The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-21


garding number of questions in relation to
the position of religious organizations in the
u. S. S. R.
Comrade Yaroslavsky says I'm reply to
these questions, deem it necessary first OF
all to protest theoretically against the SLAM
derous statements which are appearing IN the
foreign press regarding the activity OF our
atheist organizations This activity is carried
on publicly anyone can get an idea of it from
our widely and openly spread press.
The League of Militant Atheists is volun-
tary society which exists on the basis OF
statute confirmed by the government, in OPP
Grafton, just as other voluntary societies, on
the basis of the U.S.SR. constitution. The
means we are using against religion are agl-
tation and propaganda.
We have repeatedly opposed attempts to
substitute these methods of influencing the
masses by other methods. To bear out my
statement, would like to refer to the widely
spread pamphlet published by the Atheists
League Communists and Religion" This is
what we stated in this pamphlet:
"Our Party is carrying on struggle
against religious prejudces, religious creeds
by means of science and enlightenment, by
means of books, newspapers, lectures, films,
informal talks directed against religion and
religious deception Our program warns all
Communists that, in carrying on this work,
they must act in a manner not to offend
the feelings of true believers, because by
offending the feelings of true believers. one
does not weaken, but can only strengthen
religious beliefs"
You ask if there is religious freedom in the
USSR, and if so, how religious freedom can
be reconciled with the deprivation of the cler-
gy of all denominations of voting rights, and
with the consequences of such deprivation of
political rights.
Religious freedom in the u S. S. R. is guar
anteed by the decree on the dis-establishment
of the church, of 13.1.1918, which contains
the following statement:
"2. In the precincts of the Republic it
is forbidden to issue any local laws or regu-
lations likely to restrict or limit freedom of
conscience or to establish privileges or adj
vantages of any kind on the strength of the
citizens creeds.
"3. Every citizen can practice any reli-
gion, or not practice any at all; any de-
privation Of rights connected with adherence
or non-adherence to any creed is repealed.
MOTE: Any indication of the citizens
adherence\ or adherence to religious
creeds is removed from official documents.
81. The actions of state or other public
jurdcal social institutions are not accom-
panied by any religious rites or ceremonies"
This law is in force today. There has not
been single case of any religious Organiza-
ton being subject to persecution for this or
that dogma of its religion. In the USSR, ut
tery unthnkable is persecution for the propa
cation of such absurd-from our point of
view-dogmas the approaching end of the
world or the defense of theses on the crea-
ton of woman from Adams rib, or the exist
ence of an after-life in paradise or hell. But
at the same time, it is impossible in our coun-
try to prosecute for anti-religious propaganda,
whereas such persecution takes place in all
capitalist countries which have, formally, pro-
claimed freedom of conscience, but in prac-
tice, are prosecuting, as shown recently in the
United States: the of Scopes who .propa-
gated Darwins scientific theory.
Therefore, laws on basphemy and punish-
ment for blasphemy, as in a number of coun-
tries of Bourgeois democracy" are impos-
sble here.
AS to the deprivation of the clergy of the
various denominations Of voting rights, it is
a well known fact that according to the So
Wet constitution people living unearned in
comes are deprived of voting rights, and the
working class cannot of course be expected to
consider as socially useful labor the reading
and chanting of prayers, the swinging of the
censor, etc., religious rites in general
Whenever churches are closed and church
bells are taken down, the rules established by
law are strictly observed l will again refer
to our indications in the pamphlet "Commu-
nists and Religion:
eve must be prepared for struggle
against any religious theology, including the
sectarian, for considerable length of time.
We must carry it on not by compulsion and
coercion, not by administrative measures,
not by prohibiting church services, but by
steady, continuous explanation from day to
day, by enlightenment, of the youth espe-
cially, by exposure of the exploiting role Of
the sectarian organization, Of the connec-
ton between any religion, including sectar-
ian religion, and the organization of the
exploiters."
And on another pages
Zone must avoid closing churches against
the will of the majority of the believing
population, provided of course that houses
of prayer are not converted, as this has hap
pened, into houses of counter-revolutionary
conspiracies, arms stores, etc."
In the event of church being closed with
out the observance of the provisions of the
law, the believers take their grievance as a
rule to the VZIK GAIL Union Central Execu-
tive Committee) which in such a case gives
judgment in favor of the believers. / will
refer to the fact that for several years Jewish
working men and artisans cannot get from
the WIKI the permission to use the Choral
Synagogue in Moscow as a club, in spite of
the fact that thousands Of workers have signed
the petition for the closing of the Synagogue
and that indefatipable agitation is carried IN