8 .sx Why the Church Fights the Building of Socialism .sx " Why then , " the reader may ask , " this hatred of the church towards the soviet government , towards socialist reconstruction ?sx " Let us quote again a very important passage in the statement of the Orthodox Churchmen on February 15 , 1930 .sx " We have to state frankly , " they say , " that the misfortune of the Church is that in the past , as everyone knows perfectly well , it was too closely connected with the monarchical system .sx .. Even up to this day some of our brothers cannot understand that there will be no return to the past , and continue to act as political opponents of the soviet state .sx " This is quite true and explains the anti-soviet tendency of the church described above in brief outline .sx The orthodox church in Russia under the Tsardom was a state church , the Tsar himself was reckoned its head .sx The Tsar's government appointed the leaders of the church , and that same Russian white guard , the Metropolitan Antonius Krapovitsky , who is now crying out about " soviet persecution of religion , " on one occasion at a meeting of the controlling body of the Russian orthodox church ( the Holy Synod ) , when discussing the appointment of an archimandrite to office , said :sx " Tsarskoye want him to be a Bishop .sx Well , if Tsarskoye desired it we would appoint a black swine to the Bishopric .sx " Tsarskoye referred to Tsarskoye Selo , the residence of Nicholas if .sx The archimandrite in question was a certain Barnabas , the nominee of the notorious Rasputin .sx This incident is described by the Russian Metropolitan , Alexander Vvedensky , in his book :sx Church and State .sx ( Moscow , 1923 , p. 14) .sx This cynical declaration by one of the leaders of the church was true enough in one respect that the imperial clique had the church under their thumb , and individuals .sx like Rasputin decided its fate .sx Historically , the Russian .sx Church was the most faithful lackey of Tsarism .sx It was precisely with the help of the church and of religion that the Tsarist despotism maintained its yoke over dozens of millions .sx of the Russian peasants .sx When it was necessary the leading churchmen , like the Moscow Metropolitan , Philaret , in the middle of the last century , justified the serfdom of the peasants by referring to the so-called " Holy Writ .sx " The church taught that the Tsar was " God's anointed , " drew portraits of the Tsars on their holy ikons , proclaimed the princes of old to be " saints , " and thus brought up the people to bow down to the Tsars as appointed by God .sx The Tsardom transformed the whole vast army of church officials into a kind of spiritual police , which , by a decree of 1716 , repeatedly issued thereafter , had instructions to inform the authorities of all anti-government activities which came to their knowledge through the confessional .sx The priests in fact were imperial officials .sx Many received their wages from the imperial treasury , and preached obedience and loyalty to the Tsar , love of the landlords and capitalists , and renunciation of any revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Tsarist system .sx The church carried on a most active struggle against the revolutionary movement .sx The pulpits were nothing else but political platforms .sx The church organised bands of hooligans and Black Hundreds to fight the revolutionary working class movement , and set up printing presses in the monasteries to print leaflets openly inciting to commit pogroms ( the Troitse-Sergievsky and Pochaevsky Monasteries were particularly renowned in this respect) .sx For its faithful service to Tsardom , the church received colossal privileges , and its priests money , rewards and decorations .sx The holy synod received 5 million a year from the state budget .sx The Russian church was a great landowner , and by the middle of the eighteenth century owned about a million serfs .sx In 1905 the orthodox church , together with the monasteries , owned about 7 million acres of land .sx The income of the Moscow Metropolitan before the revolution was 8,000 a year , and that of the Metropolitan of Nizhni-Novgorod about 31,000 a year .sx Closely linked up with Tsardom and capitalism , the church was extremely hostile to any revolutionary movement .sx In 1905 , during the first Russian revolution , it organised the first black hundreds to break up the working class movement .sx During the peasant uprisings in that year , the monks of the Glinsky Monastery , Kursk province , organised an .sx armed detachment to crush the peasant movement .sx The head of the church counter-revolutionary movement at that , time was no other than the Metropolitan Antonius , at that time Bishop of Volhynia , who is now so active in attacking the U.S.S.R. .sx An example of the spirit animating the Church at that time is the following quotation horn No .sx 4 of the Pochaevskye Izvestia for 1907 , published by the monastery above mentioned :sx " About 500 democrats have been arrested in St. Petersburg during the last three days .sx It is a good thing that the police are arresting worthless persons .sx It would be still better if they were hanged as often as possible .sx " The church , not only the orthodox but all other varieties , met the November Revolution of 1917 in very hostile fashion .sx The General Assembly of the orthodox church of 1917-18 was an active organiser of the counter-revolutionary forces .sx On the eve of the November Revolution , the Assembly placed all its hopes on General Kornilov , and sent him an ikon to bless his attempts for a military coup d'etat .sx When the working class seized power in spite of the conspiracy of the generals and the bourgeoisie , the church assembly turned all its hatred against the soviet government .sx Patriarch Tikhon , who was elected at this assembly , sent out an appeal on January 9 , 1918 , calling on the faithful to rise against the soviet government .sx In his letter Tikhon cursed the soviet government , and called on the faithful , in the name of God , to have nothing to do with it .sx At the church assembly many leading churchmen declared that the salvation of Russia was only to be found in the restoration of the Tsar and therefore everything must be done to fight the revolution .sx The assembly described the decree separating church and state as " the device of Satan , " and called on the faithful to " suffer for Christ's cause , " i.e. , for the privileges and income of the priests .sx During the civil war , the workers of the Soviet Union saw many representatives of the church in the ranks of their enemies and as commanders of punitive detachments .sx In tom , when peasants' revolts took place in the rear of Kolchak's army in Siberia , a priest , Vitaly Boginsky organised a punitive detachment , which hanged , murdered and outraged .sx Boginsky was in charge throughout , and received a cross from Kolchak in reward for his services .sx Other priests .sx assisted Denikin , Wrangel and all the other bandits , great and small , who fought the workers' and peasants' republic .sx Thus the working class and the millions of working peasants have always seen in the church a relentless foe , in the church officials the loyal servants of autocracy , in religion a reliable weapon of the exploiters to confuse the minds of the workers and incite them against the revolution .sx The church became an organic part of the autocracy and the rule of the capitalists and landlords .sx This cannot be changed :sx it prevails until this very day .sx The state of affairs shows itself in all the attempts of the priests and religious organisations to fight socialist construction , and in the use made of religion by white guards of every kind .sx The church remains of course hostile to socialism in the era of vast reconstruction , just as it was in the days of Tsardom and during the years of civil war .sx 9 .sx Religious Fanaticism .sx In December , 1929 , there took place at Saratov the trial of the sect of Skoptsi .sx The Skoptsi were a religious sect which existed long before the revolution , who practised castration of men and mutilation of women .sx Converts were promised every kind of blessing , including a share in the property of the sect , in return for submission to mutilation .sx The leaders of the Skoptsi were prosecuted on this charge .sx It should be noted that they were all well-to-do persons .sx Thus Yevdokimov possessed 8 cows , 3 horses , 2 colts , 3 sheep , 2 calves and other property .sx Shevyrev possessed 7 cows , 2 horses , 2 colts , 3 sheep .sx This made it all the more possible for them to make converts by promising material rewards .sx On January 13 , 1930 , another trial of Skoptsi took place at Leningrad .sx The leadership of the organisation turned out to be entirely in the hands of former merchants and millionaires .sx Thus , one leader , Lomonosov , had a banking house before the revolution with a turnover of millions , while after the revolution he owned a large store .sx Another active official was a trader before the revolution and fought on the side of the whites during the civil war .sx A third , Alexeyev , owned an exchange office before the revolution , and in addition a large jewellery shop .sx The other leaders were also rich men before the revolution .sx The leaders of the organisation were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment .sx The trial .sx brought out the fact that the Skoptsi carried on not merely fanatical but also political work , on the principle that the soviet government was displeasing to God and that only the Tsardom would please the Lord .sx Their monarchical sympathies could be quite understood when we recall their origin .sx At the end of 1929 , a fanatical religious organisation was discovered in Moscow , which was controlled by Dimitry Schultz , a teacher of foreign languages , and his brother Heinrich .sx It transpired that as long ago as 1921 Schultz began to organise " spiritualist seances " at his house , to which he invited his young pupils , and there recruited them into his fanatical organisation .sx He taught that he was the " last prophet " and drew up a new religious " doctrine " based on extracts from the Koran , the Old and the New Testaments .sx Schultz assured his followers that during the services he " was changed into a woman .sx ' In order to impose upon them , as he confessed at the trial , he organised , with the help of his wife , and by means of special appliances , " flights " of the furniture in his rooms , the " materialisation of spirits , " etc. Ile introduced into his " religious services " several corporal ordeals , assuring his followers that this was necessary to strengthen their spirit :sx first , beating with rods , then flogging with straps , and finally , the burning of crosses on their .sx bodies with red-hot irons .sx He organised drunken orgies , .sx followed by disgusting scenes of debauchery .sx Schultz at these moment represented himself to be a woman , for which purpose he put on women's clothes , declaring that he had been " transfigured .sx " The impudence of this prophet was so great that during the last five years he had not done a stroke of work , living entirely on his followers .sx When they had no money to give him , he sent them to beg for alms .sx Throughout all this activity , Schultz regularly carried on a political anti-soviet campaign , forbidding his followers to read the soviet papers and ordering those who worked in soviet institutions not to do their work properly .sx When sending them on to the streets to beg on his behalf , he used to say that the more beggars there were on the streets , the worse it would be for the soviet government , etc. .sx Three examples have been quoted of prosecutions of religious organisations .sx Will the Archbishop of Canterbury tell us that these represent " persecution of religious convictions " ?sx Perhaps he is of the opinion that the soviet government should freely permit the fanatical Skoptsi to carry outtheir savage rites ?sx Perhaps the Conservative M.P.'s consider that the soviet government should have tolerated the vicious fanaticism of Schultz , the " last of the " ?sx In that case , Mr. Baldwin can put down yet another question to Henderson in the House of Commons :sx " Is the Right Honourable gentleman aware that the sect of Skoptsi are not permitted to carry out the rite of castration ; and that this is a restriction of their religious freedom ; and does His Majesty's Government propose to take any steps to ensure that the Soviet Government grants the necessary freedom to the Skoptsi to fulfil their religious obligations ?sx " 10 .sx The Atheist Movement in the U.S.S.R. .sx The greatest possible fury has been aroused abroad by the " League of Militant Atheists , " which has existed for over five years in the U.S.S.R. , and at present numbers over two million members .sx