The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

Based on this economic power, the church exerted its ideological power. It goes without saying that all schools
were under the immediate control of the church. Article I of the Constitution stated, "The Tsar of all the Russians
is the autonomous and absolute monarch, and God himself orders voluntary submission to his reign." We know
what is represented by "God," on what infantile emotions such presumptions of power are based. In Germany,
Hitler reorganized the church in the same manner: he extended its power and invested it with the evil right of
preparing the children's minds for the reception of reactionary ideologies. "Moral betterment" is a frontline
position of the "God-[149]sent" Hitler. But to return to Tsarist Russia. In the religious seminaries and academies,
there were special professorial chairs for the fight against the revolutionary movement. On January 9, 1905, the
priests published a proclamation in which they accused the revolting workers of being bribed by the Japanese.
The February revolution of 1917 brought only minor changes. All churches were put on an equal basis. But the
long-expected separation of church and state failed to materialize. In a church council of October 1917 the
Bolshevists were excommunicated, and the patriarch Tikhon declared war on them.
On January 21, 1918, the Soviet Government issued a decree as follows:
With regard to religion, the Russian Communist Party is not content with the separation of the church from state and schools. This
is a measure which is contained also in the programs of bourgeois democracies, although it has never been consistently put into
practice, due to the numerous connections between capital and religious propaganda.
The Russian Communist Party is convinced that only the full development of social and economic consciousness in the masses will
result in a decline of religious prejudices. The Party intends to eliminate all the connections between the exploiting classes and the
organization of religious propaganda: it organizes a comprehensive scientific anti-religious propaganda and thus contributes in a
factual manner to the liberation of the working masses from religious prejudices. In so doing, one must carefully avoid offending the
sensibilities of religious people because this would only lead to an intensification of religious fanaticism.
In accordance with this, local ordinances which would restrict the freedom of religion or would create privileges for the members
of a certain creed, are prohibited (Paragraph 2).
Every citizen may adopt any religion or none at all. All previous legal restrictions of this freedom are annulled.
Any indication as to religious denomination, to church membership or non-membership is to be eliminated from all official
documents.
The activities of all public and social institutions will take place without any religious ceremonies (Par. 4).
[150] The free exercise of religious customs is guaranteed, provided it does not interfere with the public order and with the rights
of citizens (Par. 5).
Nobody can claim exemption from his duties as a citizen on the basis of his religious beliefs. Exceptions can be granted only by the
people's court and on the condition that one duty is replaced by another (Par. 6).
The religious oath is abolished (Par. 7).
The registers of birth, marriage and death are kept exclusively by the civil authorities (Par. 8).
The school is separated from the church.
The propagation of religious beliefs is prohibited in all public and private educational institutions with a curriculum of general
education (Par. 9).
All religious and church societies are subject to the general laws pertaining to private societies and associations. They do not enjoy
any special privileges or subsidies either from the state or from local authorities (Par. 10).
Compulsory taxation of its members by religious and church societies is inadmissible (Par. 11).
Religious and church societies enjoy no rights of private property, nor the status of legal personality (Par. 12).
Buildings and objects used for divine services are put at the disposal of religious societies free of charge, by special acts of the local
or central authorities (Par. 13).
Priests, monks and nuns enjoy neither active nor passive voting rights because they do no productive work.
As early as December 18, 1917, the keeping of the civil registers was transferred to the Soviet authorities. The
Commissariat for Justice established a division for the liquidation of church property. In the Troitskaya Lavra
monastery, for example, an academy for the electrotechnical division of the Red Army and a teacher's training
school were established. The lands of the monasteries were used for the establishment of workers' communes and
the churches converted into workers' clubs and reading rooms. Anti-religious propaganda began with the
unmasking of the fraudulent practices of the church hierarchy. The holy fountain in the Ser-[151]gius church was