Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ligious program. Not only must a regular program of antireligious films and on televi- sion be undertaken, but competitions were to be held for the best works on atheism in the areas of literature, drama, film, and painting. The state press commission was ordered to draw up a comprehensive plan to produce atheistic literature in all languages of the Union. All political and scientific journals were ordered to inaugurate new columns for antireligious propa- ganda. Lower party committees were told that they must assume responsi- bility and supervision of “the degree of religiosity existing in every com- munity and collective.” Elementary and secondary school curricula would be reviewed in order to intensify the antireligious point of view. Each local patty unit- was to select a permanent organizer. of -antireligious work. Another point that hinted more at administrirovanie than: vospitanie was the statement that: ete BS Sep . Tn order to forestall the illegal activities of the clergy, church groups, and - individual church-goers, measures:must be: taken to fence off children and adolescents-from the influence of.church-goers and. from the efforts of parents to get their children to join them in religious observances. Obviously, religious ideology had been declared the major enemy of the state andithis was perhaps the clearest acknowledgement that atheism. had become the state religion. : ~The Orgkomitet was also reevaluating ‘its tactics.. Appeals to the AUCECB had been unsuccessful; it was clear that the latter was powerless to act. Since appeals to local state officials and to the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults also brought no relief, the Orgkomitet now began to ap- peal for a-personal interview with Nikita Khrushchev. In the spring of 1964 Georgi.Vins and P. S. Zinchenko held a series of telephone discussions with _.Communist: Party Central. Committee officer: Morozov.. Morozov urged them to see Chairman Puzin of.the-Council for. the Affairs of- Religious Cults; but the latter informed them that his council was.merely executing policy. When the Baptist spokesman asked what were the basic laws they The Khrushchev Campaign Against Religion 145 were being called. upon to obey, council officials mentioned the 1918 decree, the 1929 legislation, and the 1986 constitution, Even at this point there was no indication by Puzin and his officials that the 1962 revisions had taken place.5! The multiplication of local complaints and declarations addressed: to leading governmental officials coming independently from scattered areas of the country did have its effect. In June 1964 Chairman Puzin called an All-Union meeting of his plenipotentiaries in order to review events. Puzin’s speech, leaked to the Initsiativniki later, included detailed lists describing how local officials had abused’ believers and Puzin punctuated his remarks by stating that state investigatory commissions confirmed the