136 THE CLASS STRUGGLE 137 CHURCH AND SCHOOL IN THE SOVIET insolvency. But the fact is that the bourgeois State wholeheartedly places all of its means at the disposition of its church hierarchy, which in turn with ardent zeal supports the bourgeois power. Under the Czar the Russian priests not only deceived the people, but they even made use of the confessional for spying out the very thoughts that were hostile to the government: they used their mysteries for purposes of observation. And the government not only supported them, but persecuted with jails, deportation and all other possible means all so called, defamers of the Orthodox Church.
Why CHURCH AND STATE Must Be SEPARATED From the above the program of the Communists with regard to Church and State is clear. We must fight the Church, not with force, but with conviction. The Church must be separated from the State. This means, the priests may continue to exist but let them be supported by those who wish to purchase their poison, or who have some other interest in their continued existence. Another poison of this type is opium. Those who have smoked it behold all sorts of lovely visions, are at once transported to Paradise. But the use of opium later results in a complete undermining of the health, and the user gradually becomes a complete idiot.
It is similar with religion. There are persons who like to smoke opium. But it would be criminal for the State, at its expense, i, e. at the expense of the entire population, to maintain dens for the smoking of opium and to hire special persons to minister to the needs of the frequenters of these places. We must therefore proceed with the Church as follows (in fact, we have already done it. we must deprive the priests, hierarchs, metropolitans, patriarchs, abbots, and all the rest of the crowd, of all support from the government; let the true believers, if they like, feed them on sturgeon and salmon, of which the holy fathers are such devoted devourers.
RELIGION PRIVATE MATTER On the other hand, we must guarantee freedom of belief.
There necessarily follows the rule: Religion is a private affair.
This does not in any sense mean that we must cease our struggle against the Church by conviction. It simply means that the State must not support any church organization.
The program of the Bolshevik Communists on this point is already carried out in Russia. The priests of all sects have been deprived of all state assistance. Of course they nearly burst with rage at this affront and roundly cursed the present power, that is, the power of the workers, and read all of the Communists out of the Church. Think of this: under the Czar they knew very well the text. There is no power but it descends from God, as well as the injunction: Render obedience to all the powers that be. They had no objection to sprinkling the hangman with holy water. But why did they forget these texts as soon as the workers came into power? Or is it possible that the power of God is not extended also to Communists? What is the matter? The answer is very simple: The Soviet Government is the first government in Russia that hit the priests in the pocket. And this is the most sensitive spot a priest has. The priests are now in the camp of the oppressed bourgeoisie. They are working below ground and above against the working class. But the times are bad, and the great masses of the workers no longer fall for the bait as they used to. That is the great educative accomplishment of the revolution. It liberates from economic slavery. But it also liberates from spiritual slavery.
THE SCHOOLS Must BE AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE POOREST There is another important question in connection with the spiritual enlightenment of the masses. This is the school question.
Under the domination of the bourgeoisie, the school served the cause of the rearing of the masses in the sense of an obedience to the bourgeoisie, rather than of real instruction. All the textbooks, all the teaching implements were permeated with the odor of slavery. Particularly the history textbooks: more lies than facts narrate the glorious deeds of the Czars and of other crowned rascals. And then: the priests played an important part in the schools. Everything worked in one direction: to prepare the child in such a manner as to make of him an obedient not citizen, but subject, a slave, capable, if necessary, to kill his fellows if they should be so bold as to rise against the power of capital.
The schools themselves were divided into classes, some for those of black blood, the rest for those of blue blood. The gymnasiums and universities were for those of blue blood. Here the offspring of the bourgeoisie were taught all the sciences in order that they might govern and subjugate those of black blood. For those of black blood there were the lower schools. Here the priests held more undisputed sway than elsewhere. The task of these schools, which imparted very little knowledge, but handed out an uncommon mass of priestly lies, was to prepare the people who were to suffer, to obey, and to subordinate themselves to those of blue blood without protest. Entrance into the middle schools, and more particularly to the higher institutions of learning (universities, engineering schools, and all similar institutions) was definitely out of the question for those of the plain people. In this