861.413/10–950
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
No. 152
While, as reported in the despatch under reference1 and in the Embassy’s telegram to the Department No. 1674 of June 19, 1950, present Communist tactics seem to call for the utilization of organized religion for purposes of Soviet imperialism, Communist dogma utterly rejects spiritual values per se and wages a continuous battle to eradicate them in the USSR itself. Thus, Soviet propaganda media may cajole the Muslims of the Near East with claims that complete religious freedom exists for the Muslims of Soviet Central Asia, and may invite Muslim delegations from French North Africa to bear witness to the fact by travelling to Uzbekistan. The mechanism of the Russian Orthodox Church may be taken advantage of to the same end, and the Metropolitan of Leningrad despatched on good-will missions to the Levant. Nevertheless, these outer manifestations of a “soft” policy respecting organized religion cannot obscure the fact that official Communist doctrine, which postulates that religion is a manifestation of backward feudalism, has never suffered the slightest deviation.
It is also clear that Communist internal propaganda is unable to desist from inculcating anti-religious views in the youth of the Soviet Union, for a youth brought up to accept traditional religious concepts would find it difficult to accept the Lenin–Stalin exegesis of Marxism in all its vigor. In this connection, the attached translation of an “answer to a reader’s question”, taken from Nauka i Zhizn of August, 1950,2 expresses without equivocation the attitude that “Marxism–Leninism and religion are irreconcilable, as materialism and idealism are irreconcilable”. The reader, a student, had posed the question, “may religion die out by itself in the course of the development of a Socialist society?” The reply is, of course, in the negative, but the writer apparently finds it necessary to give some attention to the fact that “in our country, religion still infects some people with its corrupting influence, prevents believers from actively and consciously fighting for Communism”. This “backwardness” is explained “by the fact that the consciousness of man in its development lags behind social reality. Religion, once it has risen, crystallizes, as it were, and, transferred from generation to generation, takes on the force of inertia and tradition”. The remedy is “systematic, scientific, atheist propaganda” which must, however, “be serious and considered, without sudden attacks and dictatorial [Page 1260] measures, and without offending the feelings of religious persons”.
It is believed that our missions in Islamic and other countries and the Near East and Asia may be able to make effective use of the attached translation.
Minister-Counselor