Brivais Laveitis, March 15, 1949

              aurch FREE L A T V I A N N A T T Q R Ä L N E V V S P A P E R FOR N O R T H A M E R I CA
P U B L I S H E R ; K o N R A D S P O B E L I S E D I T O R - I N ^ G H I E i i : A L E K S A N D R S K U N D R A T S
OF LATVIA BEHIND^^^V
THE IRON CURTAIN
The burning St: Peto-^s
Church (June 29, 19/fl) a
torch of death heralding the
darkest days of Baltic history
when Eastern hordes treacher-öits
and full of hatred, stoarmed
over our country and later met
on our territory in sanguinary
bdttles the second century-long
oppreasor of the Latvian peoplc-
— the troops of the Germnn
conqnerors — travipling (iow}i
our country, dcstroying frc-dovi,
nation and cradles.
BRETHREN IN CHRIST!
Our World which is longing for a redlpeace must realize that struggles
fought y)ith the aid of tangible arnis reveal af times the underlying
clash of ideologies. The present state of tension in international affairs
is thus largely caused by the abysmdl differences in the world outlook-clearly
evidenced by the conflictbetween the Christian Wortd and the
totalitarian Communism during the past decades-rather than by econo-mic,
poUtical and social contrasts.
During the past few years we have witnessed the Iron Curtain to go'
down on an increasing number of Churches. The anti-Christian iron-hard
regime prevailing behindt^is curtain has. already annihilated some of
these Churches. Others are involved in a death-and-life struggle,while d
number hope against hope for a compromise and for some chance of
escaping from their staked-out.fate.
DieapitG - the blood of so ntany Christian martyrs, that has been
shed and is still being shed in streams, despite repeated new fearless
professions of truth there are many Christians who remain indifferent
to the fate qf these perseeuted Churches and blind to the dangers.
threatening themselves.
.; Commemorating the martyrdom of our nation and our church, in a
' spirit of close solidarity with Christianity throughout the world; we
deem it to be cur sacred duty to bear witness to that to nourish and
preach the. conviction of a possibility of eliminating the opposition
betioeen the Christian Church and Communism is erroneous; to believe
that we have time calmly to watch and see whether and from where
modern Christianity is threatened by a danger means lack ,of a sense
• of .responsibility toward . the Christian martyrs and treason of the
Christian civilization. -
Repeated statementsby leading Christian officials that the Church
IS a phenomenon which is essentially unaffeetedby the intricate inter-dependencies
of this world and this era means a cowardly avoidance of
contributing to the overcoming of the existing chaos in the 'World.
•A Church which leaves the believers withoi[.t support and. guidqnce
: in thesolution of poUtical, economic and sociatproblems, fails to fulfil
the mission given by Jesus Christ — to go to every man in every
situation. ••^
Christianity becomes a notion devoid of any meaning if it does not
have a bearing upon the actual life and if the Gospel remains without
the Christian man who realizes it in his life and in the world.
In this World of complications and sufferings; many turn their eyes
tovoards the fire of unity kindled by the Swedish Ar-chbishop Nathan
Söderblom, a man of genius and the uniter of the Christian Churches.
This fire has fed the hopes of the Christian fighters for a spiritually
united and active Church,
'~'"It is a source of satisfaction to see thattkese oecumenical endeavours
are taking sha/pe as evidencedi by the numerous meetings of different
Christian Churches in the postwar period in which the demand for a
united Christian message to the people becomes increasingly stronger.
This shoivs that actually the timeofdecision has come when the
Church can anew show'the invincible force of the Gospel, which is
eternally living in struggles and sacrifices.
. We Christians. must fully realize tkat we are largely responsible for
the present ^oorld situation, that we have not always and everywhere
been neither the good sait of the earth nor the light of the World.
Only solidarity, evidenced by actions, between those whq already
have suffered the martyrdom of their faith, who fight, and ihose who
are still free can prot^ct the Christian Church from the threatening
destruction. .
The Fate of tlip I.a<vian I.utheran Church under The First Soviet
Oceiipation (June 1940—July 1941).
A,/ Idcplqgic, Organizational and Economic Pcrsecution of the Church.
A manifesto issucd in June 1940 by the Commuriist göVernmenl
vvhich was established vvitli the aid of the Soviet Russian troops sub-jected
ali organizations, including the Ghurch; to State power, nationa-lized
ali Ghurch land and prpperty, and introduced the so-ealIed"freedom
of anti-religious propaganda",
With Latvia's incorporationwith the Soviet Union on August 5 tli
1940, ali laws of the Latvian Republic were rendered invalid and the
Constitution of the.Latvian Lutheran Church was simultaneously abo-lished.
Instead, the Soviet Russian Ghurch Law of 1928 was made
applicablc aiso in Latvia.
At a tune wlieii the rig^hts
of every individual and the
sovereign rights of every
nation have been laid
doYvn in charters, and a
war has been fought to
liberate humanity from
fear, subjection and pcrse­cution,
behind the Iron
Gurtain the Latvian nation
treads the road of destruc­tion,
stumbling over the
sign of the cross, and the
Ghurch of Latvia, deserted
and alone, fights on stig-matizing
the entire 20th
century.
The dove of peace has no
place of rest in Latvia, it.
must retum in despair as
the cities and villages there
are fuU of sighs and the
blood of the perseeuted
brothers of faith.
1. P e r f o r m an c e of
g i o u s R i t es W a s
Di s i u r b cd.
Di vi n c S e r v i e c s ;J n d R c 1 i-
P r o h i b i 1 c d, R c s t r i c t o d o r
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
No divine scrvices could, be hcld outside Ghurch premises vvithout
permits issued by conrmanders of löcal Russian garrisons or loeal
leaders of the, Gommunist party, This order implied that divine
Services in ccmeteries. club houses, schools, and private homes werc
cither entirely prohibited or restrictod.
Simultaneously with divine scrvices, mass" meetings were held in
squares in front of churches, and demonstration marches werc orga-nized
to cemetcries when cercmonics were to take place there.
BaptismSi Church marriages and funerals vvere forbidden to members
of the Communist party and trade unions, and to their familics.
In February 1941 a pastor was threatened with arrest for perform-ing
the funeral scrvices for a member of a trade uniön at the Riga
Municipal Gemetery,
The Communist party and the Political Police contrölled ali divine
Services and churehgoers. and the local sections of the Communist
Party reported ali churehgoers to the Police. The Communist party
nevvspapers published distorted reports on sermons, and. harsh
attacks were hurled against pastors who delivered these sermons.
Des t r u c t i o n, A 1 i en a t i o n a n d P r o f a n at i o n of
G h u r c h e s an d O t h e r P 1 ä c e s and S y m b o I s o f
W o rs h i p.
Reverend OSKARS SAKARNIS
T
T. Grinbcrgs, Archbishop of Latvia, perse­euted
by the war and the enemies qf the
Latvian-people, driven axoay from his sanc-tuariea
and his country together with the
vast cöngregationof refugees, prays to God
xoherever the chance comes — under
Sky, in the miserdble barracks DP, pr the\
churches of other countries who kindly
have given refuge to the tormented fugi-tives
;. .,
Under the Nationalization Law of July 1940, ali church buildings
and lands became property of the Communist State. The State reserved
for. itself the right of alienating this property orpermittingits further
use by the congregations.
a. Only a part of thp churches, places qf worship, and former pro­perty
of the congregations was left for use by the latter. The
pertinent decisions -were made in disregard .of the inter-ests
of the congregations; the views of the local scction of
the Communist party being the controUing factor. The State aliena-ted
entirely 4 Lutheran churches (in Riga, Liepäja, Ludza and
Daugavpils), 40 prayer^houses, .15 congregation houses, 240 parso-nages
and 150 ccmeteries. •
b. . Excessive rentals and other taxes made the operation by the con-r
gregations of churches and other premises extremely difficult. The
rental which congregations had to pay for churches was ten times
that of rents paid for housing space. In Vecpiebalga (in the pro-vince
of Vidzeme), a congregation of 3,000 members was to paj
for the church an annual rental amounting to 18,000 rubles (appro-ximately
12,000 Swiss francs). .
The churches and places of worship which were not returned^^for use
to the congregations were used for purposes offending religious fee^
lings: churches were used as Storage space or moving-picture
theatres, parsonages as Machine and Tractor Stations, consecrated
ccmeteries Avereliquidated — the symbol of the cross being rentoved
by the saw or the spade. ;
aa. The Church of Our Saviour in Riga was. since June 1940 an
Army warehouse; the church in Ludza (province of Lätgale)
was turned into a cinema; Machine and Tractor Stations were
established in the parsonages in Lubana and Liezere.
bb. The cross «an the cupola of the Garrison Church in Liepajä
was removed by the saw.
cc. The cross in the Riga Municipal Cemetery was removed by the
saw and the cemetery wasdeclared to be a burial place at which
. Christian riteswere forbidden. Crosses weFe not permitted ön
tlTe tombs.
Infliction of damäges to churches was not bindered ör penalizgil
under the law. Members of the Communist youth smashed window
glasaof the Biksti Church in the province of Kurzeme.
The retreating Soviet troops also applied "scorched earth— tactics
in Latvia to churches. - _ /
aa: St. Peter's Church in Riga, a structure of great historical and
architectural value, was burnt on June 29, 1941.