Was Stalin an atheist?
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Stalin rejected Darwin's theory
Although many blame Stalin for doing what he did because of atheism, why not blame him for his lack of education or rejection of Darwin's theory of evolution?. In fact, most 20th century proponents of communism rejected Darwinian evolution and believed it was biased in favor of The Bourgeois and Capitalism. For them Darwinism was eugenics, Nazism and capitalism. They went on to denounce genetics and Darwinism together as "the whore of capitalism" (продажная девка капитализма) and tried to supress further research into it. They have been convinced by Trofim Lysenko, that both Darwinian evolution, and the very idea of Mendelian genetics ran counter to party doctrine. In short Stalin oppossed Darwin's theory in favor of Trofim Lysenko's Lamarckianism
Stalin was an atheist?
"The Pope? How many divisions has he got?" — Josef Stalin, to French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval, in reply to a suggestion that the Soviet Union should encourage Catholicism in order to propitiate the Pope, in Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 1, "The Gathering Storm," ch. 8, (1948), said, 13 May 1935, quoted from, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
Stalin is quoted as saying "You know, they are fooling us, there is no God...all this talk about God is sheer nonsense" in E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1940
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists#Politics_and_law says that stalin is an atheist and uses my above quote to prove it
There is a Soviet poster ridiculing Judaism—as printed in the official government journal Atheist
“Communism begins where atheism begins…” (Karl Marx)
- The above quote is taken out of context. The actual quote is: "Communism begins where atheism begins, but atheism is at the outset still far from being communism; indeed it is still for the most part an abstraction."
“The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion” (Karl Marx)
“I wish to avenge myself against the One who rules above.” (Karl Marx)
“The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain, till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed. See this sword? The prince of darkness sold it to me.” (Karl Marx)
“With disdain I will throw my gauntlet full in the fact of the world and see the collapse of this pygmy giant. Then will I wander god-like and victorious through the ruins of the world. And giving my words an active force, I will feel equal to the Creator.” (Karl Marx)
“Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of Communism.” (attributed to Vladimir I. Lenin)
“Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism.” (V.I. Lenin)
“There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.” (V.I. Lenin)
“We do not fight against believers and not even clergymen. WE FIGHT AGAINST GOD to snatch believers from Him.” (Vechernaia Moskva, a Soviet newspaper)
“Let us drive out the Capitalists from the earth, and God from Heaven!” (early Soviet slogan)
The official journal of the Soviet Academy of Pedagogical Sciences published a government directive Atheistic Education in the School as a resource on how to separate God from human society. The opening paragraph is revealing: “The Soviet school, as an instrument for the Communist education of the rising generation, can, as a matter of principle, take up no other attitude towards religion than one of irreconcilable opposition; for Communist education has as its philosophical basis Marxism, and Marxism is irreconcilably hostile to religion. ‘Marxism is materialism,’ says V. I. Lenin; ‘as such, it is as relentlessly hostile to religion as the materialism of the Encyclopedaists of the eighteenth century or the materialism of Feuerbach.’” Another excerpt reads: “‘Religion’,” Marx said, “is nourished not on heaven but on earth, and with the annihilation of that perverted reality, of which capitalism is the theory, religion will perish of its own accord.’”
“The World has never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized and tenaciously malevolent as that preached by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin and at the heart of their psychology, HATRED OF GOD is the principle driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot. To achieve its diabolical ends, Communism needs to control a population devoid of religious and national feeling, and this entails a destruction of faith and nationhood. Communists proclaim both of these objectives openly, and just as openly put them into practice.” (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
There is a graphic entitled “On Press Day: Long Live the Bolshevik Godless Press!” which depicts the cover of a Soviet magazine in which propagandists drop newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets from an airplane… the wings of the plane are painted with the word “atheists.” From the article: “Ko dniu pechati,” by D. Mel’nikov, in the September 1931 issue of Bezbozhnik u stanka (The Godless at the Workbench).
Argument: Stalin had faith, but not religion
Some evidence suggests Stalin, although not following a particular religion, may have been spiritual (had personal faith, but did not practice a religion).
English historian Simon Sebag Montefiore studied Stalin’s hobbies and personal library, what Stalin liked to read, what kind of marks he left in his books. He found that Stalin liked to quote long quotes from the Bible. Stalin left such mark about God in the book by Anatole France "Last pages. Dialogues under a rose. About God": "Don‘t know traces, don‘t see. There is no Him for them." ("Следов не знают, не видят. Его для них нет."). It seems that Stalin thought he knew God’s traces and saw God, not like others.
Stalin "denied categorically to prescribe atheistic literature to his personal library, fastidiously calling it ""antireligious waste-paper (junk)"". ("Secret life of Stalin : By materials of his books and archive : According to Stalinism" by Ilizarov.B.S. 2004)
Stalin wrote poems in Georgian language. They are so good that were being published in local magazines. Few fragments sounds so (translation from Georgian to Russian language by L.Kotiukov (Л. Котюков), Newspaper "Duel" N10(101)1999-03-09. "Poet Josef Dzhugashvili" (Газета "Дуель", "Поет Иосиф Джугашвили" N 10(101) 1999-03-09. Б.М. Гунько)):
(...) In his burden and song like the beam of the Sun, lived great truth – DIVINE dream.
(...) But people who forgot GOD, with darkness in their hearts, instead of wine served poison to him in the cup.
And told to him: "Damn you! Drink this cup to the bottom!... And your song is alien for us, and we don’t need your truth!"
The above poem is probably a reference to Socrates who history says was made to drink poison from a cup because he "introduced a foreign god into the city gods." "More specifically, Socrates’ accusers cited two ‘impious’ acts: ‘failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges’ and ‘introducing new deities.’ as noted in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates. Socrates was not an atheist.
Refrences
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