The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 30, 1925, Page 13

Last Testament of the Patriarch Tikhon -:- rps entire Moscow press has pub- * listed the last testament of Tik- hon, patriarch of the Russian ortho- dox church, who died a few days ago. In this testament this erstwhile irre- toncilable enemy of the Soviet power calls upon all believers to be at peace with the Soviets as “there is no gov- — that does not eeme from od.’ Patriarch Tikhon recognizes the So- viet regime as the real government ef the people, strongly condemns all counter‘revolutionary religious groups and also appeints a special commis- sien for bringing to trial all these or- bishops who have been carry- ing on & struggle abroad for the re- storation of the old erder: Patriarch Tikhon asserts categor- {catty that all the decrees and prac- tical measures of the Soviet govern- ment are quite compatible with com- pleté freedom of all religions. He therefore summons ‘his followers to adjust the regulations of external church life and activities to the new state order. r ‘RIARCH TIKHON’S renuncia- - of eounter-revolutionary ideas-and his recognition of the Soviet power took place already # year ago, and since that time he has again been able to be at the head of the orthodox church: Nevertheless this last appeal of his, written when on his deathbed, by the very nature of its contents is of enormous political significance. What falsehoods have been spread by the bourgeols and menshevik press, particularly in connection with the question of the church! Here we have a man who {s un- ' doubtedly an authority in that connec- tion, and who announces to the whole world that there is complete freedom of conscience in the Soviet republic. This alone is a blow for the whole counter-revolution, which thereby loses yet another argument in its agt- tation against the Soviet republic. But this blow is of still more serious Dr. A. Moskalik DENTIST 8. W. Corner 7th and Mifflin Sts. PHILADELPHIA, PA. GRIGER & NOVAK GENTS FURNISHING and MERCHANT TAILORS Union Merchandise 1934 W. Chicago Avenue (Cor. Winchester) Phone Humboldt 2707 OPEN DAY AND NIGHT Four Phones. Chicago Two Comrades want to go to Los Angeles by auto- mobile, Want partners with car to go together or to buy a car Jointly. Address Box 100-A, Dally Worker, significance. ‘Tikhon and the many tens of thou- sands of urban and rural priests who follow him (and indeed; the over- whelming majority of the orthodox church); become finally reconciled with the existing government: Cling- ing to their old bigoted, formulae, they also»declare the Soviet power to be established by the Lord God, exactly im the same way as capitalist power in Europe. We Communists, ef course, may re- proach Patriarch Tikhon with not having an international point of view and that in his heart he is too easily reconciled te such entirely contradic tory governmental systems as the So- viet and bourgeois regimes. But we need net leak far to find an explana- tion for this: Patriarch Tikhon and his entire church organization are be- coming adapted. They desire to conserve thelr infty ence over the tolling masses and are thereby compelled to adapt them- selves to the polftical views of these toilers. So that they may still be able to carry on religious propagania, they have decidedly broken with all their past political ideology. The Patriarch Tikhon and the whole of his huge church organization were indeed only of value to the counter-revolutionaries insofar as the authority and extensive connections that this church had among the masses could be utilized for the struggle against the Soviet regime. In Kolchak’s army there was a whole detachment of orthodox “fathers.” Generals Denikin and Wrangel made connections with the kulak elements tn the villages thru the imtermediary of the orthodox Driests. The various scattered kulak risings even in 1921 always had a group of orthodox priests within their midst. Whoever has placed hopes in an armed struggle against the Soviet power—even including the theoretical leader of the international menshe- viks, Karl Kautsky—has up to now always sought his allies for counter- FILM LIFE OF LENIN PRAISED AS FINE ‘MOVIE’ Workers’ Aid Plans to Show “His Heritage” A foreign staff correspondent of a big Chicago datly reports from Berlin : 3 F i i : 4 F Tau sake SEREREEE: what aftuation.’ revolutionary blows against the So- viet government among the orthodox clergy: OW, then can the relations be- tween the Soviet government and the Communist Party on the one hand and the orthodox church on the other be subsequently consolidated? There is me better way than on the basis of the decree separating the church from the state and the schools from the church. -Those “golden days” when the church was an official part of the government will never re- turn: Church ceremony and the clergy have once and for all been thrust out of the state institutions. The Soviet school and the Red army will never see a priest within their precincts nor will they hear his ser- mon. There is only one territory left breadth of the Soviet Republic, will be continued. During the years of revo- Iution and civil war the church lost tens of mflliona of its fol- lowers. These were lost as 2 result of the revolutionary fervor of the masses. They had no. need whatso- ever for any lords or gods. church also lost these masses as a re- sult of its ceunter-revolutionary activ- ities, which helped the people to un- derstand the class character of the orthodox church. What has been lost will never return. And the orthodox church in its attempts to entice back those who have once left, can only meet with faflure. At the same time we must not lose sight of the enrom- ous difficulties in uprooting religious beliefs in a huge peasant country, where for the overwhelming masses of peasantry, god still represents an all- important factor in their life, bestow- ing upon them rainy or dry weather as required. “Religion is the opium PHOTO WORKERS TRY TO BUILD NATIONAL UNION First Local Formed in New York NEW YORE, May 29.—Local New York of the recently organized photo- graphic workers has been received in- to the American Federation of Labor, Louis J. Baum, secretary and organiz- er announced. The local is chartered as a federal local but the A. F. of L. promises its ald in creating a nation- al organization. Do ‘You Belong? Then Here’s Address. . Baum is all photo graphic workers in the nation whose names he can secure and is sending notices to photographic journals call- ing for the names of union prospects, with the Intention of building the na- tonal movement as speedily as pos- sible, The address of The Photogra- phic Workers of America, Local New York (the first local formed) is 442 St. Anns Avenue, Bronx, New York City, With the passing of Decoration Day and the coming of the summer and vacation season the photographic workers’ lot becomes a harder one un- i} der the present open shop plan. The amateur finishers, who develop the films left at drug stores and other points of kodak call are sometimes compelled to toil 36 hours en end hen ee By M. Raffes (Moscow) of the people.” But to stamp out this opium, a per- sistent and lengthy struggle is neces- sary. Following Tikhon’s appeal the orthodox priests will do all in their power to strengthen their infivence among the masses of the town and still more among the village popula- tion. They are carrying on their ac- tivities and will continue to do so on the basis of the decree on liberty of conscience. But there is yet another decree in the Soviet republic, the like of which is known by no other state in the world. This is the decree on the state propaganda of Commun- ism, As against the propaganda of the church there stand fn fully array the entire organization of state power, the whole apparatus of the Commnun- ist Party, the Y. C. L, and Commun ist Children’s Sections, and a whole network of Soviet Red Army schools of all degrees thru which 600,000 of the peasant youth pass every year. The whole of this organized terce fs by no means neutral on religious ques- tions, nay, it is a fighting organization of struggle against religion and against the church. Under the guid- ance of the Communist Party mass antireligious propaganda still in- creases. A wide network of atheistic circles will, during the next few years, embrace the entire working class and peasant youth, not to men tion the children who already, long ago have been lost to the church. hi us now draw the necessary con- clusions: Patriarch Tikhon’s ap- peal is a blow to the counter-revolu- tion and fn itself is a sign of the ever growing strengt& of the Soviet regime, in fact the appeal still more strengthens the Soviet power. The organs of the Soviet power and the Communist Party, in the future as in the past, will still more consistently carry on their struggles against the opium of religion, so as to prepare for the time when priests will have no connection whatever with the toiling masses of the Soviet republics. Dr. S. ZIMMERMAN | } 2232 NICALIFOR if: F466 rt MY NEW LOCATION Special X-Ray rices one to Gas Workers Given ESTABLISHED 12 YEARS. My Examination Is Free My Prices Are Reasonabie My Work Is Guaranteed Extracting Specialist DELAY MEANS DECAY Telephone Monroe 2284 Genova Restaurant ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1238 Madison Street N. E. Cor, Elizabeth St. Spaghetti and Ravioli Our Specialty Special Arrangements for Parties on Short Notice Second-Hand Books Used Communist, Labor and Eco- nomic books, pamphiets, magazines and maps in all languages, bought, sold and exchanged at cut prices. “Daily” Book Exchange 805 James St., Pittsburgh, Pa. FOREIGN EXCHANGE. NEW YORK, May 29.— Great Bri- tain, pound sterling demand 4.85 15-16; cable 4.863-16. France, france, de- mand 5.01%; cable 5.02%. 1 3.97%; cable 3.98%. Sweden, krone, demand 26.73; cable 26.76. Norway, krone,, demand 16.89; cable 16.91. Denmark, krone, demand 18.80; cable 18.82, Germany, mark, unquoted. Shanghai, tael, 75.25; cable 75.75.