About the attitude towards religion in the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionBefore the funeral, Comrades Budyonny, Shchadenko, and Kivgella consulted with me about the funeral arrangements, specifically on the following question: "Many Cavalry soldiers," said Semyon Mikhailovich, "have expressed a desire for priests to attend the funeral. What should we do? Perhaps we should agree to this?" After some thought, I said that we could take this step. After consulting with Comrade Sergushev, we gave the provincial party committee's consent. And here we stand on one side of the mass grave - all representatives of the party, Soviet organizations, workers and communists and the command of the cavalry corps, the Red Army soldiers and political workers, and on the other side of the mass grave stand priests and deacons. We deliver our Bolshevik funeral speeches, including Kaganovich and Budyonny, and the priests and deacons perform their religious rites and prayers. I confess, for the first time in my life, and probably not only me, I had to participate in such a combination. Later, we were reported that this evoked a very positive response among the Cavalry Army soldiers. "Look," many said, "the Communist-Bolshevik Party is doing as Lenin tells them: since there were believers among the dead, it means they must be honored in a religious manner. The Voronezh Bolsheviks and our command did just that. This means that all those whisperers are lying about the Communists forcing people to be atheists." Agitation against God and religion is one thing, but in life, let everyone understand it as they wish. No one is forcibly imposing anything, and priests are not arrested; they were even buried together." In short, this fact alone was one of the revealing aspects of the enemy's provocations.
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7) The Provincial Committee hereby informs representatives of the Orthodox and religious cult that it is permitted to conduct religious services with the ringing of bells in a completely free manner.
8) All of the above must be strictly and consistently implemented and enforced. Violations or failures to comply will be punished under martial law.
Chairman L.M. Kaganovich. Secretary P. Bulargin.”
I must note that there was some debate regarding point 7 (regarding religious services, especially with bell ringing); some comrades objected, or at least had doubts. Noya and Comrade Sergushev argued with the comrades that it was necessary to counter the counterrevolutionary propaganda that had unfolded, claiming that the Bolsheviks were planning to close all churches, confiscate and melt down bells, arrest and shoot the clergy, and so on. With this point in the order of the Provincial Military Revolutionary Committee, we dealt a blow to counterrevolutionary propaganda and strengthened our position among the wavering elements of the workers. After our clarifications, the Provincial Committee unanimously adopted this point.
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The meeting was in the garden, so it turned out that during the second half of my report, the gathering began to gradually disperse; that is, some began to slowly get up and leave. Naturally, I was perplexed, not understanding what was going on. The meeting leaders were also very confused, and they sheepishly told me, "The thing is, the sun was just setting, and some of the believers went to pray to Allah, after which they'll return immediately, but we'll give them a proper talk." I calmed them down, suggested calling a break, and during the break I told them how Lenin had instructed us to take into account even prejudices, including religious ones, overcoming them not by command and coercion, but by deep, long-term ideological propaganda work among the masses, especially among those communists and their sympathizers who still retained the threads that connect faith in Allah with faith in communist ideas.
Kaganovich L.M. Memorial Notes
https://archive.org/details/kaganovich-l-m-memorial-notes#
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