Moscow and the Churches

...The bishops whom the Patriarch had designated as his successors were either arrested or exiled...

...The number of seminaries for the training of priests has been drastically reduced and the activities of those which continue to exist is rigidly supervised...

...At present, this ruse is no longer permitted...

...One might, therefore, concede that the dictatorship of the proletariat in Moscow is actuated by deep convictions and that it is battling ahead with a fervor akin to that of religion itself...

...Monasteries were ostracized, but in a few instances they were enabled to maintain meagre existence in the guise of trade-union establishments, with the provision that they would exercise no religious functions and above all give no religious training...

...Anti-religious carnival pageants were staged as early as 1922, particularly in Moscow...

...Certain nationally famous shrines were peremptorily closed or secularized...

...and in practice conditions are such that when clergymen have been noticeably influential in their spheres of activity a reason frequently presents itself for rendering them "harmless" by exile to the terrible islands of Saolovki, in the ice-bound North Sea or to some other uninhabitable spot...

...Every kind of cultural or industrial activity has been forbidden to priests and their congregations...

...I have given only a brief excerpt from the multiform legislation instituted by the April decree, the evident purpose of which is to deprive parish life of all material and spiritual assistance and so to stifle its existence...

...Such expedients are the legal privilege of the C. P. U. - the Bolshevik secret police-who need render an account of their stewardship to no one and who generally do not even deign to explain their actions...

...If that be true, why was it necessary to intensify the persecution of religion so greatly during the past year...

...I have observed that even communists of alien origin resident in Russia or interested in its affairs fail to realize what pressure is exerted by the Soviets to prevent believers from living according to their convictions...

...Often enough it has happened that when efforts were made to confiscate a church great crowds of people assembled and tried to prevent the police from carrying out the order...

...In so far as the application of these measures is concerned, conditions vary with different localities...

...At present stationed in Washington as correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt, Mr...

...Somewhat later, the government began to close churches...

...For the present, we shall try to get away from these preoccupations and deal solely with facts...

...During the past two years the number of such dramas has steadily increased, despite the fact that in many instances the government has acted quite arbitrarily, with no regard for the provisions of even its own law...

...It should be borne in mind that the author, not a Catholic, is not to be thought of as even remotely sponsoring the views of any religious group.-The Editors...

...These regulations were enforced in a considerable number of instances during the past year or were used as pretexts for dissolving congregations...

...Religious processions through the streets and public squares were forbidden...

...Nor can cooperatives established by members of the congregation to support the pastor divert any of their funds to Church uses...

...Can he communicate with them in writing...

...The Church is likewise not a "juridical person...

...Rykov himself pointed out, during the past year, that such petitions were not sufficient grounds for acts of this kind...

...Thus their ability to exist is necessarily undermined...

...We can, of course, here allege only representative instances...

...A Protestant dignitary in Charkov was jailed and then set free under the provision that he was to labor to frustrate the efforts of German settlers to leave Russia...

...It has been systematically and purposefully carried on since the creation of the Bolshevist state, even though with varying degrees of severity...

...Anybody opposed to Bolshevism, on the other hand, is willing to believe whatever is alleged against Moscow...

...Nor will it be possible to claim that religion was not employed as a reason for dismissing scholars from their positions, or that similar actions are not, at least, characteristic of the Soviet attitude toward faith in God...

...Then all the travelers dismounted, fell upon their knees, and thanked God with tears for their liberation...

...This means that the faithful cannot give alms in the form of fruits of their labor or of work on Church property...

...The space at our command does not suffice to enter into details regarding the persecution of the clergy...

...During April, 1929, the Moscow authorities took a decisive step...

...Hereby the state acquires power to take anything away from a parish on the plea that it has not been kept in proper order...

...The German envoy was at the station...

...A parish is not allowed to stage concerts of sacred music or to give lectures on appropriate topics...

...Why, then, should they seek to do everything in their power to conceal their attitude from the rest of the world and to deny the deeds of which that is productive...

...The decree expressly ordains that pastors must not have fruit or vegetable gardens...

...The war declared by the Soviets upon church holidays finds expression in the edict that solemn religious services are illegal...

...Leo Glassman analyzed in an article that appeared in The Commonweal of January 29 (Paul Scheffer Leaves Russia...

...The decree is indeed a very interesting illustration of the "systematic revolution on a scientific basis" which is the most essential characteristic of the Soviet regime...

...Proceedings of this kind can be noticed almost everywhere in Russia...

...Why was it found expedient to combat, in particular, the activities of the Protestant sects...

...The property rights of the Church have been annulled...

...Try to imagine these conditions as they really prevail in many Russian districts...

...A place of refuge had been promised them by the Reich until such time as an avenue of subsistence could be opened for them either in Europe or overseas...

...The secularization of the church building can be authorized only by an edict from the local authorities who may act for varying reasons, among them the decision that a given structure is needed for public or governmental purposes...

...Everything that once belonged to the old establishment is held to have become the property of the state, which therefore concedes only the right to use the Church under given conditions and may at any time abrogate this permission...

...Only one person got off the train-an old man who was the leader of this "band...

...Nevertheless, the Kremlin was forced to proceed more cautiously than it desired...

...The Bolshevists then proceeded to do everything in their power to destroy the actual framework of the Orthodox Church...

...Millions of Russians living in the cities, and many millions dwelling in the rural districts, were anxious to remain faithful Christians in the orthodox manner...

...They are forbidden to do so, and the Church itself is helpless...

...But it follows that, from this point of view, the rest of their activity is not intelligible...

...Thus they sometimes find the churches must be torn down because they "hamper traffic," or interfere with city housing plans...

...Scheffer was ordered out of Russia some months ago for reasons which Mr...

...Here is a small, specifically documented excerpt from the whole miserable story and even it is incomplete...

...If, owing to the poverty of the congregation, a church was not kept in repair, it was legal to close its doors...

...In addition, I (and every other resident in Russia who did not confine his contacts to the narrowly limited circles) know of cases in which government officials were ordered to choose between their jobs and the religious office-for example, that of the "deacon" who functions at Mass in the Orthodox churches-with which they had been entrusted...

...We have already seen to what an extent the activities of the clergy have been circumscribed and how they have been deprived of the right to give any kind of religious instruction...

...Parish life is hampered in the most unbearable way by the same decree and is in essential matters rendered impossible...

...This power vests in the government the legal right to close churches on the ground that they are falling into decay-a right which has been frequently exercised, for as we have noticed previously, the parish has been deprived of virtually all financial means...

...In these little German communities all excepting a very few Protestant and Catholic churches have been closed...

...Its representations were flatly ignored...

...Let us risk the remark that the Soviet government may be looked upon as being itself the exponent of a creed, held with the fanaticism which accompanies the profession of intolerant religions...

...There is probably no city in Russia which has not witnessed the effort of an impoverished congregation to retain its church in the face of a decision by the authorities to confiscate it...

...The priest can officiate only in the church where he is stationed...

...This outer and inner mutual contact between the churches in Russia was now attacked through extraordinarily detailed mandates drawn up with cunning and malice...

...This last ordinance, of obvious importance, is supplemented by the prohibition of every kind of education work among the young...

...This is, of course, no justification of the vandalism now in vogue...

...No one can deny that, for example, during the so-called "purification" of Russian institutions, including the universities, from "undesirable elements," the religious question played an important part...

...The effect is especially disastrous in the rural communities...

...Communist student leaders, for instance, again and again protested against professors who went to church even at Easter time...

...These examples derived from observation of life in Russia are to show what is happening, and to what an extent all the faithful are steeped in fear...

...But the streets of Moscow remained deserted and still...

...One cannot understand why so beautiful a building as the Semion-off Monastery was destroyed during a species of popular festival unless some such ultimate plan has been drawn up...

...Meanwhile, the western world was busily discussing the question, "Is a persecution of religion in progress throughout Russia...

...It is often asserted in official declarations by the Soviet authorities, their propagandists or sundry other defenders of the Bolshevistic system that nobody in Russia is molested because of his convictions or his religious conduct...

...More than that...

...Most of the participants were students at the "eastern universities"-China and other Orientals...

...MOSCOW AND THE CHURCHES By PAUL SCHEFFER ONE morning during December, 1929, a train chugged into Riga, the metropolis of Lett-land, bringing out of Soviet Russia several hundred peasant families of German extraction...

...It is true that in some places the last-named regulations are not observed...

...All offerings and stipends are regarded as eo ipso nationalized...

...Diverse forms of propaganda were used to create hostilIn order that the news out of Russia may be as up to date as possible, we have requested Mr...

...It is not entitled to sign a lease or even to purchase wood for heating church buildings...

...It is therefore not correct to hold that persecution of religion in Russia is of recent origin...

...Paul Scheffer to write the article which follows...

...During 1925 (the year of Tychon's death) the Soviet government established this synod but allowed it absolutely no freedom of action...

...Not less obvious to a spectator at Moscow is the relentless fashion in which the religious convictions of the teaching body are scrutinized...

...The bricks of razed churches are frequently used as building material...

...For anyone who, like myself, has been in Moscow recently, this debate seems a very curious affair, in which none of the participants are interested in establishing, analyzing or discussing facts...

...Precisely this propaganda which is destined for foreign consumption insists also that the great majority of the Russian people agree heart and soul with the Soviet authorities in their attitude toward the churches...

...Similarly, churches could be locked on popular petition...

...It will serve to give an idea of the way in which the campaign against the clergy has been conducted to state that during the year 1929 the following ecclesiastics active in congregations of German origin along the Volga and in the Ukraine met such fates as these: Pastors Eberlein and Waniger were sentenced to five years in prison, Pastor Brungard to two years, Pastor Keusche to eight year...

...Support of the clergy or the Church is permitted only in the form of money paid by members of the congregation...

...These were affirmed to have enrolled no fewer than 25,000,000 people, and the Russian press observed that revival meetings were frequently better attended than the workers' club meetings...

...Petitions are frequently circulated demanding that a given church be diverted from religious purposes...

...Pastor Ros-enbach disappeared without a trace...

...Sham trials are sometimes staged...

...The faithful are obligated to protect this confiscated ecclesiastical property...

...Accordingly the Holy Synod, the central body which annealed worldly and ecclesiastical authority, was already abolished in 1917...

...Pilgrimages or the carrying of ikons, held in especial esteem, from their shrines for purposes of worship-or, for example, on visits to the sick-are prohibited...

...It is known that three other evangelical pastors are in prison and that another has been sentenced to death...

...A bishop, or any other higher prelate, has, therefore, no opportunity to enter into closer relationship with the parishes in his jurisdiction...

...It is true that the Soviet authorities often observe certain legal formalities but they do not bother to offer a strong case in defense of their policy...

...Previous to this time it had been possible to maintain relations between churches professing the same creed, or between members of the same congregations even though the obstacles of a material, spiritual and personal character were great and grave...

...The dozens upon dozens of stipulations imposed upon the religious life of Russia by this April decree acted like a net in which faith could be strangled without too vociferous a struggle...

...For the bond which associates the several churches of the same creed has been cunningly severed by the law, and the muscles of parish organization have been skilfully lamed...

...ity to the Church...

...Having asked excitedly for the dignitary who was to meet them, he then inquired whether he had reached the place where prayers could be said in common...

...During 1927 more than seventy bishops then resident in Moscow, were banished from the city...

...As always, the officers were systematic and proceeded with the aid of mandates and decrees...

...There one saw, on attractively decorated floats, crude effigies of God, Christ and the angels, with whom Moses and Buddha-but not Mohammed-were associated...

...During more than two hundred years, the Greek-Orthodox Church had been unqualifiedly an instrument of the state in accordance with the spirit of the mandate of Peter the Great, placing religion under the wing of the czars...

...Sympathizers with the Bolshevist form of government have decided that the attacks upon religion are not so serious as people believe or even that (vide official speeches) they have not occurred at all...

...Poor folk who possess no money are unable to manifest their religious loyalty with the means at their disposal...

...More than this the followers of Lenin cannot expect of anybody in the way of concession or of "tolerance...

...Thus, for instance, the baroque church which used to stand in the beautiful open square at Vladimir was torn down, despite the fact that the congregation had, through the greatest personal sacrifices, raised the sum needed for repairs in due time...

...Beyond that they are subject to so careful an espionage that movement is virtually impossible for them...

...Indeed, there are many reasons why the Bolshevists should feel that even the superstitions of the great masses in Russia are vital forces which endanger the success of the Soviet program...

...Whatever has taken place during the past year must be regarded simply as the logical consequence of Soviet policy...

...Why should they instruct their propagandists to bank on the ignorance prevailing in foreign countries and to profess a point of view absolutely the opposite of what the leaders of the party have sponsored in private and in public...

...The longer opposition to the Church lasted, the more inevitable it became that the very life nerve of religion should be exposed...

...May we not legitimately be led to think that the official Soviet pronouncements on the future of religion in Russia has been biased, to say the least...

...Complete separation between the church and state was already taken for granted by the revolution headed by Kerensky...

...The allegiance of young people is, above all, taken for granted...

...A very large body of prelates were deprived of their rank...

...And what of the layman...

...This statement is to be taken-as it was meant to be taken-with a huge grain of salt...

...No: it is forbidden to read a pastoral letter or any other ecclesiastical document in public...

...All were in stringent circumstances, so that when left to fend for themselves they were without a ray of economic hope...

...All seem bent, rather, upon pamphleteering, arguing, philosophizing for or against the Soviets on the basis of party loyalties or general principles...

...The leadership of the Church which, after the death of the Patriarch Tychon, had been assumed by a synod, was subjected to constant interference...

...In Moscow particularly the demolition of churches has proceeded at such a pace that one is almost obliged to credit the persistent rumor that at a certain date all ecclesiastical edifices in the city, excepting the vast structure of the Church of the Redeemer, will have been torn down...

...A "Journal of the Godless," now highly prized by bibliophiles for its amazing caricatures, was established and supplemented by a newspaper manifesting the same tendencies...