Baltimore-i Értesítő, 1977 (13. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-10-01 / 10. szám
is merely red propaganda. Look behind the Communist propaganda and you will find that official Communist doctrine states: “It is necessary to create the impression that communism is not against religion, but only against capitalism of the hierarchy.” This reference to capitalism is a trick — merely double-talk. It is prejudicial phrase for the wealth of the churches. The Communists know how to color the picture. The fact is that although Russia is essentially a religious nation and the Russian people are not atheists, every Communist party member any place in the world is an atheist. By Communist law he or she must be. Communism hits a first and fundamental influence: marriage. It’s simply a matter of cold statistics. The man or woman merely registers at ZAGS, the Communist Bureau of Vital Statistics, as married. Divorce also starts at ZAGS. it means paying about $5 for the first divorce, $15 for the second, $30 for the third, etc. In Moscow about 60 native Russian Orthodox Catholic churches are open. But every block has a Communist party block warden. He earns his party headquarters standing by making regular reports on who does what in his area. Your job may depend on these reports, your vacation, your wife’s ability to do anything for any one, your children's book-allotment at school, etc. A block warden at the church’s door records those who do not — not — attend, and if a Russian is a Communist party member the state prohibits attendance. I well remember a Communist youth in Prague saying to me: "My grandfather believed in God; my father believed a little; 1 don’t believe at all.” Innocent Western visitors sometimes observe that the churches are full. This is because so many are shut. With the erosion of the clergy there are too few churches. Only one Protestant church is left in Moscow — a Baptist Church. Only one Roman Catholic Church remains open: The French Church of St. Louis. The French priest still conducts his service but the Kremlin forbids him to give his sermons in Russian. And the Kremlin prohibits the only other Catholic priest from holding any services at all. Ordinarily, the churches are not shut or tom down. Instead, they are used as museums or are used insolently as Communist Youth recreation centers. Despoiling taunts the evidences of religion. Pictures of Marx and Lenin are hung rakishly on crucifixes, beer kegs are placed on altars and Communists slogans splashed in Red paint on the walls sneer at God. Hitler had less than seven short years to condition the German youth. In' the Soviet, no living soul under 60 years of age — three generations — has ever known anything but Communist rule. Communists programs emphasize youth, their throat-hold on the future. The Kremlin programs force religion to coast out as the new youth comes along. By Communist design, the age level of those who attend church gets older and older. Communists attempt to capture the youth, of course, this is the Red target No. 1, always and anywhere. Yugoslavia: A Mixed Bag Yugoslav President Tito has visited Peking. Red China Communist party chairman Hua Kou-feng wants Tito to show him how he does it in Yugoslavia. This is iike sailing aboard the "Titanic.” China is still by no means a superpower. Its mechanization is rudimentary. But China has moved into the position it politically covets —the leader of the Third World of developing nations. And that is Tito’s sworn ambition. Yugoslavia has only 21 million population. China has more than 800 million. Yugoslavia is the largest country in the Balkans, larger than New York State and Pennsylvania combined, but its population is a highly combustible mixture. There are 8.6 million Serbs, who are the overwhelming majority. There are 4.7 million Croats (Tito is a Croat), 1.8 million Slovenes, 1.1. million Macedonians and 560,000 Montenegrins — plus some three million Albanians, Hungarians, Turks and other ethnic groups. As our British friends would say, "It’s a very mixed bag." Red China in not. In fact, I heard Tito state in Washington: ‘T have one state that uses two alphabets (Latin and Slav), speaks three languages (Serb, Croat and Slavic-Mace- donian), four religions (Catholic, Islamic, Judaism and Orthodox Russian) and seven frontiers." Tito divided Yugoslavia into six "independent republics.” This gave Tito’s followers a marvelous opportunity to create an astounding amount of paperwork and, like Tito himself, thrive on the public payroll. Serbs are almost nine million of the population — more than 40 per cent. Yet Tito has submerged them. To these abused many million Serbs, Tito is the most hated man in Yugoslavia. Tito’s real name is. of course, Josip Broz. He was on the Communist side in Spain’s 1936 Civil War and the Reds gave him the underground alias "Tito.” He made a reputation abroad as a machine gunner. Hokus, hokey, hokum. I interviewed Tito at that time and he was doing his machine gunning from a very plush paneled suite atop Madrid’s I.T. Previous to my encounter with Tito in Madrid, the Soviet KGB secret police had transported him from Yugoslavia to Moscow. He stayed there a long time. The KG3 taught Tito urban guerrilla tactics, use of explosives, etc. Tito returned from the Soviet Union under disguise. The KGB gave him the name of Spiridon Mehas and a false Yugoslav passport that stated it was issued in Canada. Then in World War II, the British Foreign Office, led by Ivors A. Kirkpatrick, forcefully counseled Prime Minister Winston to support brave anti-Communist Gen. Draza Mihajlovic (Tito’s main opponent) and his fiery band of Yugoslav patriots called Tchetnitsi in Yugoslavia. Instead Churchill listened to his sob Randolph Churchill and an abscure young British Army captain named Fitzroy McLean who had parachuted into Yugoslavia. Unquestionably, this was under pressure from Stalin. Tito entered Triste without firing a shot. And, postwar, preposterously put Mihajlovic on trial and executed him — fearing a rival. Tito is now 85. He speaks in a gutters! voice (a dialectical Serbo-Croatian) and has complained that “the average Yugoslav family now spends nearly as much on alcohol as on food. More than $280 million — 55 per cent —- of all family spending goes for alcoholic drink.” Yet Tito himself lives in enormous grandeur and extravagance never before displayed by even the wildest Balkan king. He has dozens of palaces and castles — more than any potentate had and more than anyone since Louis XIV. He sometimes feeds about 1,400 guests on caviar, roast duck, suckling pig are! quail in a style that the world's most lavish rulers could hardly afford. Tito’s dissipations have brought him an enormous, balloon-like pouch. His laughter is mirthless and his sharp gray-blue eyes stare piercingly through thick bifocals. An immense diamond, bigger than a nickie, glitters on the third finger of his left hand. But Tito controls the Yugoslav army, the USAD secret police and the food supply. These are the three classic requirements for dictatorship. So does the Peking hierachy. Beyond the Third World, Tito and Red China have more in common than we may suppose. 10
