Soviet Revisionist Renegades' "Communist Christianity" Shows How Degenerate
They Have Become
by Yu Fen
Peking Review August 22, 1969
re-typed by MC5, Maoist Internationalist Movement
[MC5 comments: The 1998 visit of the Pope to Cuba and Castro's
admittance of Christians into the party deserves an historical look.
It was Khruschev first of modern revisionists to pioneer the idea of
the Pope as a "great man dedicated to world peace." Unfortunately,
Castro is singing the same song as Khruschev now, but many claiming to
be Marxist-Leninist tolerate or encourage him.]
Under the "auspices" of the Soviet revisionist chieftains, a minor but
hideous farce was acted out not so long ago on the outskirts of
Moscow. From different parts of the Soviet Union, patriarchs and
priests, monks and imams, and other religious chiefs, numbering more
than a hundred in all, gathered for a conference. They made a big
noise, discussing what they called "essential problems of our epoch."
One Soviet revisionist renegade clique bigwig sent this clutter of
churchmen a personal message wishing them success in their show and
bidding them "to make contributions to this noble cause of the
consolidation of universal peace."
This step by that handful of Soviet revisionist renegades, Brezhnev &
Co., who are bent on putting religion and superstition back into
circulation in the Soviet Union, is an extremely reactionary one. It
is an attempt to fool the Soviet people and people the world over and,
by using the robes of these patriarchs and priests, to cover up the
crimes they have committed at home and abroad.
Revisionists of all breeds and brands were denounced by the great
Lenin as hens among dung heaps in the backyard of the working-class
movement. They peck away at anything, even the filthiest, so long as
it keeps them going. Torn by troubles at home and abroad the Soviet
revisionist renegade clique has long regarded the reactionary
religious forces as a talisman by which it carries out
counter-revolutionary revisionist domestic and foreign policies. For
years it has been playing the disgusting role of a sycophant of the
Vatican, bulwark of the most reactionary religious forces in the
world, and sucking up to the Pope, a loyal defender of capitalism. The
notorious Khruschov brazenly presented the Pope as a 'great man
devoted to world peace.' Following in Khruschov's footsteps, a
neo-Soviet revisionist chieftain in his capacity as head of state went
on a 'pilgrimage' to Rome and sought an audience with Pope Paul the
Sixth. At home, the revisionist renegade clique in the Kremlin takes
great pains to speak up for the religious forces. Religion is an
opiate. Yet without any hesitation, this clique turns out reactionary
religious propaganda through its press and news agencies. It
shamelessly trumpets religion as being "beneficial," and hollers for
restoring religious education in the schools. Religious forces in the
Soviet Union have become increasingly rampant and all-pervasive.
Religious rites have increased by three or fourfold in the last tens
years. More and more churches and parishes have come into existence.
Religious followers now number dozens of millions. In addition, quite
a number of seminaries have been set up to train "successors" to the
church.
After having recently cooked up what it calls "communist
Christianity," which is a reactionary fallacy, the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique published a spate of press articles advertising the
"evolution of the modern Russian Orthodox Church." In the fifth issue
of the journal Science Religion, a hired "candidate doctor of
philosophy" went to the length of preaching like a priest that the
Russian Orthodox Church is an "instrument for transforming social
relations." "Christianity," he said, "is harmonious, fitting and in
coordination with the process of transforming social relations on
socialist and communist principles. Christianity has developed into
'communist Christianity.'" Like revisionism, the sham Marxism-Leninism
mouthed by the Soviet revisionists, this "communist Christianity" is
said to be most enthusiastically "calling on the believers to take
part in the struggle for socialism and socialist construction."
Brezhnev & Co. can now very conveniently find in "communist
Christianity" a blueprint for "building communism," and even toss
their Marxist-Leninist garb to the winds because, it is said, "in the
Russian Orthodox Church the building of the kingdom of Christ on earth
is more and more associated with communist transformation of the
world." Amid such loud braying for "communist Christianity," leading
church figures in some areas have openly called meetings in public
places, conducted propaganda among the inhabitants and "recruited
supporters." What a miasma!
Can anyone find anything more degenerate than this!
By putting the label of "communism" on Christianity, the Soviet
revisionist renegades smugly calculate that they can deceive the
people at home and the revolutionary people of the world and provide
themselves with a figleaf to cover up their use of the church to push
capitalist restoration in all spheres of endeavor and their
social-imperialist policies. In fact, this precisely reveals that
their so-called "building of communism" is of a piece with the
"building of the kingdom of Christ." In using religion, they are
taking the idealist and most reactionary stand of the big landlords
and big bourgeoisie, and their programme is the same as their
deceitful "communist Christianity" propaganda.
The proletariat is determined to completely overthrow the bourgeoisie
and all other exploiting classes, establish the dictatorship of the
proletariat in place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and
defeat capitalism by socialism and eventually realize communism. BOLD
"Religion is opium for the people." END It is a spiritual weapon of
the exploiting classes for oppressing, enslaving and exploiting the
labouring people; it manacles the oppressed classes and prevents them
from rebelling against their oppressors. Scientific communism is the
antithesis of religion. Like fire and water, the struggle for the
realization of the ideal of communism in the whole world is
incompatible with "the building of the kingdom of Christ on earth."
The Manifesto of the Communist Party solemnly declares: The communist
revolution's "development involves the most radical rupture with
traditional ideas." Since the great theory of scientific communism
came into being, it has been fiercely resisted by the reactionary
religious forces, with the Pope as their champion. Lenin pointed out:
"We must combat religion -- that is the ABC of all materialism, and
consequently of Marxism." The Party and Soviet state led by Lenin and
Stalin waged a resolute struggle against all reactionary religious
forces. Now, this gang of Soviet revisionist renegades claiming to be
loyal to Lenin's behest has shamelessly alleged that Christianity and
communism are "harmonious, fitting and in co-ordination" with each
other. It has combined communism and Christianity into one, flying the
sinister flag of "communist Christianity." This shows to what
despicable depths they have sunk. Those in the upper echelons of the
Soviet revisionist renegade clique want to be Christian "bishops" so
as to dope and hoodwink the Soviet people and the people of the world!
But at the same time they want to garland themselves with "communism"
to hide their own treachery. Don't they find this double feature far
too clumsy and preposterous?
Reactionary forces and revisionists of all hues and shades have tried
in vain to "incorporate" communism with religion since the advent of
Marxism. This trick was used by the "god-building" school that Lenin
denounced. The so-called "evolution" and "socialization" of religion
in the Soviet Union, as well as the "association" of "kingdom of
Christ" with communism, and so forth -- all this is unadulterated
religious eyewash. Many prevailing theologians who are today busy with
"reforms" are racking their brains searching through theological
theory for a "more effective form of expression" of Christianity. They
oppose what they called the "flagrant infringement of atheistic
materialism and communism upon human dignity." They wildly clamour for
"extending the kingdom of Christ to the furthermost limits of the
earth" and "propagating the gospel" among the proletariat. But all
their charlatanism cannot be compared with the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique's trickery. The Kremlin renegades have come out as
"communist" theologians to prove that in their sham communism the
ideals of Christianity have been translated into reality. Why do the
Soviet hierarchs now consider it possible to energetically support the
political and philosophical propositions of the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique? They themselves have put their finger on the matter.
They support the political "principles" of the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique because, they say, "these principles are in accord
with the needs of Christianity." It was nobody but Khruschov, Brezhnev
and their kind, who after coming to power, have converted the
bourgeoisie's "hope of restoration" into " attempts at restoration."
They usurped the leadership of the Party of Lenin and Stalin and
turned the world's first state under the dictatorship of the
proletariat into a dark fascist state under the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie. The reactionary religious bosses have found such a
"process" of capitalist restoration very "harmonious, fitting and in
co-ordination" with their desires. That is why they have applauded it
and are willingly working for the Soviet revisionist renegade clique.
In playing up "communist Christianity," the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique extols religion as an "instrument for transforming
social relations." Such a shameless utterance can only expose still
more clearly the hideous features of these revisionist renegades who
are making the most of the reactionary religious forces to quicken the
pace of full-scale capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union.
Religion has always been a tool in the hands of the exploiting classes
to dominate, enslave and poison the minds of the labouring people. The
great teacher of the proletariat Karl Marx said: "The social
principles of Christianity had justified ancient slavery, extolled
medieval serfdom and, when necessary, will also defend, although with
a look of pity, the oppression of the proletariat." Therefore,
religion has always been supported and used by the reactionary ruling
classes: by the slave-owners of slave society, by the landlords of
feudal society and by the capitalists of capitalist society. The
Soviet people will never forget how the old tsars always used the
Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument for maintaining their
sanguinary rule in their feudal empire. After the founding of Soviet
power, the overthrown reactionary ruling classes, in a bid to seize
back their lost paradise, organized an anti-Soviet "crusade" to
subvert the first socialist state with the help of the reactionary
religious forces and in co-ordination with international imperialism.
Still less will the Chinese people forget how the imperialists used
religion for cultural aggression and, in its wake, military and
political aggression against our country, and turned China into a
semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. At the time of the founding of
the great People's Republic of China, the imperialists again used
reactionary religious forces to poison the minds of some backward
people. These forces also served as cat's-paws in their attempt to
subvert and undermine our country. Used by a handful of counter-
revolutionaries, religion, whether in Catholic or Protestant garb, has
always been an anti-communist, anti- people imperialist task force and
an imperialists instrument of aggression. That the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique now employs the Russian Orthodox Church to "transform
social relations" is not very original. This is merely a mantle
inherited from the old tsars, and a leaf taken from the stinking book
of U.S. imperialism.
While working out its reactionary theory of "communist Christianity,"
the Soviet revisionist renegade clique, which is capable of anything
foul and base openly applauded the Russian Orthodox Church
ecclesiastics in the press for following the Kremlin's "international
policy" and supporting its "efforts in ensuring international
security." This is an unsolicited confession which gives away its
counter- revolutionary aim of using the reactionary religious forces
to push its social-imperialist policies. at present, the Soviet
revisionist renegade clique is stepping up collusion with U.S.
imperialism, intensifying suppression of the revolutionary struggle of
the people of different countries and strengthening control over and
exploitation of some East European countries and the People's Republic
of Mongolia. These criminal activities are proof that the Soviet
revisionist renegade clique's "international policy" is an imperialist
policy of collecting all reactionary riffraff to carry out expansion
abroad.
Even while continually intruding into Chinese territory and air space
and shooting down unarmed Chinese fishermen and herdsmen, the Kremlin
clique has been using religion for counter-revolutionary subversive
propaganda through its radio programmes beamed to China's Sinkiang.
This is an attempt to drive a wedge into the unity of our motherland
and disrupt our country's national solidarity. The old tsars [used]
religion to carry out divisive activities in Sinkiang, and now the
Soviet revisionist renegade clique is doing the same thing. From this,
people throughout the world can clearly see once again that this
handful of renegades are out-and-out social-imperialists and new
tsars, pure and simple. We firmly warn the chieftains of the Soviet
revisionist renegade clique: You can go on using reactionary clergymen
to carry out counter-revolutionary activities, but you will come to no
good end.
Chairman Mao, the great leader of all the nationalities of our
country, pointed out in his work On Coalition Government: "All
religions are permitted in China' s Liberated Areas, in accordance
with the principle of freedom of religious belief. All believers in
Protestantism, Catholicism, Islamism, Buddhism and other faiths enjoy
the protection of the people's government as long as they are abiding
by its laws. Everyone is free to believe or not to believe; neither
compulsion nor incrimination is permitted." It is our consistent
policy to protect the freedom of religious belief and the freedom of
not believing in any religion. Communists abide by a policy of freedom
of religious belief; but towards religious believers, "we can never
approve of their idealism or religious doctrines." We must criticize
and repudiate idealist monasticism and all kinds of religious
obscurantism. We are convinced the time will come when followers of
religious faiths will awake and throw away their "idols." That the
Soviet revisionist renegade clique, which has completely betrayed the
rudimentary principles of Marxism- Leninism, should have acted
perversely and gone so far as to rake up its reactionary "communist
Christianity" nonsense in an effort to shore up its
counter-revolutionary revisionist rule only shows the depths of its
political and ideological degeneration. It is a reflection of its
mortal fear of the doom awaiting it.
Did the Soviet revisionist renegade clique not instruct the religious
heirarchs it groomed to discuss so- called "essential problems of our
epoch"? The essential problem of our epoch, as pointed out by Vice-
Chairman Lin Piao in his political report to the Ninth National
Congress of the Communist Party of China is: "The contradiction
between the oppressed nations on the one hand and imperialism and
social- imperialism on the other; the contradiction between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the capitalist and revisionist
countries; the contradiction between imperialist and
social-imperialist countries and among the imperialist countries; and
the contradiction between socialist countries on the one hand and
imperialism and social-imperialism on the other. The existence and
development of these contradictions are bound to give rise to
revolution." U.S. imperialism, Soviet revisionism and all reaction can
never survive this great storm of people's revolution, nor can
"communist Christianity" save the revisionist renegade clique in the
Kremlin from destruction.
Acute class differentiation and bitter class struggle are taking place
in Soviet society. This arises from the fact that this renegade clique
is ruthlessly carrying out the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over
the Soviet people and pursuing a social-imperialist policy of
expansion abroad. The Soviet revisionist chieftains are simply
daydreaming and wasting their time if they think the use of religious
forces can benumb and disintegrate the revolutionary fighting will of
the Soviet people who are rising against them. It will only promote
their steady awakening and arouse them to greater resistance; it will
only open the eyes of the people of the world still more to the
degeneration and shamelessness of this gang of renegades. The
revolutionary movement of the proletariat of the world and the people
of all countries today is surging forward vigorously. The struggle of
the Soviet proletariat and the broad masses of the Soviet people
against the Soviet revisionist renegade clique is developing in depth.
Imperialists, revisionists and reactionaries are getting closer and
closer to their graves. As pointed out by Chairman Mao, the great
leader of all the nationalities of our country, "Working hand in
glove, Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism have done so many foul
and evil things that the revolutionary people the world over will not
let them go unpunished. The people of all countries are rising. A new
historical period of struggle against U.S. imperialism and Soviet
revisionism has begun." Invoking the reactionary religious forces to
put up a last-ditch struggle will only bring the Soviet revisionist
renegade clique a speedier and more ignominious defeat. This, too, is
the will of "god." But this "god" is none other than the proletariat
and revolutionary people of the world, the Soviet people included.
