too sweeping, though all agree it is a true
statement if organised religion alone is
brought within the scope of its condemnation.
To those who still adhere to the orthodox
Church, the statement is of course rank blasphemy.
One of my chief desires in going to Russia was to discover how much truth there was in the statements that the Bolsheviks had abolished the Church and destroyed religion. I tried to see the Patriarch Tikon, head of the Russian Church, as I hoped to get a message over his own signature for the Archbishop of Canterbury and other dignatories of religion in this country, but His Eminence refused to see me, pleading he was living under domestic arrest.
I called at his house and could find no sign of imprisonment, no soldiers or police, and afterwards discovered that domestic arrest means that the Patriarch must give the Soviet authorities notice whenever he attends a conference or addresses public meetings. He is perfectly free to hold services and preach sermons, as often as he desires. The limitation on his activities re meetings is due to the fact, which is beyond disproof, that some bishops and priests have used their high office to undermine the authority of the Government. The secretary of the Patriarch was good enough to give me an introduction to a leading priest in
