textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/mccabe09.xml

<xml><p> 31 page printout</p>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom, Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
**** ****</p>

<p>Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p>

<p>THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 9</p>

<p> ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> HOW THE <ent type='ORG'>WISKED</ent> BOLSHEVIKS SAVE OUR <ent type='GPE'>CHRISTIAN</ent> WORLD</p>

<p> by Joseph McCabe</p>

<p> HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS
**** ****</p>

<p> CHAPTER
I <ent type='ORG'>The Vatican Courts</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> for years ........... 1</p>

<p> II <ent type='ORG'>The Supposed Persecutuin</ent> of Religion .......... 8</p>

<p> III The Papal Hymn of Hate ........... 14</p>

<p> IV Hitler's <ent type='PERSON'>Magnifient Blunder</ent> ............ 19</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Chapter I</p>

<p> THE VATICAN COURTS <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> FOR YEARS</p>

<p> On the very morning on which I begin to write this little book
the news comes that <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> has attacked <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. It completes my
case against the Vatican. Its third big friend and ally joins the
struggle to destroy all freedom, all enlightenment, all that we
most deeply prize in what we call our civilization. The <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> has
still other friends, it is true. It has <ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and Franco
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, those islands of Fascism amidst populations in chains which
loathe them. It has <ent type='PERSON'>Salazar Portugal</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Leopold</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, the
miserable new <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Montenegro</ent>, and the rats of <ent type='GPE'>Eire</ent>,
Hungary, and <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>. One hopes it is proud of them. Until today it
flattered itself that amongst its loyal friends it numbered nearly
all <ent type='GPE'>the Republics</ent> of South and Central <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> but this latest
outrage on all human decency by one of the big Papal <ent type='ORG'>Allies</ent> seems
to have shaken most of them. The powerful friends of the Vatican
are <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> -- the most brutalized powers of
modern history, the enemies of the human race.</p>

<p> It is not nine months since the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> gave <ent type='ORG'>Matsuoka</ent> so gracious
an interview at the Vatican that the wily Jap called it "the most
beautiful moment of my life" and he put amongst his treasures the
gold medal which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> gave him. <ent type='ORG'>Matsuoka</ent> had done more than any
other representative of <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> to fool <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>ns and delay their </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
1
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>armament. He is a more unctuous liar than <ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent>. Last March,
when he was so affectionately received by the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, he had just
come from interviews with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, in which beyond
question the date, if not the manner, of Japan's intervention must
have been discussed. There is here no room for one of those
"unauthorized" assurances that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was saddened or depressed
or murmured about barbarous outrages. From the audience he went,
radiant, to his usual public audience -- ten to fifty dollars a
head -- and said, according to the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> (his own organ) as
well as the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> journalists who were present, that
he had had "a fine conversation" with <ent type='ORG'>Matsuoka</ent>. And the
unscrupulous Japs went home to join in the concerting of the plot
to dupe <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> to the last moment and fall upon it with all the
brutal cunning and treachery which have characterized the greedy
enterprises of the Pope's two other big friends.</p>

<p> Why call the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Japan's ally and friend, your <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
neighbor may ask, I had better recall for you what I said briefly
on the subject in the second book of this series. When in the most
fateful hour of this catastrophic development, the rape of
<ent type='GPE'>Manchuria</ent>, the first trial of strength of barbarism against
civilization, <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> looked round a hostile world for a friend it
found only the Vatican. The new Secretary of State, the present
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, directed <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> priests in the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> to cooperate with the
bandits. I should not think that any decent <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> will
ask you to believe that the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was merely concerned about the
spiritual welfare of the few thousand (or hundred) miserable rice-converts to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Manchuria</ent>. Anyhow, it was the beginning
of a most edifying friendship. Although there were only 100000
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> there was soon talk of an exchange of
ambassadors between <ent type='GPE'>Tokyo</ent> and the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican City</ent>, and just when <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>
exposed its own lies about <ent type='GPE'>Manchuria</ent> by seizing and corrupting
other provinces of <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> the Vatican proudly announced, and the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press everywhere joyously repeated, that that proof of
amity between two "civilizations" had been achieved. Since then, as
I quoted in the words of a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, no <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese of any
standing visited Europe without calling to pay his respects to "the
Holy Father."</p>

<p> By what name will this beastly war be known in the history-books of the future? We hope that our great-grandchildren will read
of it with amazement in their High Schools as "The Last Great War."
If the men and women of the rising generation who have shuddered at
its horrors do not make a life-vow of critical vigilance, if they
again trust priests and politicians to prevent the world from
drifting into so shameful a surrender to banditry, they are
unworthy of the years of sunlight which the chances of life have
offered them.</p>

<p> Some think that the title will be "The Most Amazing War in
History." From 1919 onward hundreds of writers thrilled us with
gruesome pictures of the super-brutalities of the next war, and for
the last ten years at least there cannot have been a doubt in any
man's mind which nations were expected to rain down fire and poison
upon peaceful cities and which peoples were to suffer. Yet the
aggressive nations openly flaunted their programs of conquest and
their plainly named victims went from jazz to swing and let even </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
2
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>the weapons of 1918 rot in the fields. When the time came little
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent> declared war with an equipment of 18 good planes, quarter
of a million cardboard-coffins, and 40000000 gas-masks. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>
entrusted its fate to naval and military commanders who allow
priests to tell them that an appalling national calamity purifies
the soul of a people and that no price is too high to pay for the
destruction of Communism and <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent>. Then there was the long spell
of "cockeyed war" in which profiteers waxed fat. Then, most amazing
of all, the great power that every other nation in the world had
maligned and every <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> cursed entered the arena in which we were
supposed to be fighting for <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> civilization and lit it at
last with valor and heroism.</p>

<p> Some day historians and military experts will estimate more
coldly than we can and more boldly than we dare today what chance
the <ent type='GPE'>British Empire</ent>, even with what we might call the morganatic
alliance of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, had of escaping destruction after the
appalling betrayal of civilization by <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. There will be at
least many who will conclude that if <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> had at that time
persevered in his designs against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> before turning to attack
<ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the issue would have been. . . .
Let me, since I am an Englishman, leave it at that.</p>

<p> But the most amazing feature of all is the story of the
relations of the Vatican with the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> civilization. In all that
maelstrom of emotion that agitated the press and peoples of the
world when mighty <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> entered the war nothing was more
intriguing than the wavering and discordant note of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
press. Even when it was clear, as it must have been to every
informed person, that the world's peril was mightily relieved, if
not dissipated, by the accession of this new strength to the forces
of good, large numbers of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in every country denounced the
idea of employing it, and a certain reserve or hesitation was found
throughout the entire <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. You know why. Every <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had
attacked <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> for its <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> and its supposed persecution of
religion, but the others had been temperate in comparison with the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. Ten years ago it had borrowed and adopted the motto
which Voltaire had coined against itself, "Wipe out the Infamous
Thing." We had been reading in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers for decades that
the truculence of that slogan was proof of the essential vulgarity
of the irreligious soul, and suddenly, five or six years ago, the
gentle voice of Mother <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> began its "Wipe out <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>." Even a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer does not pretend
that Voltaire urged men to extinguish the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in blood.
But that is the only possible meaning of the Pope's slogan. He
appealed to "governments." The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> hierarchy appealed to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
to let them add their prayers to the thunder of his guns. The
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n hierarchy appealed to Wall Street, which is believed to
have some influence at <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>.</p>

<p> All that is known, but what is your <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> friend likely to
say if you tell him that in what his own (as well as general)
literature calls the very worst years of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> power, the years
when priests like Father <ent type='PERSON'>Walsh</ent>, who spent two years in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, tell
him that bishops and priests were murdered by the hundreds and with
sadistic savagery, the Vatican was straining every nerve to court
the favor of <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> and his colleagues? That in the first year of </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p><ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> power, the summer of 1918, <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s held, for
the first time in the history of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the most solemn and august
of their public processions, with the consecrated host, in the
streets of <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent>grad, and no one was allowed to molest them?</p>

<p> That is really the most amazing feature of the story of the
Vatican and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. As long as the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s were <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s --
that is to say, as long as <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> attempted to run the country on
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> lines -- and a savage <ent type='EVENT'>White War</ent> and famine did profoundly
disturb the normal Socialist psychology -- the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was the only
power in the world that repeatedly attempted to enter into cordial
relations with them. But when the New Economic Policy suspended
Communism in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, when the passions of the civil war had died
down and the stately structure of a new and higher civilization
began to rise from its foundations, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> began to denounce
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> as the spawn of the devil and call for a crusade to wipe
it out in blood!</p>

<p> Yet the evidence for that can be taken entirely from <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
sources, and any man who has read my account -- fully supported by
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Teeling -- of the Papal ambition to take over the
eastern <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, will be prepared to accept it. To many, however,
it will seem not merely one of those "libels" of which <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
are taught to complain so pathetically, but a quite impossible
suggestion. So let us take this attempt of the Vatican to court the
<ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> government during the four or five years when all the rest
of the world hated it as our first point.</p>

<p> From the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Teeling (The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in Politics), who is no
rebel against his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, I quoted the statement that the Vatican
was most eager to capture the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> and other eastern <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es in
order to counterbalance the growth of <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> elements (chiefly
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>) in the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. He goes on to describe
how the destruction of the power of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> or <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> by the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s -- in fact, the knowledge that they would
very soon achieve this -- gave the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> a wonderful new outlook
for its anti-<ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> ambition. By flattering the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>
leaders and thanking them for delivering <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n Pacifists from the
tyranny of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> it hoped to take the place of the
discredited heads of the old national <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> The somewhat sympathetic <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n writer <ent type='PERSON'>George Seldes</ent> (The
Vatican) says the same, with a slight difference. He says that the
Vatican regarded the rise of the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s to power with mixed
feelings: a loathing of their economic philosophy and rejoicing --
for which he quotes the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> in the splendid opportunity of
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> states on the title-page of his book that the
historical part of it is taken from a work by two <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s,
G. <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> and C. <ent type='PERSON'>Pichon</ent> (Le Vatican et le monde moderns, 1933). He
does not explain how 20 small pages of historical matter in the
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> book have become more than 100 large pages in his own book.
Anyhow, he here retouches their text. They simply say that the
<ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> rejoiced in the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> in so far as it opened
out a golden prospect to itself. The talk about the infamy of the
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> philosophy began later. At the time doubtless <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> had
just the same idea of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> but it was prepared to sup with
the devil.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> Another <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer who candidly describes this early
phase is Miss M.A. Almedingen (The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> Today,
1923). Her little book is valuable not only because the author is
one of those ardent (in the pious sense) virgins who are the
treasure of the clergy but because she lived in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> during these
years of courtship. She tells us that the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s at once
released the head of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> whom the Tsarists had put in
prison -- a <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent> who had been guilty of political intrigue, be it
noted -- and lifted all the restrictions which the Tsarists had
laid upon <ent type='NORP'>Papist</ent> activities. It is this same devout <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and
very truthful lady who tells us that in the summer of 1918
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s were allowed to hold, for the first time in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n
history, their sacred <ent type='ORG'>Corpus Christi</ent> procession, a priest openly
carrying what they call the Blessed Sacrament, in the streets of
<ent type='GPE'>Petrograd</ent> and at least one other city. The <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s actually
favored the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> against the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and there was, this
ideal witness assures us, no interference whatever with their
religion until the summer of 1919, nearly two years after <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> got
power, and no "persecution" until three years after that. In 1920,
she says, <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was still so intent upon friendship with the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
authorities that bodies of friars waited on the frontiers for the
signal to march in and win the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n people for the Vatican.</p>

<p> I have earlier explained the situation. The <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was the largest of the sections into which political
developments in the 19th Century had split the old <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. It
differed from the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> in ritual and on one very abstruse point of
doctrine (the procession of the Holy Ghost) but most emphatically
in rejecting the Pope's pretensions. That it was, and had always
been, very corrupt is agreed. "The <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was filthy with
corruption and debauchery," says <ent type='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> (p. 287). The 10000 monks
were "very lax," says the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia. But most people
have read the very characteristic story of St. <ent type='PERSON'>Rasputin</ent>. Any body
who carers to look up a copy of The <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ce of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>offs which
I wrote and published in <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> in 1917 will find many piquant
pages on church-life. <ent type='PERSON'>Peter the Great</ent> had so open a contempt for it
that in the drunken debauches he held with his court he and the men
often dressed as monks and his loosest women dressed as nuns.
Catherine the Great had hardly less contempt for it. We recognize
in every age a decent and religious minority in it but it remained
until 1917 so generally corrupt that most educated <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns
despised it.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s had another reason to attack it besides the
spectacle of so corrupt a body owning "fabulous wealth," as the
most neutral historians say, and exploiting the ignorant. From the
time of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> it had drawn closer to the autocracy,
knowing that they would stand or fall together. Every atrocity of
the statesmen and their hirelings who protected the throne of the
Tsars was blessed by the Holy Synod, and this continued in the 19th
Century. In the last great revolutionary period, 1904-5, the jails
of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, which were supposed to have a capacity of 107000, were
crammed with 174000 prisoners, besides 100000 in the <ent type='NORP'>Siberian</ent>
colonies. These prisoners were to a very large extent young men and
women of the university-student class. Thousands -- after boldly
stitching tabs with their names on their clothes. -- went out on
the streets to be shot. Hundreds committed suicide or were carried </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
5
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>off by epidemics in the fetid jail's every month. <ent type='ORG'>Brutal</ent> jailers
raped the refined young women in their cells. The press abroad put
these horrors in small paragraphs, if they were mentioned at all.
The banner-headlines were reserved for the fictitious "<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>
atrocities" of a later date. But you will not be surprised that a
great debt was inscribed in the memory of the Socialists.</p>

<p> Yet <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> and his colleagues were content, as long as the
clergy kept out of polities, to disestablish the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, destroy
its monopoly, and confiscate the bulk of its superfluous wealth.
Beyond that, Miss Armedinger insists, there was no persecution for
four or five years, and the complete freedom, and equality of
cults, which the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> hierarchy had refused, were warmly
welcomed by the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists. The Vatican, however, which had from
long experience a cynical distrust of argumentative proselytism and
a decided preference for the knout, wanted more than freedom. The
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had been richer than any section of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, which in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was exceptionally poor. A very impartial
note on the religious situation in Kiesing's <ent type='ORG'>Contemporary Archives</ent>
(October 18, 1941, p. 4848) says that the monks and higher clergy
of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had a wealth in land alone of
$8500000000, and the property, jewels, etc. of their churches
and monasteries represented a vast further sum. The Vatican's dream
of taking over this was soon dissipated, as the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s more
sensibly transferred it to the people of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. But it was said,
since the census of 1913, that the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had 98000000
communicants, and doubtless, since the only difference in doctrine
was one that not one <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n in 100000 could comprehend, a little
pressure from the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> authorities Would help these millions
(mostly illiterate) to see that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was a far holier person
than the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> patriarch.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s had other designs but for a year or two they
were not unwilling to see <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism, of which they knew
very little, replace the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism which they had so much ground
to hate. Meantime, however, the <ent type='EVENT'>White War</ent>, in which passions flamed
to redness and even conservative writers admit that the <ent type='NORP'>Imperialist</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns themselves committed appalling atrocities had broken out.
How this led to what is called persecution we shall see in the next
chapter, but it is worth noting that we have here a parallel with
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> of a very different kind from that which is
usually, and falsely, pressed upon us. <ent type='ORG'>Aulard</ent> and other leading
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> historians have shown that <ent type='PERSON'>Danton</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Robespierre</ent>, instead
of trying to destroy religion, made every effort to maintain the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> but the people overruled them. In much the same way Miss
Almedinger, then living in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, describes <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> and his
colleagues following a policy of religious freedom and the people
impatient of it. The Red guards, she says, frowned on the public
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> processions of 1918 but did not interfere. In the
following year they began to disturb services in the churches and
were checked by the authorities, but these did not seriously
interfere with religion until 1922, when large numbers of churches
were closed and priests arrested.</p>

<p> We shall see why. For the moment let us follow the wooing of
the <ent type='ORG'>Kremlin</ent> by the Vatican. In 1922 the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, who
were now reduced to one or two millions, mostly <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s and
<ent type='NORP'>Lithuanians</ent>, by the formation of the independent republic of </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
6
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, suffered like the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> for having intrigued with the
invading <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s and <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns, and the golden prospect that had
opened up in 1917 to the eyes of the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was replaced by a fear
that its <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was doomed to total destruction in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. The
<ent type='GPE'>Genoa</ent> Conference in 1922, at which the European powers were to meet
and come to a friendly agreement with representatives of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
the higher interests of trade and the recovery of debts having
overruled the world's repugnance to <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, gave the
Vatican a new hope. The Archbishop of <ent type='GPE'>Genoa</ent> was instructed to get
in touch with and cultivate Comrade <ent type='ORG'>Chicherin</ent>.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Pichon</ent>, whose account is followed by <ent type='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> and
Teeling, tell the story. After several futile attempts to meet
<ent type='ORG'>Chicherin</ent> the archbishop got himself placed next to the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n at
a banquet which the king of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> gave to the delegates and he was
as amiable as an <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> prelate knows how to be. He came away with
Chicherin's autograph on his menu, exchanging it for his own. <ent type='ORG'>Bear</ent>
in mind that according to later <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> literature these
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s had already slaughtered a thousand bishops and heaven
knows how many thousand priests. Doubtless the archbishop sent a
roseate account of his success to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, but <ent type='ORG'>Chicherin</ent> was not so
simple as the prelate imagined. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, disgusted at the
hypocritical patronage and greed of the powers, made a separate
trade-agreement with <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, and the conference ended in
confusion.</p>

<p> The Vatican still wooed the hated <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns. some men compare
it to a blond gold-digger pursuing a wealthy gangster but we will
confine ourselves strictly to the facts, as told by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
writers. The agents of the Vatican transferred their solicitation
to the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n representative in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. The civil war had been
followed by a famine in which millions died, and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> pressed
for permission to help in the work of relief in which many nations
cooperated. Even <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers do not go so far as to ask us to
admire the generosity of the Vatican in helping the nation which
had, it was alleged all over the world, been guilty of an atrocious
massacre of priests. The aim was so clearly propaganda that the
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns exacted an agreement that the members of the Vatican
relief mission should avoid politics and propaganda before they
were allowed to enter the country.</p>

<p> Everyone knows the value of these <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> promises to refrain
from propaganda; when, for instance, you send your children to a
nun's school or an invalid to a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> hospital or convalescent
home. A priest or nun is bound in conscience to get round that
promise. So the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> Father <ent type='PERSON'>Walsh</ent>, the head of the
Vatican mission, set out with a million nice parcels "for the
children of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> from the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>." So <ent type='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> says, but he
does not add, as <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Pichon</ent> do, that they took also colored
photographs of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to stick in their relief-centers; and you
can imagine for yourself what answers the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent>s gave when
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns made inquiries about this picturesque and benevolent
gentleman. The <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns found that they were proselytizing and in
1924 conducted them to the frontier. <ent type='PERSON'>Walsh</ent> went back to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and
published one of the vilest of the attacks on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which were now
beginning to gladden the heart of Wall Street. He swept together
the wildest and most incredible stories of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> savagery; and </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
7
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>you will find it interesting to remember that these things are
supposed to have been perpetrated before or during the two years
when the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> was working in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> in friendly relationship with
the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> authorities.</p>

<p> Still the Vatican hoped. It chose a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent>, Father
D'<ent type='PERSON'>Herbigny</ent>, whom it turned into a bishop to make him more
acceptable to the simple <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> authorities, He and a few others
got into <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and were expelled for intrigue, and the long
courtship, which was now clearly hopeless, ended in a Hymn of Hate.
D'<ent type='PERSON'>Herbigny</ent> joined the libellers and maybe regarded as the author of
the Papal bugle-call for "the extinction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>." It is
convenient for <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to forget that the Vatican pressed its
friendship on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> during these years when the appalling
condition of the country did give rise to a great deal of violence
and all the rest of the world was hostile. But the facts I have
given are quoted entirely from <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> sources, and we must not
allow them to be concealed. What the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> believed about the
character of the power with which it sought an alliance did not
matter to it. All that it regarded was, as it thought, a new chance
of attaining wealth and power. As soon as that chance was
definitely lost and Communism and <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> spread from <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and
threatened the Church's wealth and power in other countries it
turned against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and tried to excite a war against It. The
fact that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was now building up a peaceful and humane
civilization did not matter to it. Indeed, the clearer Russia's
peaceful and humane intentions became and the greater its success
the more savage the language of the Vatican became. Did I overstate
the truth when I said that the first aim of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>
is the protection and increase, by hook or crook, of its own wealth
and power? </p>

<p> Chapter II</p>

<p> THE SUPPOSED PERSECUTION OF RELIGION</p>

<p> When Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> recently sent <ent type='PERSON'>Harriman</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> to inquire
what help <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> required he told his envoy to raise the question
of freedom of religion. That fact was stated in many papers and is
duly recorded in the <ent type='PERSON'>Keesing</ent> daily summary of the press. Nothing
but heavy pressure from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es could have induced so broad-minded a statesman as Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> thus to interfere in the
internal affairs of another nation and, by implication, lay down
conditions on which he would grant help to a power that was bearing
the whole brunt of the attack on civilization; and back of this.
pressure of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es is, notoriously, the charge that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
persecutes religion or puts penalties of some sort on those who
practice it.</p>

<p> Most of us know the insincerity of that charge. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was
feared and hated, until it entered the war because its rapid
progress from about 1928 to 1940 discredited two very sacred
principles of the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n press, literature, and </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
8
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>politicians. One, the ancient and threadbare charge against
Socialism, the really fundamental reason why <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was treated as
an outlaw nation and the truth about it concealed, was the
assertion that you cannot make progress without private enterprise
or, in the ordinary meaning of the word, capitalism. It would not
do to let the people of the world know that Socialist <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was
advancing so rapidly that this most emphatic principle of
individualism was completely discredited.</p>

<p> The second principle was that you cannot even maintain an
existing civilization without religion; and, since in this respect
we are thinking of the ruling or, guiding class of a nation, the
principle refers particularly to these. Yet, whatever be the
strength of religion in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> today, which we will discuss later,
no one questions or could question that the members of the
administration from <ent type='ORG'>the Commissars</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> to the administrative
officials of a small town are all <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s. These <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s have
achieved in twenty years one of the greatest feats in history in
the construction of a civilization. They took over, not a working
and fairly solid economy as they <ent type='NORP'>Fascists</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Nazis</ent> did, but a
country that had been reduced to a state of social and cultural
chaos, Tsarist <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> had been low in culture and character and,
for so large a country with such resources, far from rich. But the
three years of the European War, the ensuing two years of the <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent>
and <ent type='EVENT'>the Polish War</ent>, and the two years subsequently of famine and
disease, had made a wilderness of the vast land. Anyone who does
not realize that ought to look into a good annual, like the Annual
Register, for 1923 and 1924. It was still a few years before the
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> statesmen could begin serious construction, and I repeat
that what they did between 1928 and 1940 is beyond all historical
precedents. All the world knows it today.</p>

<p> Hence when <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n writers so far removed from Communism as
John Dewey, <ent type='ORG'>Durant</ent>, etc. began to assert this fact the anti-Socialist slogan was discredited and criticism, to be plausible,
had to be confined to the supposed interference with religion. Here
again priests and bankers joined hands, and the most unscrupulous
priests of all were the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. Although, particularly in
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, the charge of persecuting religion was, as we shall see,
officially disproved years ago, we must admit that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was not the only offender. The entry of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> into the war
roused the same ecclesiastical fussiness in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> as in, <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>,
to which Mr. Roosevelt's unhappy instruction to <ent type='PERSON'>Harriman</ent> bears
witness. The President of <ent type='ORG'>the Baptist World Alliance</ent> publicly
denied Maisky's claim that religion is, and has been for years,
free in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. To that we will return but we, at once, recognize
one distinction between Protestant and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> anti-Communism. The
Protestant <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es wanted such diplomatic pressure as their
government could bring to bear upon <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>, but as I have quoted
repeatedly in the Pope's own words, the Vatican wanted Communism
extinguished by war.</p>

<p> Some of my readers may occasionally regard my language about
that <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, which is treated with profound respect in most papers,
as over-emphatic, but candidly, could any man with moderate
historical knowledge characterize in milder terms the effrontery of
the Vatican's diatribes against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>? Hell hath no fury like a </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
9
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>Pope's scorn, of course, but most people do not expect the strident
and unreasoning language of a rejected suitor from the heads of any
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, and for the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s to complain of persecution is simply
grotesque. Ever since Europe returned to some degree of mental
sanity in the 20th Century the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s have relied on savage
persecution to maintain their power and of the half-million
<ent type='NORP'>democrats</ent> who forfeited their lives for freedom in the 19th Century
all but a few hundred were victims of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> authorities, lay and
clerical acting together.</p>

<p> But there is no need to go into history. In our own day, we
have seen repeatedly in this series of books, <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> follows the old
policy of persecution wherever it can. We saw that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and authorities of <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> maintained a brutal persecution of
the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in the Galician <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent>, indeed of
Protestants in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> itself, from 1919 to 1939. We saw that when
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> had traversed South <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> the most terrible persecution,
including torture, broke out everywhere. It followed the seizure of
power from the Socialists by the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of Vienna. . . . In
short, the policy has been enforced wherever the Vatican had the
power to enforce right down to the time, only a few months ago,
when the priests of <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Bulgaria</ent> fell upon the priests of
the Serb <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> The supreme irony is that, as I have shown until most of my
readers must be tired. of it, in its Canon Law today the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
lays down that it "can and must put heretics to death." <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> are so keen to prevent this from becoming
generally known that it astonishes most people. Only two days ago
I had a letter from a businessman asking where he could buy a copy
of this Canon Law as, if that is impossible -- as it is, for the
Vatican Press alone publishes it, and only for priests -- whether
I could get for him a photostat of the page -- there are five or
six pages -- making the claim! I have not found any priest bold
enough to deny it in writing for the non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> public. The
modern world rightly laughs at the idea of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> priests burning
heretics, or forcing the police to burn them, in the market-place,
but there is here a serious question of principle. The great
majority of people in every advanced modern civilization claim
freedom to go to church or stay away, to accept a religious creed
or reject them all. Why do we tolerate all this fuss about "freedom
of religion" from <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers and priests who say they will,
wherever they get the power, suppress all freedom of irreligion?
Clerical-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> power has in our own time fallen truculently upon
tens of millions of seceders from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, and none are more vehement
than these countries in demanding the blood of the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s
because they put certain mild restriction's on the propaganda, not
the personal practice, of religion!</p>

<p> There is another forgotten aspect which will interest every
man who wants honesty even in religious propaganda. I said that one
of the first things the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s did was to release the head of
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> from the jail to which "Holy <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>"
of Tsarist days had sent him. This was only a last trace of a
bitter persecution of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s that the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns
had maintained for a century. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s now generally suppress the </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
10
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>facts -- though you may read some account of them in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Encyclopedia, since it was written before 1920 -- in order to be
able to represent the "persecution of religion" as a wicked
practice introduced into <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> by those terrible <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s.</p>

<p> In point of fact, such restrictions as the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>
authorities have really laid upon religion, apart from the legal
punishment of priests for treason, are trifles in comparison with
what the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s did to the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in the last
century. You will find it amusing to read in the article on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia how 70 or 80 years ago <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Pius IX
was using about his brothers in Christ of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
exactly the same abusive language as the Vatican now uses about the
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s! But what was then done out of religious hatred -- we
must admit that the chief ground was that the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
were then, as now, mostly <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s and political intriguers -- was far
worse than Catholic's have suffered in <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. Hundreds of
priests were hanged and whole communities of nuns were raped and
brutally treated. They were stripped and flogged and in some cases
burned alive. Young <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> nuns were put in <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> convents,
and it was hell. One <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> mother-superior took an axe to one of
these stubborn <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist nuns. At one place a number of nuns were
put in sacks, and dragged over the surface of lakes in winter, the
people cheering from the banks. <ent type='NORP'>Monks</ent> had to let down their pants
and sit on the ice. I really wonder why Father <ent type='PERSON'>Walsh</ent> did not get
hold of some of these true stories of 80 years ago and turn them
into <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> outrages of 1923 and 1924!</p>

<p> These, things make a mockery of all this modern twaddle about
cruel <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s and sadistic <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s. And when we examine the
stories which are offered us even by writers who pose as experts we
find them often grotesque. There is, for instance, a much-consulted
history of the early <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> years by Lancelot Lawton (The
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent>, 1927). Most people know only that he was a
correspondent in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> of <ent type='ORG'>the Liberal</ent> Daily Chronicle and not that
-- so a <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n official assured me -- he married a <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n.
Most of the folk who talk about the horrors of the early years
would quote Lawton. Well, here is a specimen of his "history." He
says, "The number of ecclesiastical persons executed from 1917 to
1920 was 8050, including 1275 bishops." How magnanimous of the
Vatican to press its friendship upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> after such a ghastly
slaughter! But if you put together the details given in the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia and its supplement and the last edition of
the Encyclopedia Britannica you will be relieved to find that in
1917 there were not more than 80 archbishops and bishops, of both
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and most of them escaped -- the Encyclopedia
Britannica describes 15 of them setting up a synod in <ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent> --
or went to prison for intrigue with the invaders. It is a nice
example of the "historical" basis for the talk about <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>
atrocities and persecution of religion.</p>

<p> As far as the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s are concerned we may follow Miss
Almedinger because she not only lived in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> at the time but she
is so really religious that she won't lie even in the good cause.
She tells us that one <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bishop and a number of anonymous
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s were put to death and admits that they were guilty in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n law. <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> law was so wicked that it imposed sentence </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
11
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>of death on traitors or men who intrigued with and helped the
invaders. One of the most impartial histories of the time, J.H.
Jackson's Post-War World (1935, p. 189) says that "no case has been
discovered of a priest or anyone else being punished for the
practice of religion." Those words, we shall see presently, are
part of the official report of the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> ambassador and were read
in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> House of Commons by the Foreign Secretary (a vary
religious man). The charge has been so discredited that it does not
appear in the supplement of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia which was
published after the alleged period of sanguinary persecution, but
other <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers sustain throughout the world the tattered
legend of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> atrocities. It is the chief foundation for
their gospel of hatred of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and their demand (until recently)
that other powers should make war upon it.</p>

<p> The period in question is still as obscure as some parts of
ancient history, for the confusion was such that few authentic
records were kept while the intense passion on both sides gave rise
to vast quantities of reckless rumors. There is again a real
analogy with the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> -- with the true story of the
revolution for, as I said, <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> no more interfered with
religion for the first few years, beyond disestablishing the
corrupt <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and nationalizing its superfluous wealth,
than the leaders of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> had done. And in both
cases it was hostile invasion and the intrigues of the clergy with
the invaders which soured the people and forced the hand of the
authorities. After the November <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Lenin</ent> repudiated the
huge foreign debt incurred by the Tsarists, and foreign armies were
sent to help the <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent>s or refugee imperialists. About 300000
<ent type='PERSON'>White</ent>s, <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>ns, <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese, <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> entered the distressed and impoverished country for the
purpose of destroying the new regime, and there never was a more
savage war. As in the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent>, again, the refugees told
wild stories (as is now definitely proved by <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> histories) of
the number of victims. The <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns say 50000. Some unprejudiced
historians suggest between 100000 and 200000. But even so
responsible an organ as the <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> Times gave the figure as
7700000 with just such impossible exaggerations in detail as that
I quoted from Lawton.</p>

<p> The <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s continued this war when the other <ent type='ORG'>Allies</ent> quit, and
at a time when the country suffered as no other land has done in
modern times, and it would be absurd to doubt that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
clergy and the peasants they controlled did all they could to help
them. At one time it looked as if the <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s were likely to win and
restore the autocracy of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. In any case the vast majority
of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s left in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> after the detachment of
provinces to form <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Latvia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Lithuania</ent>, were <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s. How
many there were no one knows. They were too poor for the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to
organize them. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia claims 5000000 and then
talks of dioceses in which there was only one priest to 5000 or
even 10000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s! There were probably not a million subjects
of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> then in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and the number today is negligible. It
was the heritage of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> for which the Vatican was
fighting.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
12
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> clergy and the few <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist priests continued to
intrigue with <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and the <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent> refugees abroad, and there were
further executions. Any fair-minded man ought to recognize the real
character of these after the official verdict given in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
House of Commons. In 1929 some of the religious members of
<ent type='ORG'>Parliament</ent>, under <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> pressure, shamelessly ignoring the rule
that one country does not interfere in the internal affair's of
another, insisted that the government should inquire into the
persecution of religion in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. This, it will be remembered, was
the year in which the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> signed its Concordat with <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>,
and desperate efforts were made to get <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> to forbid the
practice of any religion but the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. Severe
restrictions were, in fact, put on Protestantism, and the grossest
intolerance to seceders from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was embodied in the law,
with the approval of those <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in all countries who continued
to talk about <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n persecution of religion. The oracle of
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism, Msgr. <ent type='PERSON'>Ryan</ent>, blandly explained it on the
principle that truth has rights but error none!</p>

<p> However, the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> government asked its ambassador in
<ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>, Sir <ent type='PERSON'>Esmond Ovey</ent>, for a report, and it contained this
sentence which was read to <ent type='ORG'>the House</ent> of Commons by the Foreign
Secretary, the pious <ent type='GPE'>Henderson</ent> -- the government was then under
that arch-trimmer <ent type='PERSON'>Ramsay Macdonald</ent>, who was at one time a personal
friend of mine and a complete Agnostic -- on April 23 and reported
in the press next day:</p>

<p> "There is no religious persecution in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, in the strict
sense of the word persecution, and no case has been discovered of
a priest or anyone else being punished for practicing religion."</p>

<p> It is characteristic of the way in which the public is
educated by its press in our time, under pressure of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism, that a persecution of the <ent type='NORP'>Ukrainians</ent> by the <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s on
the ground of religion (as well as nationality) was then at its
height and only three papers in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> dared refer to
it. At the most <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> restricted religious folk to their own
premises while in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> priests opposed to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> were flogged,
grossly insulted, robbed and jailed. But did you hear any outcry
about the persecution of religion in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> or any demand that
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n or <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> authorities ought to make an inquiry?</p>

<p> To this official assurance that no priest or anyone had been
"punished for practicing religion" could be added the words of a
large number of religious leaders, in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> itself. In a booklet
published in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> (The <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> War on Religion, 1930) Mr.
<ent type='PERSON'>Sherwood</ent> gives, with exact reference to the date of publication in
the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n press, a number of these admissions. One is signed by
three archbishops of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> (p. 27), one by 31 <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>
rabbis, (p. 28), one by a group of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> priests, and so
on. They insist that there is no persecution, say that the stories
of atrocities are "inventions and slanders unworthy of serious
peoples attention" and that there is no question even of "pressure"
on them, and that there had been general political intrigue on the
part of the clergy, especially of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
priests, admitting this, actually say:</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
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<p> "The dark era of oppression has disappeared without a trace,
together with the Tsardom which maintained it, and the star of
liberty has begun to shine with its bright radiance on the life of
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>" (p. 29).</p>

<p> This was in 1927 and refutes the strongest claims of
atrocities, which are located before that date. Yet the Vatican not
merely encouraged the circulation of those stories in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> but actually became more vitriolic in its indictment of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> after that date; just at the time when its pets (<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, the South <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n Republics, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>) were
beginning to enforce a policy of persecution of religion.</p>

<p> Putting aside therefore all stories of execution or outrage on
the ground of religion, which are thus disproved by the best
authorities, what is the law or practice in regard to religion
which, though it ought to be well known at <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>, moves Mr.
<ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> to raise the question of freedom of religion in such form
as to suggest that there is none, or only a restricted liberty, in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>? The prominence given in the press to the President's
instruction to Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Harriman</ent> led Keesing's <ent type='ORG'>Contemporary Archives</ent> to
insert at that date (October 18, 1941, p. 4848) one of its
impartial explanatory notes. It speaks of the "corruption" and
"fabulous wealth" of the Tsarist <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and says that the
action taken against its clergy after the <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> was taken on
the ground of "their secular activities rather than religious
partisanship." Whatever the ground no one who knows anything about
the old <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> will feel surprise that in June 1918 the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was
disestablished, the ecclesiastical property (nearly $4000000000
worth of land) nationalized, religious education excluded from the
schools, and missionary activities suppressed. Within these limits
every <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n was free to follow his conscience. This was the
extent of persecution of religion in the years of the first violent
reaction against the foul older era.</p>

<p> It is complained that the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> authorities then gave all the
unofficial assistance they could to the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> League which was
rapidly weaning the people from religion. It is rather funny to
read this complaint in countries in which the political authorities
do everything in their power to help the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es; and the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
authorities were more deeply and sincerely convinced that religion
is prejudicial to progress than <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> statesmen are that it is
beneficial, to say nothing of the treasonable activities of the
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n clergy. It is complained also that, as time went on a large
number of seminaries, monasteries, and churches were closed. In
hundreds of instances the churches were converted to more useful
purposes at the request of the people who used to frequent them,
and political intrigue sufficiently excuses the closing of
seminaries and monasteries. The writer of the note in <ent type='PERSON'>Keesing</ent>
quaintly says that "in spite of all this" the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
counted 98000000 communicants and the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> 11000000
members, but "the last census," to which he appeals was taken in
1913!</p>

<p> We will try presently to ascertain how many folk in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
still belong to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es and will continue here to examine this
supposedly neutral account. As <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> entered into relations with
other countries the zeal against religion was modified. In 1935 the</p>

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<p>attempt to suppress the celebration of Christmas was dropped, the
more violent literature of the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> League was withdrawn from
the bookstores, and the famous anti-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> museums, with their
caricatures of religion, became respectable museum's of religion!
In 1939 there was, this writer says, a great religious revival,
though "not within the framework of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es." How <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
writers love vague phrases like that. In plain English the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es
continued to lose, but there were now large numbers of priests who
fought to modernize theology, even to combine Communism with a "new
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity," and there was a good deal of fresh discussion of
religion. At the outbreak of the war with <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> the government --
the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Science Monitor announced -- suppressed the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>
paper (<ent type='ORG'>Bezboznik</ent>).</p>

<p> In other words, the increasing danger from <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> induced the
authorities to take various steps which might mitigate the hatred
of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es inspired in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, but
the law was not altered, and Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> seems to have been
persuaded that it contained an element of persecution of religion.
Senator <ent type='PERSON'>Smith</ent> bluntly put it: "Harriman's job seems to be to try to
get <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> to join the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> so we can call him brother." We all
understood what it really meant. The representatives of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es at
<ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> thought it a good opportunity to get <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n law made
more favorable to religion. What is wrong with the law?</p>

<p> As <ent type='PERSON'>Maisky</ent>, speaking to the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n Chamber of Commerce in
<ent type='GPE'>London</ent> on September 23, and <ent type='PERSON'>Lozovsky</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> said, its
fundamental principle is that all religions are free and equal;
which we were always asked to regard as one of the finest
achievements of the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n Constitution. Let me repeat, as so few
seem to realize it, that you will not find that just law and
elementary human right conceded in any <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country in
the world today. Even in <ent type='GPE'>Eire</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Quebec</ent> there is no religious
equality, and the more docile to the Vatican <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> states are,
the more of its Canon Law they admit into their legislation, the
more intolerant they are. Persecution of religion -- any religion
that rejects the Pope's authority -- is, we have seen, a first
principle of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> law and theology. And, though we moderns
insist that the non-religious man has the same right to liberty as
the members of any <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, the intolerance is in this respect worse
than ever. The Vatican's first excuse for its demand of the
extinction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> is that the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns are <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Maisky</ent> later added to his statement of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n law. The
government, which owns all property, puts a building at the
disposal of any group of worshipers and charges no rent or taxes.
Certainly a queer kind of persecution of religion! The police
arrest and the courts punish any who "violate the rights of
believers." Ministers of all religions have just the Same Political
and legal rights as other citizens.</p>

<p> To this the President of <ent type='ORG'>the Baptist World Alliance</ent> made a
heated reply, and we may take it that his letter enumerates every
respect in which he and his colleagues see the shadow of
persecution. Worshipers, he says, must confine their worship to a
church. <ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> Schools and religious lesions to children are
forbidden. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es must have no social gatherings, no </p>

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<p>lectures, and no libraries. Mr. <ent type='ORG'>Rushbrooke</ent> might be advised to
compare these restrictions on priests with the restrictions on
Protestant <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es and <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> lands; and if he
replies that Protestants do not do these things the answer is
simple. They certainly did in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> until, in the 19th Century,
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, which inspired the law. dropped to a
minority. We might even raise a question about <ent type='ORG'>Baptist</ent> tolerance in
certain states of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, but it is enough to reflect that
<ent type='ORG'>Baptist</ent>s or Methodists were never yet the majority in any country
so we must not be too sure what they would or would not do if they
had the power.</p>

<p> To sum up the contents of this chapter and give the reader a
clear idea on an issue that often confronts him in his reading,
there is no truth in the stories that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> or <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>,
were ever physically persecuted in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, that is to say, ever
sent to, jail, much less executed, for belonging to a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> or
practicing religion. An unknown number of bishops and priests,
which in certain cases we have definitely proved to be exaggerated
fifteen-fold, were put to death in the dark early years, but the
ground was political, and our religious authorities admit that the
clergy did quite generally conspire with attempts to subvert the
government. We do not blame them when they saw a chance of the
restoration of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to wealth and power, but it is silly to
call this persecution. The law of treason is much the same in every
country, and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was in such circumstances at the time that a
drastic application of the law was essential.</p>

<p> As to later years and the present time we frankly admit that
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es are not free to do what they like in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. The
restrictions are mild in comparison with the restrictions on
religion imposed in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries, and we very justly resent
the practice of calling them persecution and implying that they are
something peculiar to <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. That is implied in the great
majority of reference's to religion in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and not a word of
appreciation is given the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s for their introduction of the
principle of individual freedom of conscience. The restrictions are
that the priests must not impose religious doctrines on children,
who can't argue with their teachers, or do propaganda other than by
holding religious services which any person may attend.</p>

<p> Apart from those whose admiration of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is so great that
we might regard their judgment as biased, <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s would differ
about the propriety of these restrictions. We must, however, at
least not judge the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n authorities in the light of our
experience in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. The <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, which alone we need
consider since the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> brand of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism is nearly dead, has
been an enemy of the people for a thousand years. It allowed the
Tsars and the nobles to keep nearly half a million peasants until
100 years ago in the state of slavery (serfdom) which Europe
generally abolished 700 years ago. It supported a corrupt and
murderous autocracy until 1917. It continued for the next 10 years
to help every attempt to destroy a regime in which, whatever else
you may think of it, the wealth produced by the people is shared
amongst the people. To me personally it seems that if the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
authorities still think it dangerous, they have the right to impose
these mild restrictions. Please yourself. They do not care the toss</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
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<p>of a coin what you and I think about it. But as a vast amount of
evil has been done by the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, and most particularly the
Vatican, spreading a hatred of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, I have had to show that
there is no justification for this in any persecution of religion.</p>

<p> Chapter III</p>

<p> THE PAPAL HYMN OF HATE</p>

<p> I invite the readers' particular attention to the
chronological parallel between the successive phases of the
Vatican's attitude to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and the developments in that country.
I have briefly referred to it but it deserves careful
consideration. Until about 1925, when <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> Bishop D'<ent type='PERSON'>Herbigny</ent> was
still trying to get a foothold in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the Vatican made friendly
approaches to the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> government. Apart from the futile gesture
of the <ent type='GPE'>Genoa</ent> Conference no other power in the world was so amiable
with <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and the country itself was in a very miserable
condition. Long after that year our papers and novelists, were
still serving up pictures of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns in rags clinging to
ramshackle overcrowded cars, sadistic officials of the 0.G.P.U. who
had innocent maids waiting in the ante-rooms until they had
finished their champagne-orgies, priests boiled in oil or burned in
lime, and go on.</p>

<p> During the next ten years the world-hostility to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
moderated. There was always money for a fiery indictment of the
<ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> system, but level-headed men began to see that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> had
got on to a line on which it might travel far. During this
indecisive period the Vatican had not much to say about <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> as
far as I can ascertain. Locally members of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>
like the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Walsh</ent> might inflame sentiment against
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. Business and financial men were not really very sensitive
about outrages of religion. They were more deeply pained by the
refusal of the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> authorities to pay interest on the Tsarist
loans and on <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n investments. But if there were a
few million folk who believed Walsh's stories and helped to swell
the feeling against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, it was all to the good. Still the
<ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>, as I said, was fairly quiet about <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. In fact, as lite
as 1930 the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> politely summoned the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world, not to
agitate for war but to pray fervently for <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the consequences
of which I cannot discover.</p>

<p> About 1934 what we might broadly call the third phase of
Russia's internal development and relation to other power's began.
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> had after so many years of bovine prejudice become rather
indifferent to the opinion of the outside world but it received a
large number of visitors from <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> every year, and
men and women of very different schools and respected character
wrote in high appreciation of its recovery. So neutral an authority
as the Statesmen's <ent type='EVENT'>Year Book</ent> showed that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> more than doubled
its annual production of wealth from 1932 to 1935 -- a feat far
beyond the achievement of any other country -- and there were no
rich men to absorb any of it. <ent type='ORG'>Durant</ent>y has written sympathetic
accounts for years to the <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> Times, and his volume of
articles (<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> Reported, 1934) made a deep impression. In the
same year <ent type='PERSON'>Sherwood</ent> Eddy's <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> Today, written from a different </p>

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<p>rather conservative angle, confirmed the impression. A lady of the
Tsarist family who had settled in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, Countess Skaryatina,
still very conservative and religious, had the courage to go to
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and the honesty to say that the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s had made great
progress (First to Go Back, 1935). An equally conservative <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
general, W.H. Waters, also a lover of the old regime, paid a visit
and made the same report. Sir <ent type='PERSON'>Bernard Pares</ent>, high <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> authority
on the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> and for years a heavy critic of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s, now gave a
very appreciative account and joined the "Friends of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>." He
spoke of a "hostile foreign diplomat" in <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> who grudgingly
admitted to him that "the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s have won all along the line."
We shall see other equally notable impartial witnesses later.</p>

<p> Naturally, the literature about <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was very mixed. Some
writers expressly catered to the chronic demand for blood-curdling
stories of the O.G.P.U. and the poor folk who wept when their icons
were torn away from them. Others, with milder prejudice, denounced
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> because it had no political elections of the <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent>
purity of those of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> or because the workers, who a few years
ago had been the worst paid and most ignorant in Europe, had not
yet risen to the high standard of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n workers -- not
mentioning that there was no unemployment in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and the workers
had vast free social services and cheap rents in the cities.
Typical was the work of sir W. Citrine, who went with all the
prejudice which the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Labor</ent> Party still stupidly fostered and
poked into tenements to see if the baths all had stoppers, and
after traveling hundreds of miles found a woman who seemed no
better than she ought to be and something like a slum (such as he
could have found within a mile of his house in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>).</p>

<p> However, my point here is that as appreciation of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> grew
in the rest of the world the attitude of the Vatican to it became
more somber and bitter, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologists are nothing if not bold
but I have not yet heard of one who has asked us to admire the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
because he was friendly to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> when the rest of the world was
venomous and became critical only when, and in proportion as, it no
longer needed friends. We might get near the truth if we remember
that the power behind the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, the Secretary of State, was changed
in 1930. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, the present <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, an aristocrat to his toenails,
then became the dictator at the Vatican, for the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was very old
and feeble. We might remember, too, that <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> entered, at the
end of 1932, into a policy of friendliness to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s, and <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>
was pledged by its, bible, Hitler's book, to make war sooner or
later on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>.</p>

<p> When precisely the Vatican began to snarl at <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> it is
difficult to determine. The Encyclical Quadrazesimo anno of May 15,
1931 makes the earliest reference that I find, and the hand of
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> in that vapid manifesto is clear. It is a recommendation of
<ent type='ORG'>the Corporative</ent> State to all <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries; in fact, to the
whole world, as the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> ingenuously remarks that the truth on even
the social and economic order can come only from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. How
journalists ever stoop to praise these Papal utterances on Social
questions puzzles me. They are like the ideas of a <ent type='ORG'>Baptist</ent> preacher
in <ent type='GPE'>Tennessee</ent> blinded with those of <ent type='PERSON'>Thomas Aquinas</ent> and almost lost
in a jelly of <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> verbiage. There is, as I have already
explained, no English translation of this Encyclical, because it </p>

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<p>approves -- indeed imposes -- such restrictions on capitalism and
private enterprise as are provided in Mussolini's Corporative
State, which industrialists in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> who are assured by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
writers that their "freedom of the individual is thoroughly
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, detest almost as much as Socialism.</p>

<p> The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> tells the world, with quite an air of profundity and
originality, that Socialism has split into moderate Socialism and
Communism. As we saw, and it may be convenient to repeat, he
answers the question, on which, he says, <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> has often been
consulted, whether a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> can be a Socialist by saying that
"Socialism, as long as it remains real Socialism . . . cannot be
reconciled with the teaching of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>." He insists
that "religious Socialism or <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Socialism is a contradiction
in terms," and he winds up by saying that "no genuine Socialist can
be a good <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>." That is another reason why the Encyclical is
not translated into English. It might prevent <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers for
the workers from continuing to say, as they do, that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has
never condemned Socialism; while <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer's for the wealthy,
like <ent type='PERSON'>Ryan</ent>, tell them that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> regards any attack on private
ownership as a sin.</p>

<p> However, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is still more drastic when he passes on to
Communism. It is too "impious" to consider. When it gets power it
shrinks from nothing "however atrocious and inhuman." As <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was
the only country in which it had power this was pointed enough, but
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> goes on to speak of "the massacres (strange) and ruin it
has brought upon <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>ern Europe and <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent>." There may be earlier
pronouncements on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n atrocities for all I know but this is ten
years old. A <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> writer quotes from the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> Daily
Worker an account of a meeting in the offices of that paper on
December 30, 1932 which passed a valiant resolution to attack
religion "considering that the clergy of all creeds and
denominations are, with religion as their pretext, following the
lead of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in his call for a crusade against the U.S.S.R."
They resolved:</p>

<p>". . . to organize an unflinching resistance to every variety of
religious attack . . . to vindicate the policy of the U.S.S.R. in
regard to religion and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es against all and every attack .
. . to urge the complete separation of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and State and the
complete exclusion of religion from the school," and so on.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s must feel like biting the carpet when they reflect
how they abandoned that attitude. A few years later, when I was
writing my Militant <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> -- perhaps the most congenial work I
ever did -- a member of the staff of the Daily Worker asked me to
call at the office, making a definite appointment, to see him as he
edited a column of the Dally Worker with that title and would like
to cooperate. I called -- and saw none but the editors who
explained that they had changed their policy and no longer thought
it of any importance to attack the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es.</p>

<p> It was a mistake even of <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> to drop the criticism of
religion while adhering slavishly to everything else that <ent type='PERSON'>Marx</ent> had
said. <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s, on whom they relied for
information, told them that the bitter hostility to them would </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
19
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>cease if they quit criticizing religion. One or two influential
cleric's like the <ent type='PERSON'>Dean</ent> of <ent type='PERSON'>Canterbury</ent> had taken to patronizing
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and publishers (skeptics) who felt that Rationalism checked
trade added their persuasion. In May 1938 the <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>
International published in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> for <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, had an
article which would, if there were any truth in superstition, have
made <ent type='PERSON'>Marx</ent> turn in his grave. I am quoting the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Ryder</ent> at the
Cambridge Summer School of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n Studies in 1938. The article,
headed "The <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent>ary Proletariat and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Masses,"
recommends the policy of conciliating <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and Protestants.
The <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent>, it claimed, was "realizing the ideals of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity," and <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s must "not ignore the more than
400000000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of the world"; which is 50000000 more than
the more optimistic <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s claim and double the true figure. The
writer poured scorn on "the Left phrasemongers" who attack the
policy of "the outstretched hand" and, by a tour de force, said
that "we come forward in the defense of religion against the
<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> persecution of believers" yet had not the least idea of
deviating from the teaching of <ent type='PERSON'>Marx</ent>! We recognize the accents of
the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s, who were at that time offering
cooperation to the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. Now there is "a smile on the
face of the tiger." The blood of <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s reddens the earth in
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Peru</ent>, etc. etc.</p>

<p> In so far as <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> was involved in this change of policy,
chiefly owing to false information from <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, we
have an extraordinary situation. The change was carried out just at
the time when the Vatican was inflaming <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> sentiment against
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> all over the world and beginning to call for war upon
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>; and the change brought about no modification whatever of
the world-cry of "persecution of religion in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>." What moved
the papacy to enter upon this more bitter and more dangerous
campaign? I say more dangerous because it would be difficult to
exaggerate the profit to the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> of this Papal preaching of hatred
of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> in every <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> land and amongst the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of all
countries.</p>

<p> The reasons given by the Vatican, as in the above Encyclical,
are puerile. In speaking of the "massacres" -- it is interesting
that in his <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> text <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> uses just the word which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
put on his gold medal of triumph at the time of the St. Bartholomew
Massacre -- which the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s committed he endorses the wild
legends and lies which I have disproved from <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers. As
to their having brought "ruin" upon the land, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, granting
him sincerity, seems to have been as crudely ignorant of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n
affairs as a nun in a <ent type='GPE'>Quebec</ent> convent. By 1931 the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s had
saved <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> from the real ruin which the <ent type='EVENT'>White War</ent> (zealously
supported by the two <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es) had brought upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and were
rapidly restoring prosperity and creating one of the finest
educational and social services in the world.</p>

<p> His attacks in 1936 and his broadcasts to <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> in 1939 -- in
fact, all his characterizations of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> in his appeals for
war from 1935 onward -- are just as childish. I quoted elsewhere
the address of Pius XI to <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> refugees in 1936, in, which he
plainly invited the destruction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> "from <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> to
<ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, from <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent> to South <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>." The reference to South </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
20
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>America</ent> is cool, as <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, who clearly wrote the address, had
just got Communism violently destroyed in nearly every republic.
But the whole diatribe is fatuous. Everywhere, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> says, there
is "a satanic preparation" for the work of "subverting established
orders of every kind" and "attacking every institution, human and
divine." At that very time, philosophers like Professor Dewey,
Liberal individualists like Sir <ent type='PERSON'>Ernest Simon</ent> (brother of Sir John
Simon), and a few clerics like the <ent type='PERSON'>Dean</ent> of <ent type='PERSON'>Canterbury</ent> were
describing to the public how <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was creating a new social order
which in its care for children, women, and the mass of the people,
had no equal in history.</p>

<p> We may make allowance for the real ignorance of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> and
the Vatican. They never even try to get accurate information about
movements or bodies which are offensive to them on religious
grounds. They see everything through a red haze of professional
piety. But there is deliberate policy behind it all. By 1935 <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>
had got the innocent western powers to support Chiang Kai-shek in
his costly campaign to crush Communism in <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> and smooth the way
for <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> itself. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> were wondering how they
could get the same powers to overlook their proposed intervention
in <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> was repeating in public speeches that the noble
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> race must have the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent>. Wall Street wanted a good
pretext for stirring the country to attack <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Labor</ent> and
Socialist movements everywhere were to be encouraged in their
tragic policy of attacking and disowning <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s so as to
prevent the formation of a Popular Front until it was too late.
This sacred fury against <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> was one of the Vatican's
greatest contributions to the preparation of the world for the
onslaught of barbarism.</p>

<p> But, you may ask, is it possible that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, the Black
International which forced his slogan upon the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> masses
(which do not read encyclical's) in every country, and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
press which made "the extinction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>" as familiar to
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s as "Heil <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>" is to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s and ... "<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> solo"
to <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s, realized what they were doing?</p>

<p> You can analyze that for yourself. There is, of course, no
documentary evidence beyond the very plain evidence that the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>
blessed the rebellion and the intervention of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> and just as plainly wanted war on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. It must seem
equally certain to anyone who knows the ecclesiastical mind that
the Vatican and <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> wanted war for
the annexation of <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. The <ent type='ORG'>Knights</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Columbus</ent>, who may be
considered unconsecrated members of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>, made
open offers of alliance with Wall Street and called for
intervention in <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. Whether the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and the unscrupulous
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> branch of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> knew in advance of the
war upon the western democracies we have considered in other
booklets. As I there said, so objective a review as the Annual
Record gives it as commonly received information, that <ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent>
told the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in April that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s would be in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> in June
and in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> in August. As to the main body of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s who
chanted the anti-<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> slogan, they were probably as hazy about
what they meant as the average <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> is about the pure <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent>
sharing the world with a race of <ent type='NORP'>Mongolian</ent>-Malayan mongrels.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
21
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> One of the most ironic features of it all, if there is any
room for irony in considering the colossal tragedy, is that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
the irreligion of which is blamed by the Vatican for all the
world's troubles, is more religious than Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> or than
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was before <ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent>.</p>

<p> The question how many of the people of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> are still
religious has been raised innumerable times, and it has invariably
been answered with all the slovenliness and inconsistency that are
characteristic of such discussions. Generally the writers spoke of
"atheistic <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>" as if it were a phenomenally irreligious
country, but when they recollected that religion was supposed to be
indestructible or when the plain evidence (which we have seen) that
there is no persecution of religion and any few dozen men and women
can get a building from the government for worship was produced the
writers gave us pictures of crowds packing the churches on
festivals. As long as there was some dead cat to fling at <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> --
like the common misrepresentation of the trials, and executions of
leading <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns for treason -- we were reminded that the governing
body is solidly atheistic, and when some reputable author testified
that the social service is the most generous and most humane in the
world we were told <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is still far more religious than is
commonly supposed.</p>

<p> On one point there is no controversy. The officials, from
those in the smallest town to <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent>, are all <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s. The
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> party governs <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> -- hence the stupidity of calling
<ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> a dictator like <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> -- and all its members
are <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s. These officials determine the form and institutions
of the state. The mass of the people produce the wealth, of course,
and in that sense create the state, but these atheist officials
direct the distribution of it and are responsible for all social
legislation. They have given a form to the state which now elicits
the admiration of writers of every class. They have lifted the
average <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n character high above the level at which it was in
the religious Tsarist days, -- when atheism was confined to a
relatively small minority, with no influence on the state, in the
cities. This unquestionable truth is one of the chief reasons why
the clergy hate or fear it, and why the worst discredited libels of
it are still in circulation. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> -- the creative part of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
-- has not merely disproved the common claim that a state decays
when atheism spreads. It has shown that the reality is the exact
opposite.</p>

<p> The question what proportion of the mass of the people are
still <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s is, therefore, of no importance, but you will find
it amusing to assure your neighbor whose idea of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is taken
from the press that it is much more religious than Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>.
The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> a few year's ago appointed a committee to
inquire carefully how many people in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> go to church or are in
any definite sense <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. They reported, and the leaders of
other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es agreed: 10 percent in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> and 20 percent in the
rest of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>. This -- a total of 8000000 or 9000000 in
42000000 -- fairly agrees with the statistic's of membership
annually published by the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, and these are always
optimistic. There is evidence that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es put the figure of
churchgoers too high but let us accept them here. Between three-</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
22
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>fourths and four-fifths of the people of Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> are not
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. It was the same in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent> has made only a
superficial compulsory change. In <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es claim 55
percent of the people, but we know what these claims are worth.
Allowing for the Bible Belt and the greater wealth and business
organizations of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> we should expect a higher
proportion of churchgoers: say, two-thirds of the total population.</p>

<p> It follows that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is, on the best available estimates, as
religious as <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States and much more religious than Great
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>! The best gauge is <ent type='PERSON'>Yaroslavsky</ent>, the able and
accomplished leader of the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> League. He has several times
estimated that about one-third of the people in the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent>
are still <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. The <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Ryder</ent>, speaking at the Cambridge
Summer School of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n States, said, that this mean's 30000000
and is a ridiculous under-estimate. It is his jesuitical arithmetic
that is ridiculous. One-third of the population means nearly
60000000. But notice what follows. If you call Yaroslavsky's
estimate too small you must mean that more than a third are still
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, or a far higher proportion than in Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and probably <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. On any estimate <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is more
religious than Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>. Now that it is smashing <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> the
clergy begin to say: We always thought so.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Maisky</ent>, addressing the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n Chamber of Commerce in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>
on September 23, 1941, gave some figures which seem at first sight
to show that <ent type='PERSON'>Yaroslavsky</ent> greatly over-estimated instead of under-estimating the number of believer's. He quoted an official
statement that on June 1, 1941, there were 8338 churches, mosques,
and synagogues in the <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent>, and 30000 registered religious
societies (or, as we should say, parishes) of 20 or more person's.
But there must be here a serious misprint as to the number of
churches. Considering that there are about 10000000 <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists and 14000000 <ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent> in the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent> besides members
of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> the error is apparent. Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> has
more than 40000 churches and chapels to less than 10000000
churchgoers. <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> has 200000 religious organizations (organized
units or parishes) to less than 50000000 church-goers. If the
figure of 8000 churches, mostly in villages, in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> were
correct we should have to allow more than 7000 worshipers to a
church to make even 60000000. As I have no access to the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
official announcement (on August 15, 1941) I have to leave the
matter open, but we may reflect that if the figure of 30000
parishes is correct it suggests less than 60000000 worshipers.</p>

<p> We do better to follow the estimate of <ent type='PERSON'>Yaroslavsky</ent>, who has no
interest in exaggerating the number of churchgoers, and we may
reflect that the change from the solid orthodoxy of the
overwhelming mass of the people less than thirty years ago means
that <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> spread more rapidly between 1920 and 1940 than any
religion in history ever spread in 100 years; indeed forty or fifty
times as rapidly as <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity spread in the first 250 years of
its career. We might also invite the attention of some of our
modern skeptics to the fact that it was mainly effected by pointing
out the absurdity of the current belief and the monstrous history
of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent>. Their is no religious revival
in recent years but there is evidence that suggests that the </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
23
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>extraordinarily rapid progress of <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> has been slowed. This is
in part due to the fact that education has won nearly all but the
hard core of stubborn old folk -- though it is remarkable how
thousands of villages including nearly all their old folk quit the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and demanded that the chapel be converted into a library or
debating club -- and in part to the clergy of what calls itself the
New <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and turns the older <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> teaching inside out. It
is, however, clear that the discouragement by the government of the
methods of the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> League, which made a very extensive use of
ridicule and direct satirical attack, has retarded the spread of
<ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent>.</p>

<p> One would like to draw the attention of those very superior
<ent type='NORP'>Rationalists</ent> of our day who say that ridicule of religion "defeats
its own end" to this phenomenal success of such methods during 10
or 15 years. The <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s did not, of course, fail to
follow up their first direct assault on religious belief with solid
scientific and historical information. The cultural change in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> is not less remarkable than the economic. The gross general
ignorance and illiteracy of Tsarist <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was many shades worse by
1923, after four years of war and famine. Yet by 1936 the country
had 164081 schools besides 1797 factory schools, 2572 technical
schools, 716 workers colleges, 595 higher schools and universities,
and 794 institutions for scientific research. More than 10000
newspapers and 2100 magazines (700000000 copies) circulated. In
1935 the output of books was 42700, and the 53380 free libraries,
largely in villages, contained more than 100000000 books. Upon
this vast and finely selected literature the <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent> propagandist
drew, and he was welcomed in the 71770 clubs (57700 in the
villages) where the favorite entertainment was a serious debate. As
the government adheres to its law that religious doctrines shall
not be taught to children, who must be left to consider religion
when they have at least a moderate capacity to see through fallacy
and resent mere dogmatism, the young generation has for the far
greater part definitely abandoned religion. A very short account of
the cultural as well as economic development will be found in my
booklet Economic Gains of the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent> (1937) in the A B C
Library of Living Knowledge.</p>

<p> This is what the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> calls destroying the very foundation's
of the social order: this is one line of the real program of
national life which our press until <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> became our ally
habitually coupled with the gross greed-programs of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>,
and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> as "the four totalitarian powers." <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> never received
and never sought to gain a single rouble by the labor of the people
outside its own <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent>, but there were few papers in the
world which, until we so urgently needed its help, did not class it
with the three powers which openly boasted they were going to
dominate and exploit most of the earth. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> gave better
conditions to women (see Prof. Susan W. <ent type='ORG'>Kingsbury</ent> and Prof Mildred
Fairchild's Factory, Family, and Women in the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Union</ent>, 1935)
than any other nation, while <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and the Pope's new
subjects states told woman to sacrifice all their hard-won rights
and confine themselves to cooking and bearing future soldiers.
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> gave more sympathetic conditions to children (see Playtime
in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> by <ent type='PERSON'>Ethel Manning</ent> and others, 1935) than any other
country, allowing no distinction of class, giving all a two-month </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
24
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>vacation with entertainments or tours provided every summer, and
providing special theaters (three in <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>) and parks (26 in
<ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>) for them; while <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> brutalized their lives
and minds with militarism. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> encouraged the mass of the
workers to enjoy art as no other country did, while in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> art was starved and all culture debased.</p>

<p> This was the civilization which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> taught the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
of the world to curse and demand war against, and the more it shed
the imperfections due to its recent rise from chaos, the more it
won recognition for its splendid social ideals, the more bitterly
he attacked it, and the more stridently <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>
broadcast his sentiments in every land. Is the complete collapse of
his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> enough to explain this? Is his failure to get
the billions of dollars and millions of members of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, the explanation? No, he hates <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> because it was showing
the world that you could not merely build a civilization without
priests but you could build a far finer, juster, more peaceful and
more humane civilization. He hate's <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> because from it there
spread, as far as <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> and Indo-<ent type='GPE'>China</ent> in the east and as far as
<ent type='GPE'>Peru</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Chile</ent> in the west, that formidable Wave of <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> which
I described in the second booklet of this series: because it was in
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries particularly that it was effective since
Papal doctrine and history were as vulnerable as those of <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>.</p>

<p> Some may say that a churchman, if his creed is sincere and
deeply felt, is bound to regard a spread of <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> as a great evil
and may be understood even when he thinks war to prevent the spread
a lesser evil. There is no need for a profane person like myself to
discuss that question or to try to determine whether the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
really believes (as half the clergy do not) and deeply feels the
peculiar teaching of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> about man and his destiny. We ask
a simple question: Why didn't he say so? Why need he give as the
pretext for his demand of war upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> every lie about <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>
atrocities and persecution of religion that was current in
capitalist literature? Why did he assure the millions of ignorant
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s whom he wanted to inflame that the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s were out to
destroy the moral and social order, to advocate cruelty and
violence, when it was easy for any man, to say nothing of a
billion-dollar international organization, to find out that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
with its magnificent and complete resources, had no more reason for
war than <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States and was building a far finer social
order than that of <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States? And remember that we are not
here dealing with the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> alone. We are considering the action of
a world-wide <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> that is saturated with skepticism
and hypocrisy and keener on dollars than harps.</p>

<p> That is answer enough for most people but (we may go further.
We moderns -- by which I mean the majority of the men and women who
live in the cities of the world and have shed the limitations of
village-life -- will not have our affairs ruled or dictated by men,
however sincere they may be, who act on the myth that there is
another world that is far more important to men than this in which
we find ourselves. Whatever be the truth about religion this life
and the control of this life are secularized, We turn aside from
nothing fair and pleasant that it offers us because some of our </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
25
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>less-instructed neighbors think they see flames of hell reflected
from below the horizon or discern ghostly battlements of some weird
sort of heaven high above. And the clergy so far know this that
they plead that <ent type='ORG'>Atheism</ent> injures us in this life. We are always open
to argument but we resent lies. The clerical case for hatred of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> on human grounds is based upon a mass of demonstrable lies.
Its real basis is, as ever, the primary aim of the Black
International: wealth and power.</p>

<p> Chapter IV</p>

<p> HITLER'S MAGNIFICENT BLUNDER</p>

<p> In September 1934 it was proposed to admit <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> to
<ent type='ORG'>the League</ent> of Nations. <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, with <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent> (the brigand's
guide) for its standard, had been retained in it. <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> had not
been expelled for its sordid violation of <ent type='ORG'>the League</ent>'s principles.
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> was an honored member although it made no secret of its
glorification of war and aggression. But the proposal to admit
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> horrified and brought a shower of insults from the
representatives of various nations; and these outraged folk were
subjects of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, and the Vatican warmly approved their
conduct.</p>

<p> The attack on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was led by the <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Motta</ent></ent>, a
representative of the nation that has always been loudest in praise
of peace -- which is very profitable at <ent type='GPE'>Geneva</ent> -- and is now making
much wealth by manufacturing the more delicate mechanisms of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
planes, tanks, and submarines and selling food to <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> while its
neighbors starve. At that time, perhaps, not even a member of the
middle-class that rules or misrules the <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> would have made this
disgraceful attack on a progressive and peace-loving civilization
that could have taught <ent type='GPE'>Switzerland</ent> a higher idealism but <ent type='PERSON'>Motta</ent>,
from the small <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> part of the country, was a zealous <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>;
and that he acted for the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is shown by the Vatican comment on
his vituperative speech in the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>o (quoted with
approval in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Universe, October 5, 1934):</p>

<p> "Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Motta</ent> faced the problem of the admission of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> with
a clarity of vision, a nobility of sentiment, and a rectitude of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> and civil conscience that finds a profound echo in the
hearts of all, for whom justice and right are still the unshakable
bases of civil society."</p>

<p> Nobility of sentiment! The man was striking the first note of
that Hymn of Hate which the Vatican would soon urge upon <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
everywhere; the stupid chant that was to prevent, or help to
prevent, a cordial world-alliance against the bandits when the
crisis came, the chant that was pleasant music in the ears of
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Matsuoka</ent>. The Vatican organ rejoiced that
ten states at <ent type='GPE'>Geneva</ent> opposed the admission of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> or pointedly
abstained from voting for it, and we see <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> influence in the
whole group. <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> voted against, and the press recorded that
this was due to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> influence in the cabinet. De Valera's
representative and <ent type='PERSON'>Schuschnigg</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> attacked <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> as
virulently as <ent type='PERSON'>Motta</ent> but did not vote.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
26
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ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> Two months before this <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> had shocked the world with
the mass-murder of prominent men, including <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, which is
called the Blood Purge. Did any <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> orator or power, or the
Vatican, call it to account at the tribunal of civilization? Oh,
no; just then the Vatican was trying hard to persuade <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> to
observe the Concordat and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> bishops were flattering
him to his teeth. Two months after the <ent type='GPE'>Geneva</ent> meeting <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>,
probably encouraged by this outburst, threatened <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and there
was talk of war. What did <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s say to that? Here is a
specimen, from the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Times, November 3, 1934:</p>

<p> "The <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese are not anti-God. They have brought freedom from
persecution to our missionaries in <ent type='GPE'>Manchuria</ent> and adjacent parts of
<ent type='GPE'>China</ent>. They have consented to their settlers in <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent> being
instructed in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith, and, while they dream of
influencing the world by the spread of Buddhism, they give freedom
of worship to their own <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> nationals. In the event of a war
between <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s would sympathize with <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, at
least in so far as religion is concerned, so let us beware of an
Anglo-<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n bloc against <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> involving us on the side of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>."</p>

<p> There you have the pure Papal note, the accents of the Vatican
oracle <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> is "not anti-God" -- as a matter of fact, its ruling
class is almost as solidly <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>ic as the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n -- while <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
is, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> has made small concession's in the interest of the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. So defend <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> and libel <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
press of all lands. In that very year, 1934, Upton Close (J.W.
Hall) plainly exposed to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> in his <ent type='ORG'>Challenge</ent>, with full
documentary evidence, that <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> was conquest-mad and had removed
the last shred of disguise from its greedy plan to monopolize
<ent type='LOC'>East</ent>ern <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> and drive out all <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, particularly <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>ns.
And because it hypocritically made promises to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
must be used as its agents in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> to obscure the
mind of those countries in regard to its aims and divert them into
hatred of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>.</p>

<p> A few months later the same <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press went further in its
deadly work (<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Times, April, 1935):</p>

<p> "Disarmament is dead . . . We can, nevertheless, have thirty
years' peace in Western Europe if <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and Great
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> concentrate on Western Europe and its needs. We cannot have
agreement about <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, since <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> has lifted the veil which
hides her ambitions. She wants the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent>. Few <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in this
country will approve a war against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, bad as her record is,
but fewer still will be happy if our alliances draw us into a war
in defense of the Godless. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> must safeguard her own interests.
We are not concerned to uphold her. The wretched Franco-<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
quarrel can be composed if <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> is willing to leave <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> to her
devices. If <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> insists on allying herself with the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>, she
should be told that Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> will have no part with her ... We
must choose between two evils, and Russia's possible loss of the
<ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent> is a much less evil than war-fires all over Europe, whilst
many would say that the undoing of Godless <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>ism is no evil at
all."</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
27
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p> As the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> National Newspaper Library, the finest in
Europe, has been bombed and burned out of existence by the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s,
I cannot verify the three quotations I have just given. I take them
from miss E. Moore's No Friend of Democracy (1941) and I know the
author as a very careful and conscientious student of these
matters.</p>

<p> This passage is a typical specimen of the slavery of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press to the Vatican and its Policy of judging all
international events from the single viewpoint of the interest of
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> while professing to consult the interest of the race.
The statement that few <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> will approve of war against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
might seem to be written in defiance of the Pope's demand for a
crusade against that country, but the paper itself repeatedly
echoed the cry for "the extinction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>," and the last
words of the above passage are plain enough. Not "many" but all
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, as the writer knew, would rejoice at "the undoing of
Godless <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>ism." Notice, incidentally how carefully these
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers avoid the word Socialism. They know that large
numbers of <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent> workers in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> -- these workers of <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent> birth
or descent are the main body of "English" <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ism -- belong to the
<ent type='ORG'>Labor</ent> Party, and this in rare moments of courage calls itself
Socialist.</p>

<p> But the chief point is that this interpreter of Papal wishes
to the people of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> emphatically advocates a national policy
which would be very acceptable to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and was, in so far as it
was followed by <ent type='ORG'>Chamberlain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Halifax</ent>, most disastrous to Europe.
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was the one great European power that sincerely proposed
general disarmament. When its appeal was unheeded it was the one
power that began to devote a colossal part of its national
resources, which were very badly needed for social reconstruction
and education, to preparation for war. Thus in 1936, when <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
statesmen were beginning to doubt the <ent type='PERSON'>Baldwin</ent> policy of do-nothing,
Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> spent less than a fourth of its budget-revenue on
armaments and <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States one-tenth. But <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> set
aside one-fifth (20 billion out of 100 billion rubles) of its total
annual income -- for in that country the government-revenue
represents practically the whole of the wealth produced -- to
defense-measures, and it increased the sum every year until nearly
a third of the entire wealth produced in the country was devoted to
preparing for the barbarous and clearly-foreseen onslaught of
<ent type='NORP'>Nazis</ent>m.</p>

<p> What an ally <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> would have been from 1936 onward, and what
a different course of events in Europe might have followed! It must
be left to the historians of the future to say if a sincere and
dynamic alliance of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, and
<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> would not have intimidated <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> from that
piecemeal aggressive program upon which they entered. To me it
seems certain. But the Vatican and <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> and the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press in every country did all in their power to prevent
it. Had <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States realized that <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> was one of the bandit
powers -- had the press freely and fully informed the people of the
open boast of <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese politicians, military and naval men, and
editors, and told how highly colored models of the destruction of
the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n fleet were exhibited to the public in <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese cities </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
28
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>five or six years ago -- and joined the alliance, not in the
interest of Europe but its own interest, it probably never would
have known the vile treachery it has now experienced, for the
people themselves would have demanded adequate armament. But the
Vatican, the whole <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, was opposed. There must be no
alliance with <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>.</p>

<p> Could there be a more terrible demonstration of the evil of
the sacerdotal viewpoint, the folly of listening to the Black
International on human affairs? At that time, 1936, the leading
powers were stirring from their criminal lethargy and beginning to
expand their armament-budgets. <ent type='ORG'>The League</ent> of Nations published a
statement that the world spent about $5000000006 in that year on
armament, I have shown (What War and Militarism Cost) that it spent
something like $15000000000, and one-third of this sum was,
according to the best experts, spent by <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. What <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> spent we do not know. No one trusts their figures. And the
two richest powers in the world, the two at which the great
conspiracy was chiefly aimed, <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, spent (together)
one half the sum that <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> did. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> alone spent something
like the sum that <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> did, though unlike <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, it
did not starve or suppress its social services to find the money
but maintained and developed them.</p>

<p> What guidance did the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> and its local agents give the
world? It bleated biennially about peace and between Christmas and
<ent type='LOC'>East</ent>er cried for war on Communism in <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>, and
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, above all <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. It maintained its diplomatic alliance
with <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> but spat poison whenever <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was
mentioned. Its hierarchy flattered the ruler's of the three
aggressive, fully treacherous, and debauched bandit-states and told
the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> people that they would have "thirty years
peace" if they would continue to outlaw <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and trust <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>! What hilarious scenes there must have been behind
closed doors in <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Tokyo</ent>!</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> patiently, perhaps cynically, bore the hostility which
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and other interests fostered against it. It is
needless for me to observe that the Vatican was not the only
libellous enemy of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, but its share in the conspiracy is, on
account of its claim of lofty and disinterested idealism, in an
entirely different category from the share of bankers,
industrialists, and politicians. I am, however, not concerned with
finding adjectives to hurl at the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. I am content to
establish facts. And if it is not a fact that <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> contributed
mightily until 1941 to that contempt and ostracism of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which
rendered vast service to the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> and did incalculable harm to the
race we may as well doubt that the earth is a globe.</p>

<p> So persistent and emphatic was this teaching of the Vatican,
especially during the fateful six or seven years before 1941, that
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world was paralyzed when at length <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> made his
splendid blunder and attacked <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. Less than a year earlier the
Papal Hymn of Hate had been more strident than ever. There were
many of us who, imperfectly informed by the press, felt our
admiration of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> chilled when it seized part of <ent type='GPE'>Finland</ent> and the
little <ent type='NORP'>Baltic</ent> states. But we did not use the vituperative language </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
29
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>of the Pope's organ, the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>o, the paper that had not
said a word about outrages like those in <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, and, even
<ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, for which even a liar could not plead, as we
now see <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> could truthfully plead, an essential piece of
defense against an openly-declared aggressor. The Vatican, in its
paper, not only completely ignored Russia's reasons but wallowed in
irony and invective as if this were the first aggression in modern
Europe.</p>

<p> There is an amusing Paragraph in <ent type='PERSON'>Stephen Graham</ent>'s News Letter
(1940) reproducing the language of the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> when the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n
troops took back the <ent type='NORP'>Ukrainian</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n provinces. The
Papal organ shuddered to recall the atrocities committed by the
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n troops in 1918. The soldiers were then <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
almost to a man, and the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> trembles to think what will
happen now that they are <ent type='NORP'>Atheist</ent>s. And in the next paragraph
<ent type='PERSON'>Stephen Graham</ent>, a strict member of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, gives
this report of an Englishman who Saw the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n troops enter
Asthenia:</p>

<p> "The fears proved to be groundless. The discipline is
extremely severe, and cases are known when soldiers were shot by
the political commissars for the slightest breach of discipline."</p>

<p> The religious mind is weird and wonderful. <ent type='PERSON'>Stephen Graham</ent>
actually goes on to reflect that this contrast of 1918 and 1940
suggests that "the atheist soldiers of 1918" were now extinct and
the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns were generally <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s! Not for a moment do I
suggest that atheist soldiers never commit outrages, but what are
we to think of a Papal newspaper that sheds tears over the
fictitious outrage's of atheist soldiers -- I earlier quoted the
Vatican radio (January 22, 1940) bemoaning the "infamy of all
kinds" perpetrated by the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n troops in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and has not a
word to say when we get positive Proof that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> soldiers
perpetrated real infamies and savagery in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>?</p>

<p> Here again it is not a question of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> or the Vatican
alone. The <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> everywhere repeated the cry of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n atrocities (made in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>). In an address by Cardinal
Hinsely published recently in a work titled The Bond of Peace we
read of his "deep indignation" at "the enslavement of more than
eleven million inhabitants of the <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> state by <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>."
He talks of a "treacherous attack from behind" and the "<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevist</ent>
horror," and says that these "<ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s," as he calls them, are
"reliably reported to be suffering from those persecutions which
had made our generation the era of unparalleled martyrdom." Perhaps
we should not expect a cardinal, even if he does pose as an oracle
on world-affairs, to know that <ent type='NORP'>Ukrainians</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>White</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns are
not <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s, but is he really ignorant that the "unparalleled
martyrdom" that these millions, of members of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
suffered was inflicted by the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Pole</ent>s, had been going on for
20 years, and was at once stopped by the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns?</p>

<p> Now, as I have earlier quoted, there are signs of a most
brazen repudiation of the Hymn of Hate which the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> has had the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world chant from <ent type='GPE'>Montreal</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Syria</ent> for the last six or
seven years. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s boast that they are in a better position </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
30
.
ATHEIST <ent type='GPE'>RUSSIA</ent> SHAKES THE WORLD</p>

<p>than Protestants in that they have one clear authoritative,
unwavering voice to guide them. It sounds like a dictatorship of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> sort. The truth is, however, that <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> speaks to them in
five or six different voices, and one can blandly repudiate the
other when it goes wrong. The only thing which they cannot
repudiate is the infallible or ex cathedra utterances of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
-- but he never makes any. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> has several voices -- in
conversations, addresses, sermons, allocations, encyclicals, etc.
Then he has, in the second line a daily paper and a radio. In the
third line he has prelates and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> ambassadors, agents, etc.,
who can repeat conversations with him. On this third line we now
have <ent type='PERSON'>Myron</ent> C. <ent type='PERSON'>Taylor</ent> whispering that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> always recognized in
private a vast distinction between the naughtiness of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazis</ent> and
that of the <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s. <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> wickedness is foul and unspeakable --
though he never cared to say so. <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent> wickedness is just
virtue without a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> foundation -- though he has a hundred
times called it foul and unspeakable.</p>

<p> The latest audacity attributed to Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Taylor</ent>, solemnly cabled
to a <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> daily by its <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n correspondent, is this gem:</p>

<p> "The general belief here is that important <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>-Vatican-<ent type='GPE'>London</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> negotiations are in progress and that they are
directed towards the consolidation of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> front against
<ent type='NORP'>Nazis</ent>m throughout the world."</p>

<p> If we allow the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> to put over a maneuver of that
kind after its ten years of monstrous libel and vituperation of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> we have learned nothing by the terrible experience through
which we are passing. The <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> could not hope to have any success
with it if it did not believe that we still have, unchanged, the
mentality with which we indolently contemplated the greediest and
most unscrupulous bandits of all time equipping themselves to loot
the world. There is no change in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. It is as atheistic as
ever. The change is in its critics. They have been compelled to
acknowledge that out of the horrible miseducated Tsarist <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
further demoralized by six years of war and two of terrible famine
and disease, the "Godless <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevik</ent>s," as the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press still
called them only six month's ago, have created the greatest
civilization of our time; that the magnificent spirit of the
atheistic <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n people is in as stark a contrast as is
conceivable to the cowardice, evasiveness, tortuousness, and self-seeking of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> that poisoned the world against
them.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> The <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
us, we need to give them back to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
31
</p></xml>