ANEW campaign to harass churches, including the establishment of atheist "seminaries", has started in Russia, says a Congressional report released in Washington on Tuesday.
The ultimate aim is to substitute a doctrine of "scientific atheism" for all religious beliefs. and a battery of propaganda devices has been created to supplement, anti-religion laws already in effect.
('hairs of scientific atheism have been set up at leading universities and "clubs for young atheists" have been started.
1 he report was prepared by the 1.ihrary of Congress for the Senate Internal Security Committee as the first of a series on Church-State relations in Communist countries, In an introduction, Senator Thomas Dodd says that the Russian Constitution's theoretical guarantee of religious freedom is nullified in practice by a whole series of concrete countermeasures, including the wholesale confiscation of Church property, the allpervasive State supervision of residual religious activities and the imprisonment of recalcitrant clergymen.
That religion has survived so many years of harassment and persecution in the Soviet Union and in other Communist countries is a testimony to the power of faith." he says.—B.U.P.