RUSSIAN PRELATE SAYS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EXISTS IN USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700120455-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 455
• Publication Date: August 5, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/14 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000700120455-2
CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED
I
CENTRALENE
LL GENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
REPORT
CD N0.
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
Sociological - Religion
Biweekly periodical
DATE OF
DATE DIST. J ~ 1953
PUBLISHED
Athens
N0. OF PAGES
2
DATE
PUBLISHED
1 Nov 1952 -
15 Feb 1953
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
RUSSIAf+t PRELATE SAYS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EXISTS IN USSR
STATES ALL RELIGIONS GIVEN EQUAL RIGfPPS -- Athens, Ekklisia, 1 Nov 52
In an interview given by Nikolai, a Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox
Church, to Otechestven Front, a Bulgarian newspaper, the Metropolitan stated
that there is complete religious freedoe in the Soviet Union and that all
religions are given equal rights. Relations between the Orthodox Church and
the Soviet government are legal and within the fT?ameworY. of the Constitution.
The clergy and various religious groups participate actively and of their own
accord in the struggle f'or peace, the btetropolltan said.
CONRdUNIST SOCIETY PUBLISHES RELIGIOUS BOOK -- Athens, Ek;tlisia, 15 Nov 52
During !?1ay 1952, the Com.unist Society for the Dissemination of Scienti-
fic and Political Knowledge, which has branches throughout the USSR and which
nuns at spreading antireligious propaganda through lectures and publications,
published P. F. Kolovitskiy's book Communist and Religious Morality.
CCMM[NfIST BOOK RIDICiJI.FS CHRISTIANITY -- Athens, Ekklisia, 15 Feb 53
Last October, the Soviet Union's State Publishing House in Moscow pub-
lished a study by N, K. Amosov, entitled The Origin.ahd Class Essence of
Christianity, which is an example of the method by which religion is being
uprooted in Soviet Russia. It includes the text of a lecture on the "Reaction-
ary Role of Christianity" and gives a ,,-aide to how the above-mentioned work
should be studied.
In the preface, the autt,or writes the fo11o?ing: "Christianity is one
of the most wide-spread religions. It appeared during the period of the Ro-
man Empire as a reflection of the weaknesses of the masses and an enslaved
people against their rulers and exploiters. In their distress, the Rcman
slaves and poor people began to believe in religious illus_ons and in the
Saviour wbo had promised to relieve their pains."
STATE
ARMY
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In the guide section, four points were indicated as most Lnportant: (a)
Jesus Christ, who is believed to have established Christianity, never existed;
(b) Christianity came into existence as a means of relieving the sufferings
of slaves and poor people; (c) Christianity played a reactionary role since
its very beginning, and its social principles ,justify the old form of slavery;
and (d) in the Soviet Union, Christianity, because of its antiscientific views
and reactionary morality, greatly injures the Communist education of the
workers.
REPORT OF RELIGIOUS MEEPINGS IN USSR -- Athens, Ekklisia, 15 Nov 52
The Athens Archdiocese has received a volume from Moscow, published in
French by the Moscow Patriarchate, entitled Conference de touter lea EgLises
et Associations Re~igieuses de 1'U.R.S.S. pour la defence de la Paix dans le
monde Conference of A11 Churches and Religious Bedias in the USSR for the
Defense of World Peace). The conference w;_s held at the Zagorsk Troicse-
Sergiyeva Monastery on ~ - 10 May 1j52.
On the invitation oP Aleksey, Patriarch of Moscow, the following repre-
sentatives participated in this confere:ce: the i~icrarchy of the Russian
Orthodox Church; representatives of the Georgian Churc},, the Armenian Church,
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia and Latvia, and the Roman Catholic
Church of Latvia (Bishop Peteris Strodsj avid Lithua~.ia (Bishop Kazimieras
Juozapo Paltnrokas); representatives of the tdethodist: of Estonia and of the
Council of Christian-Baptist Evangelists; representatives of the Church of
the Old Believers of A11 Russia and of the All-Union Council of the Adventists
of Russia; representatives of the Reformed (Calvinist) Church of Trans-Car-
pathia; representatives of the Molokanon Ltransllteration from the Greek, pos-
sibly followers of Moloch ?] of Baku and Tbilisi; representatives of the Mos-
lems of the USSR, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Dagestan, and Trans-Carpathia;
representatives of the Buddhists in the USSR; and representatives of the Jew-
ish community in Moscow and Kiev.
Moreover, two other volumes were received by the Archdiocese, entitled
Actes de la Conference des chefs et des representants des Eglises Autocefales
Orthodoxes reunis a tloscou a 1'occnsion de la celebration solennelle des fetes
du SOOeme nmiiversnirP de 1'au*,ocefh~lie de 1'Eglise Orthodoxe Russe
-LO J~ uillet 19 ~ Decisions oi' the Conference of the Autocephalous Orthodox
Churches, Which Tool: Place in Moscow or. the Occasion of the 500th Anniversary
Celebr:aion of the A.utocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church, 4 - 10 July
1948).
Both volumes included the speeches, announcements, and reports made dur-
in;y the celebration or, the following subJects: Pap ism and the Orthodox Church;
the Vatican and the Orthodox Churc}~; The Roman Church and the Union of the
Church of Christ; Rome and Bulgaria; The Position of the Vatican Toward Ortho-
doxy During the Lan t, 30 Ycers; F~.nglica;: Ordinations and Anglican Rierarchy;
T'nc Orthodox Cl;urch and the World Dlovecrent of Churches.
The Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Greece
were represented at these celebrations but. their representatives did not par-
ticipate in the conference whic}, fo11o?:ed.
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