Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

861.9111/10–2947

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State

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No. 1783

Moscow, October 29, 1947.

The Ambassador refers to Embassy despatch No. 1641 of September 20, 1947,¹ regarding the attitude of the Soviet regime toward religious belief and has the honor to report a new development on this subject.

The authoritative newspaper of the Communist youth organization (the All-Union Lenin Communist Union of Youth), Komsomolskaya Pravda, printed on October 18, a brief but sharp attack on the editorial staff of the magazine Young Bolshevik, another organ of the same youth league, for having published in its June, 1946 issue a “politically harmful and theoretically illiterate” article on the attitude of a Komsomol (member of the youth organization) toward religion and for having compounded the sin with a similar article in its June, 1947 issue. The latter of these two articles was that described in the reference despatch.² Five copies of the Joint Press Reading Service translation of the item are enclosed.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda attack charges that Young Bolshevik had clumsily criticized and cast doubts upon the completely correct attitude of Komsomols who “consider it impossible and inadmissible for a Komsomol to believe in God and to observe religious rituals.” It further criticizes the latter publication for emphasizing the use of educational methods to eliminate religious belief in the Komsomol rather than categoric prohibitions against ecclesiastical practices. “Such a presentation of the matter,” states the item, “is nothing other than an attempt to prove the possibility of the reconciliation of materialism with popishness and idealism. Such a position essentially signifies a departure from Marxism.”

The critical article proceeds to quote Comrade Stalin on the subject of religion and then lays down the dictum that, since the Komsomol member is obligated by the organization’s charter to conduct anti-religious propaganda, he must naturally himself be free of superstitions and religious prejudices. It states categorically: “A young man cannot be a Komsomol unless he is free of religious beliefs.”

Komsomolskaya Pravda concludes with the news that the Central Committee of the Komsomol (which itself is at least nominally responsible for both these publications, since its name appears on their mastheads) has promulgated a decree “on the mistake of the magazine Young Bolshevik,” sharply condemning its position on this “deeply principled question” and noting that it has done damage “to the matter of the Communist education of youth.” As is customary whenever Soviet “self-criticism” reaches the press, the account stated that “The Central Committee of the Komsomol has taken a number of measures to eliminate the mistakes of the magazine Young Bolshevik”

It is perfectly evident that the Soviet regime has an ulterior motive in thus resurrecting a year and a half old article from a second-rank journal and making it the subject of sharply corrective action, especially since the article under attack itself took pains to point out that “if a Komsomol believes in God and goes to church, he fails to fulfill his duties …” Such a procedure would be a characteristic method of indicating that the Soviet rulers have determined on a change in the ideological line toward religion. The evidence of such a change would naturally appear first in a Komsomol publication, for the current regime has long concentrated its anti-religious measures on the young people of the country.

If this article in Komsomolshaya Pravda does indeed constitute the first shot in a reintensified struggle against religious belief and practices in the USSR, it means that the Soviet rulers will replace “scientific enlightenment” and social pressure with which they have recently fought belief in God by more forceful methods of anti-religious activity.³ Such an alteration in policy toward religion fits logically into the pattern of ideological bowdlerization which the regime is currently inflicting upon the Soviet masses.

1. Not printed.
2. The article, “Science and Religion,” appeared in Young Bolshevik, no. 6, June, 1947.
3. In this connection the Embassy had written in despatch 1641 from Moscow on September 20, that “the present Soviet rulers’ attitude toward religion continues to be one of hostility tempered with a patience which is engendered by a belief that time is on the side of the regime and that a materialistic outlook, fostered by urbanization and by the state control of educational and propaganda systems, will gradually eliminate religion. … However, the Embassy has heard some reports, which cannot at present safely be regarded as more than rumors, to the effect that religious beliefs and practices, especially in the villages, are on the increase rather than otherwise. If there be any truth to these reports the Soviet government may eventually find it necessary to return to more forceful methods of dissuasion than those currently employed.” (861.9111/9–2047)