the occasion, knowing that I was an official of the American Government, thinking that it was the last duty he could perhaps perform for Russia, to beg me to go back and tell the American people, ‘For God’s sake, send us help.’ He was speaking, gentlemen, not for himself, but for the large class of people that he represented.”20
Testimony of Mr. Theodor Kryshtofovich
“As you know, gentlemen, the Russians are a very religious people. Like here in the United States, there are very many denominations there, but most of the people belong to the Greek Church. Of course, the priests and religious people are not very pleasant to the Bolsheviki, because the Bolsheviki deny any religion or any religious sentiment. They oppose the Russian clergy and the Russian clergy oppose the Bolsheviki, and the Russian priests are treated very badly. For instance, they are set to do streetwork, cleaning the streets, paving streets, digging ditches, and so on. The workmen told me several times, ‘The Bolsheviki are sending out priests to work in the streets. Why do they not send their rabbis?’ And that is true. The Jewish Rabbis are not sent to work on the streets. The Bolsheviki are opposing religion to such an extent that lately when I was going to Petrograd they raised a question of teaching atheism in the schools. They boast that they have opened so many schools, but they do not say that they closed as many schools as they opened. We had schools in connection with the churches, in connection with every church there was a school, and all these schools are closed now.”21
Further evidence that the Bolsheviki, although attacking Christianity, protect the Jewish religion, is found in the following article, which appeared on the 5th of July, 1919, in the weekly