The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-08-23
Latest Propaganda Inside Curtain
Russian N0veI Ciues Red
Version of Vatican Life
by Erik ". Kuehnelf-L eddihn

COeXJSLGnC6 means lVIIS oluC W 0hW -.
Can one live side by side with a person, an oIganlss-
ton, a society which one considers to be perfectly mon,
strous REGARDLESS whether tn this " view eSo is s,] ]usinie and = let ! Is
get a glimpse of how Soviet Propaganda news te vausans
Since ! read Russian periodicals, newspapers, anu
novels regularly | will give you one little extract. il comes
from the novel "Moskovskoye Vremya" by Ivan kurcnavovs;
Vol. l, PIP. 293-294, published last year in Tallnn, capi!al
of enslaved Estonia. The time Of action is before the soviet
occupation of this thoroughly Lutheran nation. -
The villain of the novel is a certain Alfred hemmst
an ~anti-Soviet crook and ne'er-do.wel who, during MS
Journeys abroad, one day arrives in the Eternal CHy.
Now let's hear the story:
"Alfred had spent already Is days in Rome. During
the . day he begged, in the evenings even \ g,, ne Spent 71sn h Mb esfn face
reminded him of a squeezed lemon but VINO eyes wee
piercing. Remmel, who was drunk, told him about DIS ms
adventures. -
you're most unfortunate" said the man with the
piercing eyes. "What, by the way, is your religion! I'm
a Lutheran" Remmel replied. st could be worse" the
stranger remarked, adding that he could be of great help
and giving his address.
Alfred appeared at the Vatican, where he Yves told
that he must undergo some training. He had TO rake
courses in handling . modern pistol and poisons, in fhe
history Of the Holy Inquisition, and in the technique Of
disrupfing labor organizations.
For more than a year they taught him the art of lying,
perjury, intrigue, and bigory. Soon he held an eminent
position at the papal court.
He now spoke slowly as if, each time, not WORDS put
gold bars would drop from his mouth. He insisted that the
most important action for the time being was to work
ones way into the labor unions and destroy them. like
rust eating iron" He raised his eyes to Heaven while, in
a nasal voice, extolling the sublime mission OF the ropes
servants, he preached a crusade against the bolshevlks
ne UlSSEu lS TWILL. All VI ShS
Communists to the Patriarch of Moscow-we are going to
try as we tried John Huss. All of them-we are going to
burn on the stake"
In his wallet, once so empty there appeared a Wad
of bank bills and a whole load of documents with seals and
signatures proving that he had been a worker in Africa,
an unsuccessful singer in Rome, a volunteer in the Inter
national Brigade fighting in Spain.
Thus the little thief from Viljandi was slowly trans
formed into a heroic figure.
And fher-he reappears in Esfonis. There he Joins
the political police and is given, ss his first assignment,
the task to worm his way info the savings bank owned BY
the Communists He produces his documents and is trust
ed"
Hereafter our friend Alfred Kennel acts as a local
informer of the political police of bourgeois" Estonia.
What effect, we must ask ourselves, has a book OF this
sort on Soviet readers? Those who have some sort OF edu-
cation must reject this passage as outright nonsense. Yet,
what happens to an uneducated but intelligent Soviet cltl-
zen? Can he really believe that the wicked Vatican recruits
its private Gestapo among thu DRINKS In Roman night
clubs?
Can he believe that the Vatcan's recruiting officers
hand out cards with a Vatican address to seml-professlonal
beggars? H.,
have a burning interests in disrupting a workers organi-
cation in far away, small Estonia which has no more than
two or 5000 Catholics?
Is he really so stupid as to assume that the Vatican
would transfer q high offieial"t TO the Esfonian poIics
in order to give him a chance to worm his way into z
Communist controlled local savings bank? Would he real
ly assume that there is q pistol range behind the Sisfine
Chapel or that converted Lutheran thieves dream ct
burning the Patriarch Of Moscow on the stake?
Whatever the answer, the fact remains that all pub
fishing in the Soviet Union is done by the State and that
the government, by publishing such a book, provides us
with its own contemptuous estimate OF the intelligence
of its subjects. This estimate is to say the least, not ter
ribly high.