Communist Persecution
> of recent times has been a huge point of conversation, and will be for years to
come. Current news has the current generations in fear and speculation, with persecution of
multiple religions in many places throughout our world being commonplace. There is much
denial centered around one of these faiths, which is that of Catholicism/Christianity as a whole,
which is that our faith has not been persecuted, and by many it is looked at as myth. There are
many examples of Christian persecutions in the modern world, and throughout the timeline of
Christianity. There is documented evidence that followers of Christ have been persecuted since
the very beginning starting with the Crucifixion and the brutal killings of the Apostles. Most of our faith started from Rome, but the origins deal with pagan persecution, a record of strength and survival for Christ’s believers.
With current generations there has been spikes of interest in politics with younger people with
different ideologies. This can be a good and bad thing, depending on morality. Many political
issues are introduced in younger ages, mostly in grade school. This continues on even though
college level, not all of these concepts being based around a solid religious moral ground. One
of the big issues surrounding politics today is the worship of political concepts, dictators and
figures, which I can call “Idol-ology”. One of these “Concepts” or political views that is dangerous
to the Church is Communism, and Communism happens to be one of history's biggest
persecutors for many different people. There has been a rise of interest with this position and
spectrum, which before in America was not seen in years. Throughout history, there have been
many “Red Scares” even in America. One of the biggest opponents of America were the
countries that practiced Communist ideas, such as the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cuba, and even
today with China and their Communist Party. With the Cold War, The United States detested
The Soviet Union due to spying and gaining information on Nuclear Weapons and Other
Technology which could put us in grave danger. There are many examples on why this is, but
the Communists are responsible for a blanket of death.
Red Scares have existed, but this is due to the amount of Red Terrors, and one of their biggest
death tolls is against Christian Populations. For the Bolsheviks in the First Red Terror, Clergy
were a target. This is because Communist Ideas do not center around religion, and Karl Marx
who wrote the Communist Manifesto made this simple by saying “Religion is the opium of the
people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of
our soulless conditions”. This is a negative way of viewing religion in general, and it can be
interpreted in many ways, but he saw religion as overall something that was controlling the
people, yet Communists again and again had used people as a tool until skin and bone. Marx
saw religion as harmful to his goals and concepts of work, in which, Those who would follow
and believe his work would persecute the masses, which ended up happening in multiple
forms.
Due to Leninist/Marxist Atheistic views, in the span of seven years, (1921-1928) thousands of
Christian Clergy were victims of execution and persecution, as well as another 20+ Bishops of
Orthodoxy being murdered. The Cathedral of Christ the savior was destroyed, which was built
in 1812 and took many years to complete. Once destroyed it was meant to be a political
convention center, which proves their worship of politics. In the late 1920’s, even another
Cathedral (Saint Volodymyrs) was converted into an Anti Religious museum, of which there
were 30 of these museums in the Soviet Union. This was part of an anti religious campaign,
primarily against The Christian People, but even other places of worship and faiths were raided.
In 1922, one of the main courses of action was to steal the valuables of the Churches, such as
Jewelry, Churchware, or anything made of precious materials. These situations created brave
Martyrs in the faith, with defensive force against Red Army soldiers. In the city of Shuya, such a case happened where the Red Army had killed Clergy in cold blood. This controversy caused
more soviets to become enraged and kill even more clergymen.
Many of these Soviet Individuals who practiced in the persecution of the religious were
drowned in propaganda, which newspapers such as “Bezbozhnik” meaning “The Godless
One”, would have horrendous and blasphemous concepts and depictions. Some of these were
satirical magazines that made religion look like a subject of humor, which were made by a
group called the League of Militant Atheists. They were made of Three Million volunteer’s, and
one of their sayings was “The Fight against religion is the fight for socialism”. Some of the
depictions are Industrial Workers are dumping Christ in the trash, Abrahamic Gods being
smashed by Communist Symbols, A Priest being ran over by a tractor, as well as stereotypical
depictions of all other faiths. The League of Militant Atheists were active participants of the
killings and persecution of the Anti Religious campaigns, such as making it priority to go in
Christian Homes and destroy icons, Mass Arrests of Believers and sendings to Gulags, this
aiding the Soviet Government in mass genocide. The genocides responsible of the Soviet
Union, especially Communism as a whole, are statistically and estimated in the numbers of
Hundreds of Millions. Practitioners of Communist ideology have committed very similar
atrocities and genocides, such as the Red Terror in Spain. Violence against the church
escalated in 1936, in which thousands of priests were killed. Statues were also destroyed,
churches were burned, as well as any Catholic religious buildings such as schools and
monasteries. Republican Army members had posed in photographs with the mummified
corpses of Nuns and Clergy.
In conclusion, the voices of those persecuted by The Red Terrors will never be forgotten if we
continue to tell the tale, and not let the lies of Communism spread. With these brief examples,
we must recognize the signs of persecution and confront them, and stand up for our faith when
the going gets tough. Our faith is not for the weak, and we have always been strong and
survived our persecutors and always will. Lenin did say that “The goal for Socialism is
Communism”, socialism is the roots of Communism. The beginning ideas of Communism are a
true enemy of our faith, and it starts with The Communist Manifesto. We shall not lose hope,
even through the hidden history, The gates of hell shall not prevail.