its adherence to the ideals which inspired and created this great democracy. In the final analysis, our own freedom and the freedom of our children and grandchildren may depend on our position of strength because to this day none of the Soviet leaders have disclaimed Nikita Khrushchev's ominous threat, "We will bury you.' My husband will now outline in brief some considerations for future policy toward the Communist world. STATEMENT OF REV. BLAHOSLAV HRUBY Reverend HRUBY. Mr. Chairman, because of lack of time, I will give you a summary of my summary and just raise a few points. Whatever the Soviet-orchestrated propaganda says about religious freedom in the U.S.S.R. and its satellites, the fact remains that the Communist parties in those countries continue to pursue their goal of complete eradication of organized religion from the life of their nations. In recent years they have been implementing this policy through infiltration, manipulation and total control of churches from the top leadership to local congregation. Though the implementation of this policy differs in every Communist country due to particular religious, historical, political, geographical, and other reasons, its main thrust is identical. It seems to us that V. Furov's secret report about almost complete control and manipulation of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R., written exclusively for the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, should serve as one of the basic documents in any analysis and evaluation of the religious situation behind the Iron Curtain. We are quite proud that we were the first to translate this report into English, and in case you are not familiar with it, I'll be glad to leave it here because it's a basic document. Mr. BONKER. The subcommittee would like to have that.1 Reverend HRUBY. As an important sequence to the Furov report, we published an excellent study "The Limit of Religious Freedom in the U.S.S.R.," by Prof. Giovanni Codevilla of Italy. In his penetrating analysis of the Soviet Constitution and law on religion, he demonstrates that the Soviet legislation * denies the principle of freedom and autonomy of churches, allows state interference into the life of religious communities, thus damaging the hierarchical structure of churches, forbids religious associations to carry out every kind of activity but the celebration of religious ritual, i.e., forbids the teaching of religion and cultural, educational and missionary activity. Reading of Codevilla's articles and Furov's secret report should dissipate any illusions about religious freedom in the Soviet Union. The increasing religious oppression and violation of human rights in the U.S.S.R. and other Communist countries represents one of the most pressing challenges to all religious communities and to all people who are concerned about the survival of a free society. Unfortunately, this challenge does not seem to receive a 1 The information is available from: Religion in Communist Dominated Areas, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y. 10027. It is also on file with the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations. proper response. What are the reasons of this failure? Let us attempt to identify four of them. First, there is a tendency toward a selectivity of protest in which religious oppression and violation of human rights in Communist countries do not receive adequate attention. Some people believe that such problems should be approached quietly and diplomatically in order not to hurt détente and the dialog between the West and East. Sometimes this selectivity becomes absurd when, for example, some Western churchmen agree with their Soviet counterparts that the Soviet Union had not invaded Afghanistan but brought fraternal aid to that unfortunate country. Second, the Christian-Marxist dialog, or a dialog between the people of the United States and U.S.S.R., have recently become a fashion. The main problem with these dialogs is the fact that they often become monolog skillfully used by Communist propagandists to attack the policies of the United States and the West and to approve the Soviet line. We have witnessed again and again such "dialogs" turned into monologs because the participants from the United States and Western countries failed to challenge the misrepresentations and attacks of the spokesmen from the U.S.S.R. and Soviet satellites. Exchange of visits and dialogs between the people of the United States and U.S.S.R. will be of little or no value unless they are based on genuine sharing of views and opinions and unless any biased statements made on such occasions are challenged. The hosts of such exchanges and dialogs should strictly adhere to such procedures. Third, at present considerable discussions are going on whether sanctions against Communist and other totalitarian states guilty of aggression and violation of human rights are an appropriate step toward the solution of this serious problem. Should the United States and other NATO nations sell grain and high technology and continue cultural and scientific exchanges while the Soviet Union is engaged in the brutal occupation of Afghanistan and responsible to a great extent for the martial law and suppression of basic freedoms and human rights under the military dictatorship in Poland? We believe that this is the least the United States can do to live up to its adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Final Act. Any laxity regarding these serious matters would seriously damage the credibility of the United States and undermine the morale of all religious, political, and national dissidents behind the Iron Curtain who are our best allies. It is unfortunate that the NATO nations are not united on this vital issue while the Soviet bloc under Moscow's tutelage represents a united front. There certainly is a most urgent need for renewed strong unity of all free nations in defense of freedom and human rights. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that the U.S. Congress continue to be very actively involved in defense of victims of religious persecution and violation of human rights. Any resolutions and bills passed by the U.S. Congress to alleviate the suffering of these courageous people are not only the finest expression of American humaneness and magnanimity but also a vital moral boost to all captive nations and to all those who fight and suffer for their and our freedom. Fourth, and last, it seems to us that every genuine movement against nuclear arms and for disarmament and peacemaking must include an urgent appeal for defense of freedom and human rights. In some instances, however, peacemaking has become appeasement-making because of its naive approach to the national and international affairs in general, and to the United States-U.S.S.R. relations in particular. Appeasement brings war and not peace, as the world had learned after Munich 1938 when Czechoslovakia was betrayed so that "peace in our time" be preserved. It did not last a year. Peacemaking without vigorous defense of freedom and reliable security safeguards will not make this world a better and safer place to live in, nor will it bring a lasting peace. We must not surrender to the spirit of appeasement but fight for peace with freedom and justice for all, so help us God! Thank you very much. [Mr. and Mrs. Hruby's prepared statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF BLAHOSLAV AND OLGA S. HRUBY, EDITORS OF RCDA-RELIGION IN COMMUNIST-DOMINATED AREAS, AND DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH CENTER FOR RELIGION AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN CLOSED SOCIETIES, LTD. Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the House Subcommittee on Human It is a great privilege and an unusual honor for us to testify on religious oppression in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries in Europe. We consider it most significant and very encouraging that U.S. Congress continues to be deeply con.erned about violations of human rights because many people in the Free World seem to be losing interest in the tragic situation of their fellowmen suffering under Communism for their faith in God and for their political views. We are therefore very grateful to you for keeping this urgent problem before the eyes of the American and world public. There can be no genuine peace in Europe and in the world so long as the people in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries are harassed and persecuted because of their religious beliefs, their political opinions or their desire to emigrate. We both feel very strongly about the blessings of freedom because we had witnessed the trauma of its suppression by the Nazis and by the Communists not only as onlookers but as active participants in the underground struggle against oppressors of religious, political and national freedom. In that struggle we have lost many good friends and associates. We are grateful for finding freedom in this great country. Our tragic experience from the fight against Naziism and Communism motivated us to help those who still suffer under Communist domination. Over the past twenty years we have been publishing RCDA-RELIGION IN COMMUNIST DOMINATED AREAS which offers to readers in more than 80 countries authentic information about the situation of human rights and religious freedom. Communist dominated areas are reaching beyond the borders of the USSR, China and East Europe to Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. Today we shall limit our observation to the Soviet Union and its European satellites, countries and nations divergent in terms of history, economy, religious and political traditions, but held together by force and terror, justified by Communism and Marxism, the only scientific ideology which excludes any other conviction or way of thinking. More than 100 years ago Karl Marx, an educated German, a social malcontent and chronic parasite, came to the conclusion that society must be drastically transformed; first, it must be destroyed and then rebuilt on new foundations. The utopia thus created would offer people equality and free them from exploitation and alienation. Its initial period, socialism, would eventually evolve into communism where the state and most of institutions developed over centuries would become obsolete and therefore, they would wither away spontaneously, among them also religion, which is, according to the gospel of Marx, an opiate of the people and a by-product of social injustice, exploitation and alienation. Even at that time, communis in was not an original idea. Various societies, mostly religious ones, had tried communism before, and it never worked over an extended period simply because communism goes against human nature and against nature in general. If implemented, it would mean entropy, total stagnation and sterility. Unfortunately, this axiom and previous experience failed to prevent the application of Marx' idea in practice. The boldest experiment was introduced in the USSR after the fall of the Romanov monarchy and of the Kerensky regime which succeeded it. It was the first government that promised to introduce democracy in Russia. The Bolshevik Revolution prevented it and instead of democracy, it installed dictatorship of the proletariate. Rather than promoting equality, social justice, communism and other promises of Marxism, the Communist system set out to liquidate all opposition, including religious, without waiting for its spontaneous withering away. The Soviets proceeded with brutality comparable to that of Emperor Nero. Their example was later emulated by other offshoots, by Enver Hodzha's Albania, Pol Pot's Campuchea and to a considerable degree, by Mao's Cultural Revolution in China. Nevertheless, even this adversity failed to crush religion in Communist countries for long. Some vestiges of it always survive and revive. When we try to describe oppression of religion in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in general terms, we must divide those countries into several categories because the scope and intensity of violations of religious freedom and human rights do not apply to all of them equally. 1. Albania holds the first place because its Communist government succeeded in destroying all organized religion by the most brutal means. It is extremely difficult to obtain authentic data on religious life in that country, however, one thing seems clear: the Communist despots were able to destroy organized religion but they did not succeed in eradicating it in human hearts. Thus, despite the Communist-imposed compulsory atheism, God is not dead in Albania. 2. Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvi, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Rumania recognize organized religion but hold it under tight control. Religious communities in those countries are being manipulated by Communist parties through Offices for Church Affairs in order to serve political propaganda of their respective states. A secret report on the Russian Orthodox Church, prepared for the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR by Vasily Furov, vice chairman of the Council on Religious Affairs, makes it clear beyond any doubt that the Communist Party holds complete control of the Russian Orthodox Church, from the Patriarch down to the local priest and local church. This very revealing document had been smuggled out from the USSR to the West. We were the first to translate it into English and publish it in our quarterly, RCDA-RELIGION IN COMMUNIST DOMINATED AREAS. What the Furov report discloses about the manipulation of the Russian Orthodox Church applies to other registered (state-recognized) churches in the USSR as well. Similar secret reports concerning total control and infiltration of churches by Communist parties are known to exist in other countries in the Soviet orbit. The current issue of RCDA presents a top secret guideline issued by the Ethiopian Ministry of Information outlining a plan for liquidation of Christianity and Islam 2 in that country. It offers proof that all Communist regimes follow the Soviet line aimed at complete eradication of all organized religions. In public, however, Soviet propaganda repeats again and again that the Constitution of the USSR guarantees full freedom of religious conviction to every citizen. This is not true. Soviet law tolerates religious worship but confines it in church buildings, synagogues and mosques. It forbids religious education of children, religious charity, Sunday school, religious association for children, teenagers, women and other such groups, dissemination of religious materials, etc. While the USSR Constitution guarantees the right of atheistic propaganda, it does not make any provision for evangelization. In fact, "religious propaganda" is forbidden. The definition of that term depends on arbitrary interpretation by any Soviet bureaucrat. Thus, religious propaganda usually includes Holy Scriptures, prayer books, hymnals and reproductions of religious painting. It should be mentioned here that the Soviets are especially paranoid about Jewish "religious propaganda" by which they understand mainly materials pertaining to the study of Hebrew and Jewish history and tradition. With considerable diligence police agents spy on Jews who meet for study or discussion of their heritage. Raids of their meetings are frequent. All "Zionist" materials are confiscated, whether they are copies of Old Testament, Talmud or grammar books of the Hebrew language. The Soviets, however, can find some use for religious bodies, particularly in international movements, such as various "peace" conferences (the most recent was the World Conference: Religious Workers for Saving the Sacred Gift of Life from Nuclear Catastrophe, held in Moscow on May 10-14, 1982). The truth is that the churches recognized by the Soviet state are not free; they are infiltrated, totally controlled and manipulated by the Communist Party. Clergymen and laymen who oppose Communist control of their churches are persecuted. A member of the Christian Committee for Defense of Believers' Rights, Father Gleb Yakunin, one of the most prominent Orthodox fighters for religious freedom, addressed a protest against discrimination and persecution |