The following excerpts from Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago describe just some of the ways and means through which the Russian Bolsheviks turned their nation into a communist slave state after taking power as a result of the 1917 revolution. These ways included the crushing of opposition parties, religious groups, professionals, academics, artists, etc. -- pretty much anyone who could in any way be perceived as a past, present, or future threat.
In 1921 the arrests of members of all non-Bolshevik parties was expanded and systematized. In fact, all Russia's political parties had been buried, except the victorious one. (Oh, do not dig a grave for someone else!) And so that the dissolution of these parties would be irreversible, it was necessary that their members should disintegrate and their physical bodies too.
Not one citizen of the former Russian state who had ever joined a party other than the Bolshevik Party could avoid his fate. He was condemned unless, like Maisky or Vyshinsky, he succeeded in making his way across the planks of the wreck to the Bolsheviks. [Both were former Mensheviks who managed to join the Bolsheviks.] He might not be arrested in the first group, depending on how dangerous he was believed to be, until 1922, 1927, or even 1937, but the lists were kept; his turn would and did come...
As Americans we live in a nation in which political opposition has generally been accepted, however grudgingly. We all believe we are right and our opponents are wrong. And yet, the free expression of ideas has always helped those on every side of an issue appreciate other points of view and tone down the extremes the people will wisely reject. Today we're encountering something very different, a vicious level of intolerance, one that seeks to muzzle those who don't agree with the ways of those in power. History shows us that such intolerance is never satisfied until opposing ideas are crushed into total silence.
Destruction and/or control of all religious groups. Like the official Catholic "church" in today's communist China, the Russian communists set up what they called the "Living Church" to gain control of all church apparatus, especially the prominent Russian Orthodox Church. From Solzhenitsyn (GA, p. 36-37):
...as always, in the wake of the big fish, followed shoals of smaller fry: archpriests, monks, and deacons...They also arrested those who refused to swear to support the "Living Church" "renewal" movement.
The so-called "Eastern Catholics" -- followers of Vladimir Solovyev -- were arrested and destroyed in passing...And, of course, ordinary Roman Catholics -- Polish Catholic priests, etc. -- were arrested, too, as part of the normal course of events.
However, the root destruction of religion in the country, which throughout the twenties and thirties was one of the most important goals of the GPU-NKVD [Soviet Secret Police - 1922-1943], could be realized only by mass arrests of Orthodox believers. Monks, nuns...were intensively rounded up on every hand, placed under arrest, and sent into exile [most often for slave labor in Siberian prisons and labor camps]. They arrested and sentenced active laymen...raked in ordinary believers as well, old people, and particularly women, who were the most stubborn believers of all...A person convinced that he possessed spiritual truth was required to conceal it from his own children. [To pass their faith on to their children was considered a political crime; i.e., counterrevolutionary propaganda.]
As Tanya Khodkevich wrote:
You can pray freely
But just so God alone can hear.
She received a ten-year sentence for these verses.
Anything that ran counter to the official atheism of the Soviet state was considered counterrevolutionary.
Jews were also persecuted, especially Zionists. Of course, perhaps the most famous incident was the 1952 "Doctors Case" in which Stalin arrested leading Kremlin physicians (almost all Jews) and accused them of trying to kill Soviet leaders.
Religious believers, of course, were being arrested uninterruptedly...There was the "night of struggle against religion" in Leningrad on Christmas Eve, 1929, when they arrested a large part of the religious intelligentsia...Then in February, 1932, again in Leningrad, many churches were closed simultaneously, while at the same time, large-scale arrests were made of the clergy.
Yes, indeed, religion is abhorrent to totalitarians of all stripes because it claims for God the allegiance of those who should worship only the state.
When I hear of government officials at any level trying to control religious worship in any way, or infringing on the Constitutional right of the "free exercise" of religious faith, I believe all Americans must speak up. One interesting example of anti-religious bigotry involved a member of Congress who claimed that those who were against abortion were racists, white supremacists who must be silenced. There is, of course, a strange irony here, since the nation's premier provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood, was founded by Margaret Sanger on racist principles to eliminate the undesirable races.
There are so many other instances that I expect religious persecution will continue and grow.
[Note: Vladimir Solovyev, whom Solzhenitsyn mentioned above, wrote a fascinating and remarkably prophetic book, Tale of the Anti-Christ. It's certainly worth a read. In fact, I first heard of Solovyev and this book from a talk Pope Benedict XVI gave years ago.]Persecution based on "social origin." Those descended from former noble families, or the intelligentsia, including those who simply went to universities were arrested in waves. From Solzhenitsyn (GA, p. 40-43):
And so the waves rolled on -- for "concealment of social origin" and for "former social origin." This received the widest interpretation. They arrested members of the nobility for their social origin. They arrested members of their families. Finally, unable to draw even simple distinctions, they arrested members of the "individual nobility" -- i.e., anybody who had simply graduated from a university. And once they had been arrested, there was no way back. You can't undo what has been done! The Sentinel of the Revolution never makes a mistake!
The state organs of terror called this effort "social prophylaxis" or the need to eliminate those who might resist because of their social origin. And then, throughout the twenties and thirties, historians and other scholars were arrested, and for good reason. They knew the truth, you see, and getting rid of them made the job of rewriting Russian and world history much easier. Look at our colleges and universities today, and you will find the percentage of Marxist professors significantly higher than those who claim to be conservative. Yes, our young people are receiving a Marxist-inspired education in which historical distortion has replaced truth.
The Soviets did not concern themselves with truth or with guilt or innocence. As one leader of a major slave labor project stated to one of his more educated political prisoners: "I believe that you personally were not guilty of anything. But, as an educated person, you have to understand that social prophylaxis was being widely applied." In other words, we don't care if you're innocent or guilty, the sentence is the same. Solzhenitsyn relates a typical example:
Several dozen young people got together for some kind of musical evening which had not been authorized ahead of time by the GPU. They listened to music and then drank tea. They got the money for the tea by contributing their own kopeks. It was quite clear, of course, that the music was a cover for counterrevolutionary sentiments, and that the money was being collected not for tea but to assist the dying world bourgeoisie. And they were all arrested and given three to ten years -- Anna Skripnikova getting five, while Ivan Nikolayevich Varentsov and the other organizers of the affair who refused to confess were shot!
Of course, these young people really met just to listen to music and drink tea, simply to be together and enjoy each other's company. But given their innate paranoia, the secret police always assume such meetings can only be for nefarious purposes. The arrests and executions also serve as effective warnings to others: we are watching and listening to everything.
Ask General Michael Flynn, USMC, whether as the President's prospective National Security Advisor, he could take part in a routine phone call with the Russian Ambassador and not be accused of treason.
Better be careful, folks -- well, those of you who haven't yet been canceled: Exactly what have you been saying on all those Zoom meetings?
That's enough for now. More in a future post.
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