| The League of Militant Atheists was founded by Joseph Stalin. Its motto was "The struggle against religion is the struggle for socialism." Its task was the scientific enlightenment of the masses, which would lead to the withering away of religion. Its methods ranged from "scientific" publications criticizing religious beliefs to public lectures advocating scientific atheism. It also organized cells of atheist activists on the local level. Here the propaganda techniques were more crude: public burnings of icons and religious books, carnival parades with mock priests and rabbis, and so on. The league eventually went so far as to sponsor competitions between baptized and unbaptized infants to see which would be healthier and grow faster. Similarly, contests were held to see if fields blessed by priests would flourish better than fields fertilized with manure. Also, the practice of so-called Godless Meteorology was used to demonstrate that prayers do not change the weather ("World Christianity and Marxism," by Denis Janz. Published by Oxford University Press. 9 April 1998). Notes on the video clip: Dziga Vertov's symphonic 1930 experimental documentary film is primarily known as a bold foray into audio-visual synchronisation, commended for its deft and poetic use of concrete sound. Vertov plays a Brechtian card -- we see the conductor of the film's musical score conducting the film's musical score. The sound of a bell is juxtaposed with the image of an ornamental crown -- the ... |
