Happy Easter

“Down with Easter!”

Easter – as we have amply documented here among the Poemas del Río Wang – is celebrated in many ways in many places around the world, where it is celebrated at all. It may sound surprising, but it was also celebrated in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. This 1933 photo testifies to this.

The inscription on the school board reads: “Who was in church at Easter?” and the little pioneers write down the names of those they know were there. We can only imagine what happens next: if you were lucky enough to experience similar harassment in Hungary in the 1970s, you have an advantage.

Some data: Between 1929 and 1941, only 500 of the 29,000 churches in the Soviet Union remained open, and in 1937 alone, 85,000 Orthodox priests were executed.

But let’s look at the bright side of life: according to this, during the bloody persecution of the church between 1929 and 1941, there was still a church somewhere in the Soviet Union where Easter services were held, a priest to hold it and some believers to attend it.

Although this is not certain either. After all, under what circumstances could this picture have been taken? It is unlikely that the official photographer was there at the time of a spontaneous school humiliation and caught it on camera. Most of the official photos taken in the 1930s are pre-arranged propaganda photos. This picture may also fit into the great anti-religious campaign between 1929 and 1941, and illustrates not an actual, but a desired practice. There may no longer have been a functioning church in the site. Just as the fat and greedy priests who were often paraded as enemies in the campaign had already been completely killed or deported to labor camps.

“Training for Easter”

However, if there was no church, then there were no churchgoers either. Then the picture does not depict a real humiliation, and the names are fictitious. Which also has its bright side.