All Against Russia

To the statesmen of all but one Great Power, the existence of God is an axiom and the worship of Him is considered a vital corollary of good government.

In Asia, where an innumerable multitude of Deities are worshipped by the majority of the human race, this is as true as in the U. S., Britain, France or Germany, where a smaller but vastly more potent number worship the One God whom men called yah before the exodus, yahwey after.*

An observer, peering through a super-telescope from Mars last week, would have seen the clergy and congregations of the West becoming suddenly incensed against the statesmen of Soviet Russia who, for some twelve years past, have denied the existence of God or gods, and have steadily maintained that Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, called "Lenin," uttered a profound truth when he said: "Religion is opium for the people."

Protestant+Catholics +Jews. Peering about the U. S. the Martian astronomer would have seen:

Bishop William Thomas Manning of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, quoting the words of His Holiness Pope Pius XI, who had denounced what is going on in Russia as "horrible, sacrilegious iniquities" (TIME, Feb. 7), and promising to hold a service in his Cathedral of St. John the Divine on March 16, when Christian groups throughout the world will offer up, without distinction of creed, a joint and fervent prayer that belief in God and his worship may flourish in the Russian people.

Commander Evangeline Booth declaring at Manhattan: "The Salvation Army takes no part in politics and expresses no opinion on the economics of capitalism, communism or any other social system. But we declare in the most explicit terms that ... it is impossible to found or to maintain a civilization where the authority and even the existence of the Deity is denied by the State."

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, exhorting all U. S. Jewry to pray on the same Sunday as the Christians with these words: "Our one concern is with the attempt of Russia to kill the religious life of 3,000,000 Jews, with Russia's denial of the right of a Jew to be a Jew."

The Legislature of the State of New York passing this resolution: "Whereas Soviet Russia has taken drastic action to abolish all religious teachings and beliefs, denying the right of worship of their God to Christians, Jews, and other religious groups. . . .

"Resolved, that it is the sense of the people of the State of New York and the State Government that the United States should use its best efforts in an attempt to persuade Soviet Russia to discontinue this practice."

President Herbert Hoover reflecting in

Washington upon whether he should act on this and many other potent resolutions, petitions.

Rejoice, Rejoice! Swinging the telescope to focus upon Rome the Martian would have seen Pope Pius XI distressed by a sacrilege which had been perpetrated in the Holy City itself; but the Papal newspaper Osservatore Romano rejoicing to announce that a portion of God's work is being done even by the Bolsheviks, because they, by their infamies, have brought Protestants and Jews to kneel in prayer for a petition initiated by the Pope.

Patriarch+Patriarch. Swinging eastward the glass would have focused on:

In Belgrade, the Patriarch Dimitriye, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, calling upon the whole Orthodox church to defeat by prayer "the Bolshevik campaign against God and all who believe in God, with the purpose to erase God from men's minds."

In Cairo the Coptic Patriarch, Yoannes XIX, head of the most ancient branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, ordering prayers on March 16 "in all churches, monasteries and religious institutions within our jurisdiction."

Men Like Boa-Constrictors. Swinging back toward England, where the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had already accepted the Papal plea for prayer, the Martian might have peered into the House of Lords, as the scathing Earl of Birkenhead rose to provoke well nigh unanimous applause by calling the Soviet Government "the most unworthy and perhaps the most criminal in the world."

"Russia is a wasp's nest!" agreed Baron Cushendun; and Baron Newton called Bolsheviks "unattractive animals which, like boa-constrictors and alligators accept food, only to show their gratitude by swallowing their keepers" (an unconscious outcropping of the Briton's honest belief that other nations have or at least should have keepers).

Punch, always a sensitive weathervane of upper middle class British opinion, suddenly veered around from amused tolerance of the Bolsheviks to savage, hysterical cartoon attacks such as the World's wittiest weekly once hurled with a maximum of witless, primeval savagery at Wilhelm II.

In the 1930 New Year issue Punch charmingly cartooned a big, jovial Russian Bear, tricked out in a gold-braided court suit, waddling in to lay his credentials before George V. Inconspicuously worked on the nice big bear's coat tail was the Soviet emblem: Hammer & Sickle.

But as the wind changed Punch trimmed its sails, put out a full page caricature well calculated to scare pious old ladies out of their wits, showed the Soviet Moloch glowering from a throne set up on a pile of broken crosses and smashed ikons, with a vulture perched above his head, shouting to a land laid waste: "Thou shalt have no other God but me!"*

Meanwhile the Conservative Morning Post had organized the "Council of Christian Protest," militant organization which proceeded last week to stage demonstrations throughout the British Isles, all featured by the reading of letters from Russian priests in which nameless and disgusting Bolshevik atrocities were described. Persons familiar with the subject at once recognized this particular series of letters as one first used to shock the Christian world in 1918--twelve years ago. At the office of the Morning Post it was admitted that the letters are twelve years old, and that they were read to gaping crowds in such a way as to give the impression that these atrocities are being committed in Russia now. By way of explanation the Morning Post asserted that it will print the exact dates (in 1918) when each letter was written as soon as these dates can be verified, a difficult task which might take a perfectly honest man years.

"Persecution not the issue!" In British Labor circles the Conservative Party was accused of trying to fake up a new Red issue (such as the Zinoviev Letter which enabled them to win the election of 1924), and the Morning Post was called the spearhead of a propaganda campaign which had gathered the awful weight of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and with this impetus was profoundly misleading the Protestant world.

In the House of Commons the Prime Minister's own son, Malcolm MacDonald, M. P., rose to tell how he personally had within the past six months worshipped in a Moscow church and had seen thousands doing likewise. In the House of Lords, one of Labor's newest peers, Baron Ponsonby, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Dominions, besought the Conservative Earl of Birkenhead and others "not to grow so easily hysterical, not to use every snippet of unverified rumor in the press as a stick wherewith to beat His Majesty's Government."

In a solemn public statement last week Prime Minister MacDonald (known to two hemispheres as a devout Scotch Presbyterian) declared, first that his knowledge of events in Russia was from his own son and close associates who have recently been in Moscow, not to mention the British Minister there; second he warned specifically against accepting unverified reports from Riga,* Latvia; third, Mr. MacDonald quietly observed that there has always been considerable religious persecution in Russia (pogroms were a feature of Romanov rule); and finally he broadly hinted his own attitude, his policy:

"Persecution ... is not the question at issue. Rather have we to consider what we can do. ... To outlaw a country [i. e. withdraw British recognition of the Soviet Union] is not to make it amenable to world opinion but the opposite . . .!

"Even now you must see that the tone and temper of the agitation are hardening rather than softening the heart of the Russian Government and giving it the opportunity of persuading its own people --however erroneously--that this is all part of a conspiracy of the other governments to begin war against the Soviet Government."

Later in the week the War Office and the Admiralty informed chaplains with the Army and the Fleet that they would not lead soldiers and sailors in the general prayer March 16. Reason: the agreement between Britain and Russia that neither Government will launch propaganda against the other was interpreted by Scot MacDonald in the sense that His Majesty's Government should not indulge in the propaganda of prayer.

Orthodox Patriarch+Chief Rabbi. Certainly the Man in Mars would have peered at Moscow, would have seen through his telescope a significant personage: the acting Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Russia today, the Metropolitan Sergius.

His Holiness received the World press at his small frame house in Moscow. A dozen eager newshawks faced a stoutish, oldish man, his face serene beneath a tall white mitre, his right hand caressing with a thoughtful gesture the large cross pendant on his breast.

"We are somewhat deaf, gentlemen," said the Metropolitan. "Submit your questions in writing and we will write our replies."

In the course of his replies Sergius stated:

"Many foreign churchmen have joined with the Pope in demanding a crusade against the Soviet Union. . . .

"The Pope proved himself an enemy to Orthodoxy by confiscating 500 orthodox churches in Poland in 1929 and converting them into Roman chapels. We are not aware that any protests anywhere against this Roman violence have ever been made. . . .

"Millions of [Russian] churchgoers still enjoy full rights and support us materially so that we require aid of no kind and, above all, desire no interference from abroad. When priests are arrested or exiled from Moscow it is for violations of laws such as nonpayment of rent and taxes and nonfulfillment of other regulations binding all citizens.

"Abolition of Sunday and substitution of the five-day week have affected church attendance very slightly."

Although numerous U. S. correspondents sent out signed despatches quoting the Metropolitan, described minutely the whole scene, still next day in Riga, Latvia, the local Orthodox Archbishop announced the impossibility that Sergius could have uttered his words, and the Morning Post told Londoners that Sergius is a "tool" of the Soviets. Little impression was made in either Britain or the U. S. by the publication cf a statement signed by Chief Rabbi Henachem Gluskin of Minsk, though no one accused him of being a "tool," for all Jewry knows his stalwart saintliness.

Slashing, it began: "We are furious at the appeal of the Pope for a crusade against the Soviet. . . . We declare before the entire World that the only government which does everything to assist the pre-Revolutionary persecuted and rightless nation of Jewry to better organize its life is the Soviet Government! It grants land to the Jews, provides them with tools in their new settlements and gives them rights equally with other nations to elect their own Soviet. . . .

"We cannot be silent about the fact that neither the Pope nor the Archbishop of Canterbury ever did anything when Tsarist Russia persecuted the Jews!"

"Point a Single Instance!" To Moscow from London hurried spruce, grey-haired Ed. L. Keen, Vice President of United Press for Europe, and was received by Prime Minister Alexy Rykov of the Soviet Union, the man whom Dictator Josef Stalin is behind.

Mr. Keen did not get a word with M. Stalin. (Even Ivy Lee, peripatetic representative extraordinary, of U. S. Business, has not been able on his Moscow visits to contact with the World's most seclusive Dictator.) But it is news that M. Rykov said to Mr. Keen:

"Science and scientific knowledge have made great progress in our contemporary life. This naturally leads to a decrease in the number of churches and a decline in religious feeling.

"The separation of Church and State is being enforced radically and to the limit. I might say we are merely carrying out with merciless thoroughness a program similar to that of radical parties in bourgeois countries."

Leaning back in his swivel chair, offering his guest coffee, little cakes and long Russian cigarets, the Prime Minister continued :

"One of your questions, Mr. Keen, implies prosecutions, imprisonments, and so on, for religious belief. I do not know of any such cases and would be very glad if you could point out to me a single instance."

Mr. Keen, veteran of 19 European newspaper years, could not or at least did not rise to this opportunity by naming one instance.

"I do not deny," went on M. Rykov. "that many churches have been closed and diverted to other purposes. But such happenings never occur except upon request of mass meetings in the local communities. . . . We have prohibited religious propaganda in our educational and cultural institutions and we strictly punish violators of this law. . . . The Soviet Union does not prosecute the clergy for legitimate practice of their profession."

Significance. No one, and least of all Stalin, denies that the entire Russian people, laymen and clergy alike, are subject to checks upon their commercial, intellectual and religious activities which can be called "economic persecution," "mental persecution," "religious persecution," or can be regarded as emergency measures taken by a strong, paternal State to guide and even drive 150,000,000 backward people toward the goal of Prosperity, which has meant $108,000,000 worth of export business for the U. S. during the past 1929 fiscal year.

In the modern fashion of preferring the economic truth to the spiritual truth, there is little doubt that the business leaders of the West quietly thought to themselves last week that their clergy and a few politicians had gone off, half cocked. Prayers must be numerous and fervent indeed to stop Stalin, "The Man of Steel," but he can be stopped the moment Business unites with the Church in an economic boycott of the Soviet Union. For Stalin's whole program is based on importing Ford tractors and U. S. technicians, exporting grain and raw materials. Nowhere last week, was the economic weapon drawn, nor was any plan afoot to draw it.

In Belgium one of that little country's largest match factories went bankrupt last week, because the Soviet Government Match Works is now dumping matches in the Belgian market at a price so low that local competitors are smothered. When colossal Red Russia begins to dump automobiles in the U. S., Britain, France and Italy, the Church may count on Business for help in the Crusade-- perhaps too late.

"Thy Kingdom Come!" Meanwhile one of the most beautiful and moving prayers composed to be said on March 16th was written last week by England's Bishop of Winchester, aristocratic product of Cambridge:

"Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sakes didst endure the cross and despite the shame, and art at the right hand of God; look, we beseech Thee, in mercy upon Thy servants now suffering for their faith in Russia. Grant them patience and steadfastness and the peace which the world cannot give.

"To those in pain and sorrow give Thy heavenly comfort. To those who have been faithful unto death give everlasting peace. Be present with those who are in loneliness and desolation. Frustrate all that hinders the coming of Thy Kingdom and so order the unruly passions for sinful men that the cause of Thy Gospel may yet triumph and Thy Church be reestablished in the hearts of Thy people."

"I want to go to Hell." The gravity of the Russian situation from a purely religious standpoint, ignoring entirely the role of the Soviet Government, was apparent from the reports of the foremost correspondents in Moscow last week, famed Walter Duranty of the New York Times and Mr. Keen. They both cabled their belief that the Russian people, even the thousands of churchgoers, no longer cherish religion in the depths of their hearts, and consider that the Orthodox Church with its gorgeous trappings passed away with the pageant of the Tsars. Among numerous accounts and anecdotes cabled to support this belief, Mr. Keen told of an old Russian woman who said to him in a matter-of-fact way that she had about decided to take down her ikon and put up a portrait of Lenin. Asked Mr. Keen: "Don't you think God will be angry?"

"I am old," said the woman very simply. "I still believe in God and the Savior and the Holy Virgin. . . . The priest says my sons will go to Hell because they are Godless. I love my sons and want to go with them."

*"The pronunciation 'Jehovah' is an error": Encyclopedia Britannica. "Yahweh" is correct. *Bible: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." *So notorious as a centre of Anti-Soviet propaganda that U. S. newsorgans of standing always play down and frequently refuse to print "news" from Riga, whereas the British Conservative press always plays up Riga scares, often in biggest headlines. *Over 1,000 since Christmas according to official Soviet figures.

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