As we will see this week, what Communist policy states is not always reflective of its goals, in fact it is usually quite the contrary. Using the same methods Satan used to fool Adam and Eve in the Garden, the Communists use methods to sooth the troubled soul, and then when the time is right, all options except those offered by Communism are removed. Let’s get started.
> During World War II what did Stalin say the Russian policy was toward nations which were then under Nazi domination? “We are waging a just war for our country and our freedom. It is not our aim to seize foreign lands or to subjugate foreign people. Our aim is clear and noble. We want to free our Soviet land of the German-Fascist scoundrels. We want to free our Ukrainian, Moldavian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Karelian brothers from the outrage and violence to which they are being subjected by the German-Fascist scoundrels…”(my addition…and replace them with Communist scoundrels). “We have not and cannot have such war aims as the imposition of our will and regime on the Slavs and other enslaved peoples of Europe who are awaiting our aid. Our aim consists of assisting these people in their struggle for liberation from Hitler’s tyranny and then setting them free to rule in their own lands as they desire.” (Stalin’s Order of the Day, No. 130, May 1, 1942, quoted in On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow, 1946, p.59). These are the kind of promises some politicians make and some citizens are fool enough to fall for.
> So, what excuse could Stalin and the Communist leaders have for doing the very opposite of what they had promised? “The strictest loyalty to the ideas of Communism must be combined with the ability to make all necessary practical compromises, to maneuver, to make agreements, zigzags, retreats, and so on, so as to accelerate the coming to power.” (V.I. Lenin, Left-Wing Communism…An Infantile Disorder, International Publishers, New York, 1940, pp. 75-76). “Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water or iron wood.” (Quoted in Department of State Publication No. 4264, p. 30).
> This approach to international relations sounds more like a criminal code of conduct rather than sincere diplomacy. Does Communist Morality permit this? “We say: Morality is that which serves to destroy the old exploiting society and to unite all the toilers around the proletariat, which is creating a new Communist society. Communist morality is the morality which serves the struggle…” (V.I. Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. IX, p. 477). Morals and ethics are the body of norms and rules on the conduct of Soviet peoples. At the root of Communist morality, said Lenin, lays the struggle for the consolidation and the completion of Communism. From the point of view of Communist morality, only those acts are moral which contribute to the building up of a new Communist society.” (Radio Moscow, August 20, 1950).
> This sounds like an excuse for doing whatever one may find expedient rather than following a system of rules for right living. Assuming Communism is right; would that justify a communist in lying, stealing, or killing to put Communism into effect? “With him the end justifies the means. Whether his tactics be ‘legal’ and ‘moral’, or not, does not concern him, so long as they are effective. Knowing that the laws as well as the current code of morals are made by mortal enemies, consequently, he ignores them. He proposed to develop, regardless of capitalist conceptions of ‘legality’, ‘fairness’, ‘right’, etc., a greater power than his capitalist enemies have.” (William Z. Foster commentary on Lenin, Syndicalism, p. 9).
> Would then the communist deny the possibility of there being an eternal, God-given code for moral or ethical conduct? “We do not believe in eternal morality, and we expose all the fables about morality.” (V.I. Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. IX, p. 478) “Law, morality, religion, are …so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.” (Marx-Engles, Communist Manifesto; also quoted in the Communist Handbook, p. 35). “We therefore reject every attempt to impose on us any moral dogma whatsoever as an eternal, ultimate and forever immutable moral law on the pretext that the moral world too has its permanent principles which transcend history and the difference between nations. We maintain on the contrary that all former moral theories are the product of the economic stage which society has reached at that particular epoch. Morality was always a class morality. (Friedrich Engels, quoted in Handbook of Marxism, p. 249).
> In that case, then what is the Communist attitude toward the Bible which contains many moral teachings? “A collection of fantastic legends, without any scientific support. It is full of dark hints, historical mistakes and contradictions. It serves as a factor for gaining power and subjugating the unknowing nations.” (Quoted from the Russian Dictionary under Christian Economics, Vol. III, No. 7, March 27, 1951). “The so-called sacred writings of the Jews are nothing more than the record of the old Arabian religious and tribal tradition, modified by the early separation of the Jews from their tribally related, but nomadic neighbors.” (Friedrich Engels, Selected Correspondence, p. 64).
> Once again, if that is the case, if you reject the Bible, do you also reject all religion and all of the institutionalized morality which it represents? “The philosophy of Marxism-Leninism…the theoretical foundation of the Communist Party…is incompatible with religion.” (Young Bolshevik, No. 5-6, 1946, p. 58). “Religion is a kind of spiritual gin in which the slaves of capital drown their human shape and their claims to any decent human life.” (V.I. Lenin, Selected Works, International Publishers, New York, 1943, Vol. XI).
> Could not a Communist enjoy religious activity as a matter of conscience and as a private right? “To the Party of the Socialist proletariat…religion is not a private matter.” (V.I. Lenin, Religion, p.9). “Every Leninist, every Communist, every class-conscious worker and peasant must be able to explain why a Communist cannot support religion [and] why Communists fight against religion.” (E. Yaroslavsky, Religion in the USSR, p. 20).
> But what if a Communist still wanted to go to church? If a Communist youth believes in God and goes to church, he fails to fulfill his duties. This means that he has not yet rid himself of religious superstitions and has not become a fully conscious person (i.e., a Communist).” (Young Bolshevik, No. 5-6, 1946, p. 56). “A young man or woman cannot be a Communist youth unless he or she is free of religious convictions.” (Young Communist Truth, October 18, 1947). “We must combat religion…this is the ABC of all materialism, and consequently Marxism.” (V.I. Lenin, Religion, p. 14).
> What then is the Communist attitude toward individual churches? Take the Catholic Church, for example. “The Catholic Church, with the pope in its van, is now an important bulwark of all counter-revolutionary organizations and forces.” (E. Yaroslavsky, Religion in the USSR, pp. 36-37).
> Is Communism against all Christianity? As quoted by Lunarcharsky, Russian Commissioner of Education: “We hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. What we want is hate…only then can we conquer the universe.” (Quoted in Congressional Record, Vol. 77, pp. 1539-1540).
> How then do Communist justify ‘hate’ propaganda of this kind? “Hatred fosters vigilance and an uncompromising attitude toward the enemy and leads to the destruction of everything that prevents Soviet peoples from building a happy life.” (Quoted from the Small Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1947, Vol. XI, p. 1045). “It is impossible to conquer an enemy without having learned to hate him with all the might of one’s soul.” (Joseph Stalin, The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1946, p. 55).
> In view of all of this, why is it that Communist propaganda sometimes pretends a tolerance for religion? “In our work among religious people we must bear in mind Lenin’s advice to utilize every method available to us, or, as he said, we must ‘approach them this way and that way’ in order to stimulate them to criticize religion themselves.” (E. Yaroslavsky, Religion in the USSR, p. 61).
> If religion is so bad, do the Communists think it will gradually die out? “It would be a great mistake to believe that religion will die out of itself. We have repeatedly emphasized Lenin’s opinion that the Communist Party cannot depend upon the spontaneous development of anti-religious ideas…that these ideas are molded by organized action.” (E. Yaroslavsky, Religion in the USSR, p.61).
> Do Communists think that a person’s attitude toward religion can be changed by friendly persuasion? “The fight against religion must not be limited nor reduced to abstract, ideological preaching. This struggle must be linked up with the concrete practical class movement; its aim must be to eliminate the social roots of religion.” (V.I. Lenin, Religion, p. 14). “The struggle against the Gospel and Christian legendmust be conducted ruthlessly and with all the means at the disposal of Communism.” (Radio Leningrad, August 27, 1950).
> Has the clergy in Russia already been suppressed? “Have we suppressed the reactionary clergy? Yes, we have. The unfortunate thing is that it has not been completely liquidated. Anti-religious propaganda is a means by which the complete liquidation of the reactionary clergy must be brought about. Cases occur when certain members of the Party hamper the complete development of anti-religious propaganda. If such members are expelled, it is a good thing because there is no room for such ‘Communists’ in the ranks of the Party.” (Joseph Stalin, Leninism, Vol. 1, p.387).
> What will be the Communist substitution for religion? “Marxism cannot be conceived without atheism. We would add here that atheism without Marxism is incomplete and inconsistent.” (V.I. Lenin, Religion, Introduction, pp. 3-6).
> If Communism is going to take away the concept of God, what spiritual substitute is proposed to offer to the people? “What better means of influencing pupils than, for example, the characteristic of the spiritual figure of Stalin given in the Short Biography: ‘Everyone knows the irresistible, shattering power of Stalin’s logic, the crystal clearness of his intellect, his iron will, devotion to the Party, his modesty, artlessness, his solicitude for people, and mercilessness to enemies of the people.” (Teachers Gazette, March 17, 1947).
> With Soviet leaders missing no opportunity when Stalin was alive to indoctrinate the children with the idea of Stalin as a spiritual figure, what was the slogan stamped on children’s toys? “Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for my joyous childhood.” (Quoted in the U.S. Department of State Publication, No. 4264, p. 25).
With this we complete a look at a few of the influential attempts by Communist to gain power and control in a normally free society…diplomatic intrigue, ethics and morals, the Bible, and religion. Next week we will look at individual freedom, education, and labor. Nearly every phase of life has been invaded by Communist ambition to control and overpower. As you read what I write, see if you can see indicators of the attempts in our society today. Unfortunatey, some are right in the very environs of power in Washington, DC.
-Bob Munsey
“One of the surest signs that the end of the nation is near is when its people have become so callous to sin, so steeped in idolatry, that they don’t even realize how evil they have become. They think there is nothing wrong with worshipping false gods alongside the one true God. They think there is nothing wrong with mingling obscene practices with the rituals and sacrifices prescribed in the Law of Moses. They are breaking most of the Ten Commandments, yet they don’t understand why God is Judging them.” A Nation in Crisis by Ray C. Stedman
Geezer Politics 