitan Sergius as the Patriarch of Moscow and All
Russia. This was a momentous step because it meant
the re-establishment of an independent Patriarchate for
the first time since it was abolished in 1721, over 200
years before.
The Kremlin conference also decided to set up a state
Council on Affairs of the Orthodox Church, with head-
quarters in Moscow and over 100 field representatives, to
act as a clearing house for the complex relations between
the Church and various government agencies. For the
reason that nation-wide economic planning, controlled
by the State, is the dominant factor in the socialist econ-
omy, this Council has as one of its chief problems the
organization of the production and distribution of the
many things, such as ikons, candles, vestments, printing
facilities and repairs, which a church needs for its regular
functioning. Prior to 1943 there had been great ineffi-
ciency in these matters.
The Government also established a Council on Affairs
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
of Religious Cults to handle state relations with the non-
Orthodox religious bodies in the U. S. S. R. These include
the Armenian-Gregorians, the Greek Catholics, the Ro-
man Catholics, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Evan-
gelical Christian-Baptists, the Seventh Day Adventists,
the Old Believers (a schismatic offshoot of the Orthodox
Church), the Jews, the Mohammedans (second in num-
ber to the Orthodox adherents), the Buddhists, the
Lamaists, the Shammanists and lesser sects. This Council
is likewise centered in Moscow and has many branch
offices.
In 1944 the Chairman of the Council on Affairs of
the Orthodox Church, Mr. Georgi Gregorievich Karpov,
asserted in a news interview: "The only rule the Soviet
Government insists upon is that religious instruction
must not violate the basic principle of separation of
Church and State. Under our laws each person may or
may not teach his children religion. However, religion
may not be taught in the schools. Parents may educate
children in the privacy of their homes or may send their
children to the homes of priests for such education.
Children of any number of parents may also gather or
be gathered in groups to receive religious instruction. "18
(Formerly the law forbade religious education to persons
under eighteen in groups of more than four. )
Mr. Karpov went on to say: "We have given explicit
permission for the Church to order any quantity of Tes-
taments, prayer books and liturgical books and are ready
to facilitate this step in every way, even to the extent of
making representations to the paper rationing author-
ities. As to the distribution of such materials, there is
no objection and no restrictions. "19 In a later statement
he averred: "Priests may go to their parishioners and
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? SOVIET RUSSIA ANJD RELIGIOH
may engage in proselytizing work without any restric-
tion except those placed on every orderly citizen of the
U. S. S. R. They may go about church business wherever
they wish. "20 The mention here of "proselytizing work"
is of particular significance because it indicates that the
Government is again permitting freedom of religious
propaganda, as under the first Constitution of 1918.
Early in 1945 the Orthodox Church held a plenary
meeting or Sobor in Moscow to elect a new Patriarch
to take the place of Sergius, who had died in 1944. It
was a most representative gathering and included four
Metropolitans and forty-one Archbishops, 126 clerical
and lay delegates, and the Metropolitan Benjamin, who
represented the Orthodox congregations of the United
States and Canada. The Sobor proceeded to nominate
and unanimously elect as the new Patriarch the Metro-
politan Alexius of Leningrad and Novgorod, a holder
of the Leningrad Defense Medal for heroism during the
defense of Soviet Russsia's great northern city.
Present as guests at the Sobor were high religious offi-
cials from the Orthodox Churches of Serbia, of Rumania
and of several cities of the Near East such as Constanti-
nople and Jerusalem. This was the first occasion since
1917 on which representatives of the Orthodox religion
outside the Soviet Union had officially and openly met
together with the Russian Church authorities. And it
raised hopes that there might be organized, as proposed
by the late Patriarch Sergius, a Confederation of the
autonomous Orthodox Churches of the world. Reg-
ular consultation and mutual action on the part of these
Churches would be a natural thing in view of their com-
mon creed and their opposition, with the Anglican and
other Protestant groups, to the claim of the Roman
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
Catholics that the Pope is the true and only Vicar of
Christ on earth. The Great Schism between the Eastern
and Western branches of Christianity occurred over this
very issue nine centuries ago in 1054.
The Government itself can hardly be indifferent to
the political and international implications of the reju-
venation of the Russian Orthodox Church. Increasing
influence for this religious body in Eastern Europe serves
both to further Slav unity and to weaken the hold of the
passionately anti-Soviet Catholic Church. Premier Stalin
and his associates undoubtedly welcomed the announce-
ment in 1946 that the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church
of the western Ukraine had broken its centuries-old union
with the Vatican and returned to the Russian Orthodox
fold.
tween the classes must cease and harmonious collabora-
tion must be established between the various classes. "
Such statements are naturally anathema to the Marxists
of Soviet Russia. -
The economic foundations and connections of the
Russian Orthodox Church are important to note. Up
till 1917 it was the wealthiest single organization in all
of Russia, exploiting scores of thousands of peasants on
its immense estates and owning large blocks of the most
profitable stocks and bonds. At the time of the Revolu-
tion the bank account of the Church amounted to about
8,000,000,000 rubles (equal to $4,000,000,000 in 1917)
and its annual income to about 500,000,000 rubles. In
addition, there was the enormous capital value of its
20,000,000 acres of land, its cathedrals, its churches, its
monasteries and the gorgeous gold and silver decorations
of these religious edifices. And all of these assets were
being continually augmented by very substantial financial
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
grants from the Government. In short, the Church itself
was a great feudalist-capitalist institution in the old
Russia, with its fundamental economic interests every-
where intertwined with and dependent upon the Tsarist
system of political oppression and economic exploitation.
The Orthodox Church within the U. S. S. R. and the
Catholic Church outside it have been the two religious
institutions which the Soviets have most feared and op-
posed. But on principle they are against all religions, in-
cluding Protestantism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Bud-
dhism, Confucianism, Taoism or any other. A reformed
and liberal Church does not seem, either, an acceptable
solution to the Communist. His position is that since
religion is necessarily tied up with a belief in the super-
natural, it cannot be reformed so as to become a good
influence in the world without ceasing to be religion.
In this respect it is unlike education, for example, which
can clearly be bent to the purposes of a socialist regime.
The Marxist also considers most confusing and harm-
ful the widespread habit of redefining religious terms,
like God, immortality and religion itself, so broadly and
vaguely that they lose all distinctive meaning. He is
likely to think that this is a theological trick to retain
for religion the support of the more educated and sophist-
icated groups. In 1913 Maxim Gorky, for instance, re-
defined God, as "a complex of those ideas, worked out by
tribes, by nations, by humanity at large, which arouse
and organize the social emotions, and which serve to
unite the individual with society and to curb zoological
individualism. "10 Under such a definition God ceases to
be an independent supernatural being or Creator and
becomes synonymous with the higher ethical and social
ideals of men. This meaning of God enables even out-
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AN[D RELIGIOH
right atheists to believe in him. Though Gorky was sym-
pathetic to the Left, Lenin criticized him severely for
his "God-building" and accused him of playing into the
hands of the clerics.
3. Soviet Practice in regard to Religion
There are three main documentary sources for the
understanding of the Soviet policy toward religion. The
first of these is the Government decree of February 5,
1918, entitled "Separation of the Church from the State
and the School from the Church. " Its thirteen sections
are as follows:
1. The Church is separated from the State.
2. Within the territory of the Republic the passing
of any local laws or regulations limiting or interfering
with freedom of conscience or granting special rights or
privileges to citizens because they belong to a certain
faith is forbidden.
3. Every citizen has a right to adopt any religion or
not to adopt any at all. Every legal restriction connected
with the profession of certain faiths or with the non-
profession of any faith is now abolished. Official acts
shall make no mention of a citizen's faith.
4. State or semi-official public functions are not to be
accompanied by religious ceremonies or rituals.
5. Religious performances may be carried on freely
insofar as they do not disturb the public order or en-
croach upon the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take the necessary
measures to preserve order and safeguard the rights
of citizens.
6. No one can decline to carry out his civic duties on
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
the ground of his religious views. Exception to this rul-
ing may be made by special decision of the people's court
provided one civic duty is substituted for another.
7. Religious oaths are abolished. In case of necessity
a solemn promise will suffice.
8. All civil acts are performed exclusively by the
civic authorities in charge of the department for the regis-
tration of marriages and births.
9. The school is separated from the Church. The
teaching of religion in state and public schools, as well as
in private schools where general subjects are taught, is
forbidden. Citizens may study or teach religious subjects
privately.
10. Church and religious societies are subject to the
same laws and regulations as private societies and unions.
They do not enjoy any special privileges or subsidies
from the State or from local institutions.
11. The levying of obligatory collections or imposi-
tions for the benefit of church or religious societies is
forbidden. These organizations are forbidden also to
coerce or punish their members.
12. Church and religious societies have no right to
own property. They do not have the rights of a legal
person.
13. All property in Russia now owned by churches
and religious organizations is henceforth the property of
the people. Buildings and objects that are needed for
religious services revert to the free use of religious organ-
izations by special decree of the local or central govern-
ment authorities.
The second source is the Article in the Soviet Consti-
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RELIGIOH
tution which I cited earlier:* "In order to ensure to
citizens freedom of conscience, the Church in the U. S.
S. R. is separated from the State, and the school from the
Church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of
anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens. "
The third source, which I shall quote later, is the state-
ments of policy issued by the recently created Council
on Affairs of the Orthodox Church.
The two documents which I have quoted above make
clear that while there is complete freedom of conscience
and worship in the Soviet Union, the Church no longer
receives any financial backing from the Government.
Equally important is the fact that it must confine itself
to strictly religious activities. It is not permitted to organ-
ize charitable associations, hospitals, orphan asylums,
playgrounds or, of course, parochial schools. One of the
first steps the Soviets took in 1917-18 was to secularize
the 40,000 elementary schools run by the Orthodox
Church. As in the United States, religious instruction
is not allowed in the State schools of the U. S. S. R. , al-
though such instruction is legal in special religious semi-
naries for older students; and parents can teach what they
choose about religion to their children at home or send
them to the homes of priests and ministers for religious
education. Religious rites are allowed for births, mar-
riages and funerals at the home, the church or elsewhere,
according to the desires of the family concerned.
What these various regulations mean is that the relig-
ious function in Soviet Russia has been separated from
other functions and is required to stand on its own feet.
As I saw again and again at first-hand on my trips to the
? See p. 80.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Soviet Union, the Russian churches are open, and full,
for worship, prayer and meditation; the colorfully clad
priests are chanting and swinging incense; the Orthodox
choruses, famed the world over, are singing as of old.
To what extent pure religion, unconnected with other
community activities and relying upon its own moral
and spiritual qualities, can maintain popular support,
remains to be seen.
Concerning this situation the Reverend William
Howard Melish, Jr. , who has been fighting a courageous
battle for religious liberty as Associate Director of the
Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, has made an
enlightening comment in his pamphlet, Religion Today
in the U. S. S. R. "On first acquaintance," writes Dr.
Melish, "it seems to many Americans that religion has
been robbed of its rightful sphere of operations. It is
severed from the educational system and from the admin-
istration of public philanthropies. But let us frankly face
this question: Why did the Church in our society feel
drawn to pioneer in education except because there was
so little of it? To build hospitals except because there
were so few? To care for the orphans and the aged except
that no one else would bother? The Church entered these
fields in Western society because there were human needs
crying to be met!
"But suppose that there had been an adequate pro-
vision within our society to care for educating all its
members, healing the sick, providing for the orphans
and the aged, assuring work for the unemployed? The
Church would not have felt constrained to enter these
areas. It would have sought to serve another function.
In such a society it would have undertaken to stimulate
the knowledge and worship of God so that character
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AMD RELIGIOH
would be built, life be infused with healthy purpose, and
the social structure constantly leavened by the creative
faith of the Church's sons. In the Soviet Union the com-
munity undertakes to perform these many social func-
tions. . . . Religion in Russia is simpler, more elemental,
more spiritual. The Church is freed of innumerable
responsibilities and philanthropic chores, the infinite
raising of money for this and for that. "11
Today in Soviet Russia no church owns any land or
building. This is not due to discrimination against relig-
ion, but to the fact that all land and edifices, as distinct
from dwelling houses, have become publicly owned. It
simply means that the property of the Church, like that
of the nobility, the large landowners, the banks and the
private industries, has become socialized. During the
terrible famine of 1921-22 the Soviet Government took
over from individual churches for the relief fund surplus
articles of gold, silver and precious stones which it
claimed they did not need for the practice of their cult.
This humanitarian measure stirred up bitter opposition
within the Church, though a large section of the clergy
approved the move.
In regard to places of worship, the Soviet Government
lets religious congregations have the necessary buildings
rent free and now tax exempt, although they were for a
long time subject to high local taxes. Because, however,
the Church possesses no revenue-producing taxes and
receives no State subsidies, the salaries of priests and all
other expenses must be provided for, as in America, by
voluntary contributions of the faithful, fees for services,
and the sale of candles and other religious articles.
Actually, this same situation prevailed in Tsarist
Russia for all of the non-Orthodox sects, since the Gov-
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
ernment rendered them no economic assistance. Today,
all religions in the U. S. S. R. are on an equal basis finan-
cially and legally, so far as the State is concerned. Gov-
ernment discrimination in favor of the Orthodox Church
and against the other religious bodies is ended. The
Mufti of Soviet Islam, the religious head of Soviet
Mohammedans, is on record as saying: "The Soviet
regime has done one thing which we Moslems will never
forget. It has accorded us religious liberty and civil
equality. "12
Whereas in the old days, atheists were unmercifully
hounded, there is now freedom of conscience for both
believers and unbelievers. Although the religious-mind-
ed Government of the Tsars made a point of persecuting
anti-religious individuals, the anti-religious-minded Gov-
ernment of the Soviets makes a point of not persecuting
religious individuals. It is true that the Soviet Republic
has used firm governmental pressure to eradicate harmful
religious customs left untouched by the Tsars, such as
the sacred polygamy of the Moslems and the self-mutila-
tion practices of certain esoteric religious cults.
There can be no doubt, either, that the Soviet author-
ities have thrown all of their influence behind the diffi-
cult, long-term task of eradicating the hold of religion on
the population. In view of the Government's control
over education and the organs of public opinion, it can-
not be said that in the struggle between religion and anti-
religion the Church is on a fair and equal basis with the
State. Unfortunately the 1936 Constitution by implica-
tion ruled out freedom of religious propaganda, meaning
that the faithful were not at liberty to carry on prosely-
tizing in an organized way outside of the churches them-
selves. Curiously enough, the Orthodox Church itself
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RBLIGIOH
was in favor of this provision, since it gave it an advantage
in competing with the missionary fervor of the Protestant
sects. As we shall see, the 1936 ruling is now no longer
in effect. *
The Communist theory is that the establishment of
a socialist system which does away with man's major eco-
nomic and social ills will gradually dry up the roots of
religious belief. But the Soviets have not been content
to sit by and await this ultimate result; on the contrary
they have vigorously attempted to speed up the process
and have put into effect over the years the widest variety
of anti-religious education and propaganda.
The educa-
tional campaign against religion in the U. S. S. R. has
taken advantage of every conceivable device that might
help overcome the superstitions of workers and peasants.
In addition to teaching anti-religion and the philosophy
of Dialectical Materialism in the schools and higher
educational institutions, the Communists have utilized
anti-religious books, magazines, newspapers, motion pic-
tures, plays, lectures and radio broadcasts.
Noteworthy in the larger cities are the anti-religious
museums, several of which I went through during my
visits to Soviet Russia. These museums are just as much
pro-science as anti-religious and stress scientific discov-
eries, such as the evolution of man from lower species,
which educated people in Western Europe and the
Americas have long since accepted as true. There are
also exhibits exposing the myths of the Bible, the mir-
acles claimed by the Church and its saints, and the anti-
social practices of various cults, such as their opposition
to education and science and their encouragement of
drunkenness and of the treatment of women as inferiors.
? See pp. 150-151.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Not the least important of the teachings in these museums
are those directed against superstitious beliefs which
hinder the extension of health measures for the preven-
tion and cure of disease.
The stronghold of religion in the Soviet Union, as
in all other countries, has been in the rural districts
where the population is likely to be less culturally ad-
vanced than in the cities. In the U. S. S. R. scientific and
anti-religious education have been absolutely essential in
the agricultural regions on account of the socialist pro-
gram to mechanize and collectivize the farms. Because
the peasants depended to so large an extent on primitive
religious beliefs, it was decided that the most effective
form of enlightenment lay in explaining the origin of
hail, rain, drought, thunderstorms, the appearance of
insect plagues, the properties of various soils, the action
of fertilizers and so on. The Soviet Five-Year Plans for
agriculture would have been doomed to failure had the
peasants continued to rely upon their age-old supersti-
tions.
Much of the strenuous opposition to collective farm-
ing came from priests who thought, quite rightly, that
this new system of agriculture would tend to diminish
their influence. They told their flocks that the establish-
ment of collectives was contrary to the wishes of Divine
Providence and those who joined them would suffer dire
punishment from the Almighty. Professor Hecker writes
that he once "enquired of a peasant why he was so op-
posed to collective farming, which promised so many
advantages. His bizarre reply was that it was opposed to
the will of God; for had God desired collectives, he would
have created not the individual Adam and Eve, whom
he had put into the Garden of Eden, but he would have
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AND RELIGIOH
created a collective and instructed them to work the
garden as a group. "13
In the urban as well as the agricultural districts the
Communists have insisted on reducing the inordinate
number of celebrations of Saints' Days and Church feasts
formerly taken for granted. The Soviet Government has
at the same time established various secular holidays
such as November 7, the anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution, and May 1, the International Day of Labor.
The effort has also been made, with some success, to
transfer to New Year's Day the non-religious, festival
aspects of Christmas, with children receiving presents
around "New Year's trees" and with much ado over a
personage known as Grandfather Frost.
In general the anti-religious campaign in the U. S. S. R.
has been carried on with far more forbearance than hos-
tile and exaggerated reports in the foreign press would
indicate. Common sense and political strategy have been
guiding factors in this matter, since obviously the Com-
munists have not wished to give unnecessary offence to
backward elements in the population. At its Thirteenth
Congress in 1924 the Soviet Communist Party declared:
"Special care must be taken not to offend the religious
sentiments of the believers, which can only be overcome
by years and decades of systematic educational work.
This last point is to be borne particularly in mind in
the Eastern Republics and districts. "
Another Communist Party pronouncement, made
several years later, counseled: "Anti-religious propa-
ganda in the village must have the nature of a quiet,
cautious talk, a deepening propaganda influencing the
minds of the hearers. With no less caution it is necessary
to carry on anti-religious propaganda among the workers,
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
particularly at present when there is observed a consider-
able influx of peasantry into the working class. " These
official statements call to mind the warning given in 1928
by Anatole Lunacharsky, Soviet Minister of Education:
"Religion is like a nail; the harder you hit it, the deeper
it goes into the wood. "14
Certainly, however, there were periods and places
in which Lunacharsky's good advice was not followed.
Some of the policies and activities of the Union of Mili-
tant Atheists, in its heyday, so affronted the religious
feelings of Church members that they became more
passionate than ever in their allegiance to the old beliefs.
This anti-religious organization, formed in 1925, was
responsible for many scurrilous and offensive attacks on
religion, including the most crude and derisive posters,
and at times outright hooliganism. The churches, how-
ever, never lost the right of appeal to the Soviet courts
against excesses on the part of anti-religious enthusiasts.
For example, in 1936-37 the courts tried 157 complaints
by individual churches and granted damages in 78 per-
cent of these cases. And in 1939 a group of anti-religious
offenders received sentences ranging from six to eighteen
months for rowdyism on Easter Day outside a church in
Yaroslav.
The Union of Militant Atheists reached its height of
organizational strength and influence about 1932 when
it reported 5,500,000 members as compared with an
anticipated membership of 17,000,000. Much of its use-
ful work on behalf of the new socialist society was accom-
plished in the rural sections of the country where, as I
have said, religious superstitions were a real obstacle to
the achievement of collectivization among the peasants.
After the marked success of the collective farm movement
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AHD RELIGIOH
in 1933 and 1934, the membership of the godless organ-
ization steadily declined. And anti-religious education
in the Soviet Union became more mellowed and mature.
During the same period the Second Five-Year Plan,
1933-38, got into its stride and the Soviet leaders felt
reasonably certain that the underlying economic founda-
tions of socialism would be completed in short order.
The standard of living was rising and tensions were
easing. With the Constitution of 1936 came the restora-
tion of full civil rights and voting privileges to the clergy
as well as to former Tsarist officials and former capitalists.
In 1940 the Soviet Government, after experimenting for
about a decade with a six-day week and a rotating free
day in the urban centers, restored throughout the nation
the seven-day week with Sunday as the rest day. One of
the reasons for this experiment had been the hope of
weakening the hold of Sunday as a religious holiday.
The Union of Militant Atheists in vain protested the
Government's action in re-establishing the old system.
When the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union in the
summer of 1941, it was the confident expectation of
Hitler and Goebbels that religious groups throughout
the U. S. S. R. would welcome the Germans as liberators
and help to overthrow the Soviet Government. On the
contrary, although a few isolated churchmen in the occu-
pied districts of western Russia did become traitors to
their country, Soviet religious leaders and believers in
general quickly rallied to the support of the Soviet re-
gime. On the day of the invasion the head of the Ortho-
dox Church, the Metropolitan Sergius, issued a message
to all the parishes, stating in part:
"The fascist robbers have fallen upon our homeland.
Despising treaties and promises, they have suddenly
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
descended upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citi-
zens is already wetting the land of our birth. 15 . . . Our
Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the
people. Together with the people she stood trials and
shouldered burdens and rejoiced over successes. She will
not desert the people now. We, the pastors of the
Church, at this time when our motherland calls all to
heroic deeds, would indeed prove unworthy if we re-
mained silent and just watched what was happening
around us without encouraging the faint-hearted, with-
out comforting the distressed, without reminding the
hesitant of his duty and God's will. 16 . . . The Church
of Christ gives its blessing to all Orthodox for the defense
of the sacred borders of our homeland. May the Lord
give us victory. "17
The Orthodox Church and other religious bodies
in the U. S. S. R. maintained this attitude during the dark-
est days of the Nazi onslaught. Instead of opposing the
Government, priests constantly offered up prayers for
it and for the valiant Soviet armies in the thick of battle.
Religious congregations were zealous in subscribing to
the national Defense Fund. And the Government author-
ized, after being petitioned, two "all-church" tank col-
umns, which were equipped through contributions from
the Orthodox Church and the Armenian-Gregorian
Church respectively. In 1942 the Moscow Patriarchate
of the Orthodox Church published a handsome, illus-
trated volume entitled The Truth about Religion in
Russia. This book exposed the horrors of Hitler's cru-
sade against the Soviet Republic and the myth of Nazi
friendship for religion. It also explained the constitu-
tional guarantees of freedom of worship and expressed
the Church's satisfaction with them.
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? SOVIET RUSSIA AXD RELIGIOH
The Government responded cordially to the moral
and material support which religious organizations gave
to it during the war. It is significant that The Truth
about Religion in Russia was printed on the presses of
the Union of Militant Atheists. In the previous year,
1941, the leading publications of the Union had been
suspended on the grounds that there was a paper short-
age. Soon thereafter the atheist organization became
quite inactive, if not altogether dormant. In 1943 Prem-
ier Stalin, Foreign Minister Molotov and three Orthodox
bishops held a conference at the Kremlin on the relations
between Church and State. As a result of this conference
the Orthodox Church was able to hold a Congress of
Bishops later in the year at Moscow and to elect the
Metropolitan Sergius as the Patriarch of Moscow and All
Russia. This was a momentous step because it meant
the re-establishment of an independent Patriarchate for
the first time since it was abolished in 1721, over 200
years before.
The Kremlin conference also decided to set up a state
Council on Affairs of the Orthodox Church, with head-
quarters in Moscow and over 100 field representatives, to
act as a clearing house for the complex relations between
the Church and various government agencies. For the
reason that nation-wide economic planning, controlled
by the State, is the dominant factor in the socialist econ-
omy, this Council has as one of its chief problems the
organization of the production and distribution of the
many things, such as ikons, candles, vestments, printing
facilities and repairs, which a church needs for its regular
functioning. Prior to 1943 there had been great ineffi-
ciency in these matters.
The Government also established a Council on Affairs
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
of Religious Cults to handle state relations with the non-
Orthodox religious bodies in the U. S. S. R. These include
the Armenian-Gregorians, the Greek Catholics, the Ro-
man Catholics, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Evan-
gelical Christian-Baptists, the Seventh Day Adventists,
the Old Believers (a schismatic offshoot of the Orthodox
Church), the Jews, the Mohammedans (second in num-
ber to the Orthodox adherents), the Buddhists, the
Lamaists, the Shammanists and lesser sects. This Council
is likewise centered in Moscow and has many branch
offices.
In 1944 the Chairman of the Council on Affairs of
the Orthodox Church, Mr. Georgi Gregorievich Karpov,
asserted in a news interview: "The only rule the Soviet
Government insists upon is that religious instruction
must not violate the basic principle of separation of
Church and State. Under our laws each person may or
may not teach his children religion. However, religion
may not be taught in the schools. Parents may educate
children in the privacy of their homes or may send their
children to the homes of priests for such education.
Children of any number of parents may also gather or
be gathered in groups to receive religious instruction. "18
(Formerly the law forbade religious education to persons
under eighteen in groups of more than four. )
Mr. Karpov went on to say: "We have given explicit
permission for the Church to order any quantity of Tes-
taments, prayer books and liturgical books and are ready
to facilitate this step in every way, even to the extent of
making representations to the paper rationing author-
ities. As to the distribution of such materials, there is
no objection and no restrictions. "19 In a later statement
he averred: "Priests may go to their parishioners and
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? SOVIET RUSSIA ANJD RELIGIOH
may engage in proselytizing work without any restric-
tion except those placed on every orderly citizen of the
U. S. S. R. They may go about church business wherever
they wish. "20 The mention here of "proselytizing work"
is of particular significance because it indicates that the
Government is again permitting freedom of religious
propaganda, as under the first Constitution of 1918.
Early in 1945 the Orthodox Church held a plenary
meeting or Sobor in Moscow to elect a new Patriarch
to take the place of Sergius, who had died in 1944. It
was a most representative gathering and included four
Metropolitans and forty-one Archbishops, 126 clerical
and lay delegates, and the Metropolitan Benjamin, who
represented the Orthodox congregations of the United
States and Canada. The Sobor proceeded to nominate
and unanimously elect as the new Patriarch the Metro-
politan Alexius of Leningrad and Novgorod, a holder
of the Leningrad Defense Medal for heroism during the
defense of Soviet Russsia's great northern city.
Present as guests at the Sobor were high religious offi-
cials from the Orthodox Churches of Serbia, of Rumania
and of several cities of the Near East such as Constanti-
nople and Jerusalem. This was the first occasion since
1917 on which representatives of the Orthodox religion
outside the Soviet Union had officially and openly met
together with the Russian Church authorities. And it
raised hopes that there might be organized, as proposed
by the late Patriarch Sergius, a Confederation of the
autonomous Orthodox Churches of the world. Reg-
ular consultation and mutual action on the part of these
Churches would be a natural thing in view of their com-
mon creed and their opposition, with the Anglican and
other Protestant groups, to the claim of the Roman
151
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
Catholics that the Pope is the true and only Vicar of
Christ on earth. The Great Schism between the Eastern
and Western branches of Christianity occurred over this
very issue nine centuries ago in 1054.
The Government itself can hardly be indifferent to
the political and international implications of the reju-
venation of the Russian Orthodox Church. Increasing
influence for this religious body in Eastern Europe serves
both to further Slav unity and to weaken the hold of the
passionately anti-Soviet Catholic Church. Premier Stalin
and his associates undoubtedly welcomed the announce-
ment in 1946 that the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church
of the western Ukraine had broken its centuries-old union
with the Vatican and returned to the Russian Orthodox
fold.
