Mr. Simmons. “I think it certainly will be one of the principal factors; no doubt of it. That priest took the occasion, knowing that I was an official of the American Government, thinking that it was the last duty he could perhaps perform for Russia, to beg me to go back and tell the American people, ‘For God’s sake, send us help.’ He was speaking, gentlemen, not for himself, but for the large class of people that he represented.”[21]
Testimony of Mr. Theodor Kryshtofovich
“As you know, gentlemen, the Russians are a very religious people. Like here in the United States, there are very many denominations there, but most of the people belong to the Greek Church. Of course, the priests and religious people are not very pleasant to the Bolsheviki, because the Bolsheviki deny any religion or any religious sentiment. They oppose the Russian clergy and the Russian clergy oppose the Bolsheviki, and the Russian priests are treated very badly. For instance, they are set to do streetwork, cleaning the streets, paving streets, digging ditches, and so on. The workmen told me several times, ‘The Bolsheviki are sending out priests to work in the streets. Why do they not send their rabbis?’ And that is true. The Jewish Rabbis are not sent to work on the streets. The Bolsheviki are opposing religion to such an extent that lately when I was going to Petrograd they raised a question of teaching atheism in the schools. They boast that they have opened so many schools, but they do not say that they closed as many schools as they opened. We had schools in connection with the churches, in connection with every church there was a school, and all these schools are closed now.”[22]
Further evidence that the Bolsheviki, although attacking Christianity, protect the Jewish religion, is found in the following article, which appeared on the 5th of July, 1919, in the weekly publication Soviet Russia, page 15. The article is entitled “Soviet Tolerance.” It reads as follows:
“The New York Jewish Daily, ‘The Day,’ in its issue of June 24th has the following cablegram from its European correspondent, N. Shiffrin: ‘Glad Tidings from Russia.’ ‘The Zionists have organized throughout Russia Food Co-operative Societies which are united in every city into Central Co-operative Associations united in the All-Russian Federation of Jewish Food Co-operative Associations. The Federation is in part subsidized by the Moscow Soviet Government. All schools of the Zionists in which the language of instruction is ancient Hebrew, as well as the Hebrew High School in Minsk, have been taken over by the government. They have been incorporated in the Public School System which is maintained by the Commissariat of Public Education.’”
The significant part of this article consists in the fact that the old Hebrew is a religious language in which the Talmud is written. The old Hebrew can serve only for the study of the Talmud as well as of other Jewish religious writings. Thus, while combating the Christian religion, the Bolsheviki are extending protection to the Jewish religion and to the synagogues.
In a pamphlet entitled “The Russian Church under the Bolsheviks,” recently published in England, is printed the appeal of Father Serge Orlov, “who played an important part in the Reform movement in the Russian church,” and who is now in Switzerland, where the National Consistory has expressed its sympathy for the Russian people by composing a special prayer for the liberation of Russia from the Bolsheviks. We quote the following passages from this appeal of Father Orlov:
“Owing to Bolshevism the Orthodox Russian Church is passing through so acute a crisis that there is serious danger to the fundamental idea of the whole of Christianity.
“Bolshevism is essentially hostile to Christ, and manifests even greater hatred towards Christianity than did the pagan power of the first centuries....
“Bolshevism and the Christian Church cannot exist side by side.