The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-04-14
British Chaplain Tells Of
Prosecutions of the
BOlSheviki
us NO GOD IN RUSSIA"
Treatment was as Bruta; as Anything
the World Ever Saw in the First
Centuries

LONDON, April 14-The Chronicle
publishes an article by r. Courtier
roster, a British Chaplain at Odessa
and Russian ports of the Black Sea,
describing the religious persecution
practiced by the Bolsheviki following
upon their former capture of Odes-
sa. He says:
Committees were held on board the
ships of the Black Sea Fleet, among
the lockers in the port, and in the
towns and villages on every hand,
which passed resolutions reading:
we abolish God In Odessa Cathc-
dral, when the Archbishop of Khcr-
son was celebrating the Holy Mys-
tcries an uproar occurred with cries
of Down with the priestsp Down
with the church, At fete in the
town gardens one saw soldier of
the Red Army, amid the outlaws of
his fellows, spit on the Russian holy
picture of the face of Christ, then
tear it into fragments and stamp it
into the dust.
"The .Bolshevist conception of re-
llgIous federation is considerably
more elastic and far reaching than the
ideas of any medieval inquisition. In
this matter the Bolsheviki pride
themselves on beng far in advance of
our eifete western thought. They
have murdered Vladimir, the Metro
politan of Kiev, 20 bishops, and many
hundreds of priests. Before killing
them they cut off the limbs of their
victims, some of whom they buried
alive in the Kremlin. The cathedrals
in Moscow and those in the towns of
Yaroslav and Simferopol have been
sacked. Many nuns were violated and
the churches defiled.
The ancient and historical sacris-
ties and famous libraries of Moscow
and Petrograd were pillaged and
countless sanctuaries profaned. H.,
Cronstadt Cathedral the great figure
OF the crucificd Christ was torn
down and removed, and monstrous
and appalling pagan form placed in
its stead symbolizing Freedom of
Mind
1T is not against any one palticu-
lar form of religion that the terrors
of the New Freedom are hurled.
Orthodox Roman Catholics and Luth-
Grams alike have been tortured, mu-
tilated, and done to death under the
aegis of the Holy Revolution, which
appeals to the proletariat of the
whole world to join it's, forces.
The Revolutionary Government is
subjccting the Christian Religion to
prosecutions as great and brutal as
anything the world saw during the
first three centuries of Christian era.
Moral disintcgration and ruin spread
their tentacles on every side. Any
restraint on sinful impulse or covet~
Gus desire is laughed to scorn. The
.Bolsheviki publicly encourage outrage
and looting. The propaganda for
freedom of the mind is essentially nj
hilistic. 1t is based on negation and
denial of existence of God, denial of
the authority of any moral law, de-
NAL of all rights of conscience, denial
of ali religious liberty, denial of all
freedom of the press, denial of any
liberty of speech.
."Onc officer remarked despairingly
to me: in Russia now there is no
God, no Gar, no law, no property, no
money, no food-only freedom And
in that travestry of liberty which the
whole civilized world may well shud-
der at, all mercy, pity, and liberation
are alike scorned. And it is this new
and wonderful equality of man which
by menas of torture, outrage, and as
sassinations proclaimes the freedom
of mind and body to the devastated
Russian nation"