Gott unter Bolschewisten (God amongst Bolchevists)
NP: NP, ND (ca 1941-1942). First edition. Softcover. Quarto. Unpaginated. [36]pp. Original illustrated wrappers. This scarce anti soviet pamphlet published by the Nazis in the months following their invasion of Russia, documents the two anti-religious campaigns throughout the USSR (1921-1928, and 1928-1941). State atheism in the Soviet Union was known as gosateizm, and was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. As the founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, put it: "Religion is the opium of the people." This saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class. Marxist-Leninist atheism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and elimination of religion. Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed. Many more were persecuted. This booklet is profusely illustrated throughout with numerous b/w photographic reproductions of desecrated churches and cathedrals, and the last pages contain photographs showing the reopening of churches in German-occupied Ukraine, and the first service given in the cathedral of Smolensk after "20 years of Soviet rule." Front wrap detached but present. Wrappers rubbed along edges, with sporadic and tiny chipping. Pages slightly age-toned throughout. Text in German. Wrappers in overall fair, interior in good+ to very good condition. g- to g. Item #37981
Price: $450.00