Friday, 28 February 1930

Russia:  

The campaign against religion continues.  Atheist, trade groups and city soviets report they have closed 81 churches throughout Russia in the past week.  The president of the Atheist League gives a speech, broadcast nationwide, in which he urges even more intense religious persecution.  “We must be cleverer than the Pope.  We mustn’t use the institution of stake burning and the guillotine, like the Roman church.  We must propagandize.”  Soviet officials continue to characterize the closings, and the arrests of religious leaders, as prosecution of political dissent, rather than religious persecution.

Berlin:  

Meanwhile in the Reichstag, nationalist party members announce that they intend to question the government of Chancellor Hermann Meuller on its policy toward the religious persecution in Russia.  On the same day, a bill to approve the Young Plan is approved by a conference committee, giving rise to optimism that it will be approved by the full legislature. 

And finally, reports surface that secret meetings have been held in Hamburg, Danzig and Vienna between representatives of the Third International and communist leaders from the United States.  These reports also speak of a worldwide demonstration of communists and the unemployed set for March 6. 

Madrid:  

Unrest over King Alfonso’s rule continues.  Demonstrations rise at a local university, while the cabinet says it supports the monarchy unswervingly.  The Minister of the Interior says the government will take “whatever energetic measures are necessary” against disturbances.

Oakland, USA:  

500 unemployed riot in front of the state employment agency, the sixth such riot in two weeks.  Five demonstrators and two police are injured.  

Thursday, 27 February 1930

Madrid:  

Demonstrations and riots against King Alfonso sweep parts of the country.  Thousands gather in the streets here and clash with police, who charge them with swords.  The disturbances follow a speech by former Prime Minister Jose Antonio Sanchez Guerra, the “grand old man” of Spanish politics, who, though a monarchist, declares that he is opposed to any further rule by King Alfonso.  “I will never again serve the present king,” he says.  New Prime Minister Damaso Berenguer announces that no further public political speeches will be permitted. 

London:  

Bishop Nickolai (or Nicholas), head of the Russian Orthodox Church in London, releases a letter which accuses the Soviet Union of torture and other atrocities against people of faith.  He claims a seminary leader in Voronezh was beaten with crucifixes and had molten lead poured down his throat.  An archbishop in Perm reportedly had his eyes gouged out and was dragged through the streets and killed, along with 40 other monks and priests.  “I would like this country to protest, and the whole civilized world to express its detestation of Russian persecution of Christianity.  Some of those prominently connected with the protest movement fear lest their religious protest should trespass on political issues.  To such, I say that no protest is likely to intensify trouble in Russia, and that the bolshevists can not do more in the way of atrocious persecution than they are now doing.”

Moscow:  

The chairman of the anti-religious committee of the communist party in Moscow issues an order for closings of churches, synagogues and mosques to speed up.  “Heretofore we have been extremely cautious about taking action on petitions for closing churches from workers and peasants.  But in view of the present agitation all over the world and in the soviets themselves, we can afford to be less timid.”    

Meanwhile, new reports of Jewish leaders arrested: the chief rabbi of Leningrad and another rabbi are reported held on charges of maintaining illegal connections abroad.  And synagogues in Vilna are reportedly being closed by soviet authorities.  

Chicago:  

After breaking up a communist meeting yesterday, authorities announce they have uncovered plans for a worldwide demonstration by communists set for March 6. 

Wednesday, 26 February 1930

United States:  

The unemployed, spurred on in many cases by communist organizers, riot or demonstrate in various parts of the country.  In Los Angeles, an estimated 3,000 people march on city hall, bearing banners reading “down with the police” and “forever the worker,” and wielding homemade tear gas bombs.  They are charged and dispersed by 300 police, and 27 are arrested.  In Chicago, several hundred people attending a communist meeting at Musicians’ Hall are encircled by police, allowed to give speeches and distribute communist literature, part of which attempts to incite a march of the unemployed -- then the police arrest every one of them.  A similar demonstration in Seattle is also broken up by police, with 11 arrested, and in Boston, where 9 are arrested after a strike called by the communist faction of the garment workers union.  The banners in Seattle read “down with capitalism” and “work for wages,” and handbills are signed by the Communist Party of the United States.  The handbills urge unemployed people to join a worldwide demonstration against capitalism.  Several hundred alleged communists also parade down Wall Street in New York. 

Elsewhere: 

Leningrad:  Police arrest Rabbi Lazerev, Chief Rabbi of Leningrad, and his colleague Rabbi Yasnogorowski, charging them with illegal connections abroad.
 

Berlin:  Paul Moldenhauer, Minister of Finance, proposes doubling the gasoline tax (called “benzine” in Germany) to 12 cents a gallon, and increasing the beer tax 75%, in hopes of raising the equivalent of US$110 million to help Germany’s budget deficit. 

Paris:  Andre Tardieu, former Prime Minister, agrees to return to the post after Camille Chautemps’ cabinet fell on its first vote in parliament.  

Tuesday, 25 February 1930

Bucharest:  In the ongoing crisis that includes reports of a Red Army buildup along the Romanian border, the government announces that the former chief of Romania’s secret police has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the Soviet Union.

New York:  2,000 communists hold a demonstration march in the garment district against police brutality; 400 police protect them on their route.  On Wall Street, 200 members of the Young Communists League also hold a demonstration.  Two are arrested.

Athens:  300 communists storm a jail, attempting to free 20 of their comrades.  

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian S.S.R.):  Three of the rabbis arrested earlier this month are still held by soviet authorities, but the government won’t disclose their names, nor tell what it plans to do with them.

Cairo:  CopticOrthodox Pope John XIX, head of Coptic Christians in Egypt, joins the worldwide protest against religious persecution in Russia, and calls for prayers for the salvation of the country.

Monday, 24 February 1930

Russia:  The government continues its campaign against religion, closing churches, synagogues and mosques all over the country, including 13 mosques in one town alone.  Church leaders in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria add their voices to the global protest against Russia’s moves.

Sunday, 23 February 1930

Moscow:  

The soviet government, communist party, and their newspapers lash out at the rest of the world on the 12^th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army, and in the continuing upheaval surrounding the allegation that death penalties were meeted out to rabbis in Minsk.  Izvetia writes: “All the forces of reaction throughout the world are mobilized against the Soviet Union, which is going full speed ahead toward socialism.  The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the French police, the English die-hards, socialists, fascists, foreign counterfeiters of soviet money, and the German bourgeoisie have united into one holy union to launch new bandit attacks upon our country.  But the rulers of capitalistic Europe forget they are dancing the cancan on a barrel of powder.  We will remain firm and calm, watching this dance of dying capitalism.  In our country, all workers and peasants are convinced of the final results of the struggle between bolshevism and capitalism.  They know our government stands in defense of peace. They want peace themselves, but if the enemy directs his guns on the land of the proletarian dictatorship, each worker and peasant will consider it an honor to participate in the victorious marches of the Red Army in order to destroy the class enemy.”

 

Meanwhile the Jewish communist newspaper Oktiabre writes that rabbis in foreign countries are spies and therefore “these holy damagers should be carefully watched.”  Tass, the official government news agency, calls the report that rabbis in Minsk were going to be executed a “deliberate lie,” adding that “similar information emanating from Warsaw is false and part of the ring in the present anti-soviet campaign abroad.”  Supposedly, according to the soviet press, Jews themselves in Russia are marching in the streets, begging the authorities to close synagogues and convert them to secular uses. 

Nonetheless, U.S. Senator William Borah, who had written to Maxim Litvinov, Russian Acting Commissar of Foreign Affairs inquiring about the sentenced rabbis, says he has received word that the rabbis have been freed. 

In New York, speakers in churches and synagogues across the city attack Russia’s anti-religious persecution.  In Chicago, Jewish groups raise funds for the persecuted Jews in Russia.  And in Berlin, a mass meeting of Protestant churches is held to pray for the persecuted in Russia, and call on Christians worldwide to protest against it. 

Elsewhere:

Great Britain:  The worldwide depression deepens: a report says unemployment here now numbers 1.5 million.

Germany:  More bad economic news: unemployment among labor union members is now reported at 22%.  

Saturday, 22 February 1930

Berlin:  Police raid the headquarters of the communist central committee and discover plans for a nationwide march on Berlin.  Meanwhile, Austrian Chancellor Johann Schober, fresh off his visit to and treaty with Italy (see Feb. 7), visits Berlin, giving rise to rumors that he may be seeking a revival of the alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy from before the World War.  He is scheduled to stay for 3 days.  The city holds no official reception for him, however, due to its dire financial situation.

 

Genoa:  The government suppresses the newspaper Genoa Caffaro, which clears away competition for the fascist newspaper Genoa Journal. 

Moscow:  The Society of the Godless, a soviet atheist body, announces that 3,380 churches, synagogues and mosques have been closed in Russia since the communist revolution in 1917 -- 1,380 were closed last year alone.  

Friday, 21 February 1930

Bucharest:  

Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu consults with his military generals over the rumored Red Army buildup on the soviet side of the Bessarabian border.  British, French and Polish diplomats have reportedly assured Romania of their support in the event of a soviet attack on Romania. 

Chicago:  

Crying “Wages and work!”, 1,200 unemployed hold a demonstration at city hall that erupts into a riot.  Police charge the crowd, beating many, and arresting 12.  Trouble starts at a communist meeting where speakers circulate handbills calling on workers to “rally to the defense of their fatherland, the Soviet Union,” and inflame the crowd to hold a parade.  When the mob starts to file out, the police move in.  Still, some of the marchers make their way to city hall, where 150 police, some mounted, form a cordon around the building.  It is the third communist-led demonstration at city hall in 10 days.

Some of the handbills at the meeting speak of an “international demonstration against unemployment” day, scheduled for March 6.  Others read:  “Unemployment is increasing.  The crisis is sharpening.  Everywhere misery and suffering increases daily.  Heavy wage cuts go hand in hand with the increase in unemployment.”

Elsewhere:  

Weimar, Germany:  The nazi Minister of the Interior and Education of the state of Thuringia, Wilhelm Frick, announces he is preparing to order all schools in the state to pray daily for Germany’s liberation from the Treaty of Versailles. 

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian S.S.R):  The Jewish leaders held by soviet authorities for alleged anti-government activities are allowed to receive visitors, who report that their execution now seems less likely.  Meanwhile in Moscow, the soviet government issues an official denial to a rumor that the rabbis had already been executed.  The government newspaper Izvestia says they have only been charged with counter-revolutionary activity, which reportedly stem from their appeal to Jews outside the Soviet Union for financial aid. 

Thursday, 20 February 1930

Bucharest: The nation is alarmed by rumors of soviet army forces concentrating near the Romanian border, across from the region of Bessarabia.  Bessarabia was part of the Russian Empire prior to 1918.

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic):  Reports say the Jewish leaders arrested for anti-government activities (see Feb. 15) are slated for execution.  

Wednesday, 19 February 1930

Berlin:  Hundreds of leading Germans issue a signed manifesto calling on the nation to reform its financial situation in order to meet the terms of the Young Plan.  The manifesto doesn’t specify what measures should be taken, but it stresses that no government money should be spent without an adequate return.  Signatories include Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, head of the Reichsbank, as well as leading industrial magnates and bankers, and a former chancellor.

London:  The naval conference adjourns for one week due to France’s political crisis, which has the French delegation at home.