"Sunshine in Our Hearts"

President Roosevelt announced his recognition of the Soviet Union in the dead of a Russian night. The great news spread chiefly by word of mouth. Correspondents, unable to get Josef Stalin or any other Soviet bigwig to say anything, scurried around Moscow buttonholing Russians at random on the streets, reported that most of them beamingly commented "Ochen horosho!" ("Very fine!"). In the big Moscow hotels, the National and the Metropole, tourists who were dancing to the Russian idea of U. S. jazz when the news came in cried "Whoopee!", ordered more vodka and Soviet champagne.

Meanwhile buxom English-born Mrs. Ivy Low Litvinoff, cheery wife of the Foreign Commissar, left their four-room apartment in a converted garage with her grave, acutely class-conscious 16-year-old son Mischa. Together they hurried to the Soviet Commissariat of Communications. Proud as punch. Soviet technicians placed before them a Russian-made telephone, bade them talk by short wave radio to Comrade Litvinoff, seated in the Oval Room of the White House. "Millions of Americans will listen to you on their radio networks!" cried the chief Red technician proudly. "Say whatever you wish."

The chat:

Commissar Litvinoff: Hello.

Madame Litvinoff: Hello, darling. I can hear you beautifully.

Litvinoff: Speak slowly, will you?

Madame: Where are you?

Litvinoff: In the White House. I was just talking to President Roosevelt. He asked me to give you his regards.

Madame: Thank you very much, regards to him. Thank you very much. I thank him for his kind regards.

Litvinoff: Everybody here is sorry you didn't come with me, also the President and Madam Roosevelt expressed regret that you did not accompany me.

Madame: That is very kind of them.

Litvinoff: I am sorry, too.

Madame: What, darling?

Litvinoff: I am sorry, too. How are you?

Madame: Very well.

Litvinoff: And the children?

Madame: Very well.

Litvinoff: Hello.

Madame: Mischa would also like to say a word to you.

Litvinoff: Mischa is with you? Hello, Mischa. How are your studies? Hello, Mischa. Can you hear me?

Mischa: Yes, I can.

Litvinoff: Are you all right?

Mischa: Yes.

Litvinoff: How are your studies?

Mischa: Very nice.

Litvinoff: Is anyone with you?

Mischa: No, only I and mamma. How are you, papa?

Litvinoff: I shall be here for another week, perhaps.

Madame: Mischa just came from his studies, he wanted to speak to you. Is everybody well?

Litvinoff: Yes. Do you work much?

Madame: Yes, we work.

Litvinoff: What kind of weather are you having?

Madame: Beautiful, clear, snow. Lovely, clear, snow. . . .

Litvinoff: Does the sun shine?

Madame: Not sunshine, but sunshine in our hearts.

Litvinoff: Are you making progress for your English?

Madame: That's right.

Litvinoff: What do you say?

Madame: English is going strong in Moscow. How is everybody in the delegation, all well?

Litvinoff: Yes.

Madame: All in good health?

Litvinoff: Yes.

Madame: When shall we see you?

Litvinoff: I shall have to go back to the President to finish our conversation. Madame: Goodby, and good-by to all our American friends.

Litvinoff: Love and kisses. Goodby.

Madame: Goodby.

"Opium for the People." Next day Moscow papers carried the full text of the Roosevelt-Litvinoff exchange of letters, printed both statesmen's pictures prominently and emphasized once more that it was not Russia but the U. S. which took the initiative in proposing recognition (TIME, Oct. 30). Because the American Federation of Labor opposed recognition (see p. 10), the Moscow Pravda ("Truth") flayed A. F. of L. President William Green as "that yellow trade union bureaucrat!"

As the first Soviet Ambassador to Washington the Kremlin picked grizzled, square-shouldered Comrade Alexander Antonovich Troyanovsky, a great Red trader, diplomat and planner. Exiled to Siberia by Tsar Nicholas II in 1909, he escaped the next year to France, popped back into Russia after the Revolution and fought in the Red Army against the Whites. His first big job was as Board Chairman of the Soviet Trading Monopoly, then Ambassador to Japan for five years ending last January. Back in Moscow genial Comrade Troyanovsky was Vice Chief of the State Planning Commission-now busy with the Second Five-Year Plan-when he was appointed Ambassador last week. Said he in fluent English: "Although I have never been in the United States or England I feel that my 14-year-old son is a real American boy. You see, he attended the American School in Tokyo for four years."

Josef Stalin was not to be cajoled into a speech to U. S. citizens last week but they were talked to by radio in Russian, four days after recognition, by the genial old buffer whom Dictator Stalin keeps around the Kremlin to do duty as President, Comrade Michail Ivanovich Kalinin. When he makes up a speech all by himself, as he often does, Buffer Kalinin salts it with strong peasant humor and gusty Russian proverbs shrewdly applied. These were lacking entirely from the brief Rooseveltian remarks he read from a paper thrust into his hand: "I am glad . . . now will begin a new era . . . hailed by every-one to whom the progress of humanity and the peace of the world are paramount!"

All through the week and especially after recognition. Soviet editors marveled publicly at the evident ignorance of U. S. citizens respecting religious conditions in Russia. Even the Society of the Militant Godless, tireless in its crusade against what Lenin called "Religion-the Opium of the People," admits that 80 of Moscow's 413 churches are still used for religious purposes, that only 2% of churches in peasant districts have been converted to other use and that, though anti-religion is making great strides among young Russians, at least half of all peasant brides and grooms are still married by priests. True, all ecclesiastics are barred from voting or holding Soviet office. True, they are supported only by their parishioners, whereas the Tsarist Government used to pay an annual subsidy of $25,000,000 to the Orthodox Church. True, all members of the Communist Party-about 2.5% of the population-must be professing Atheists. But the Soviet laws cited by Comrade Litvinoff to President Roosevelt last week are all in full effect and open to study by persons who suppose that religion has been suppressed in Russia. Quoted M. Litvinoff, Jewish but an Atheist, from the Soviet code:

P: "Every person may profess any religion or none. All restrictions of rights connected with the profession of any belief whatsoever, or with the non-profession of any belief, are annulled." (Decree of Jan. 23, 1918, Art. 3.) P: "A free performance of religious rites is guaranteed as long as it does not interfere with public order. . . ." (Decree of Jan. 23. 1918, Art. 5.) P: "Believers belonging to a religious society with the object of making provision for their requirements in the matter of religion may lease under contract, free of charge, from the sub-district or district executive committee or from the Town Soviet, special buildings for the purpose of worship and objects intended exclusively for the purpose of their cult." (Decree of April 8, 1929, Art. 10.) P: "Members of groups of believers and religious societies may raise subscriptions among themselves and collect voluntary offerings, both in the place of worship itself and outside it, but only among the members of the religious association concerned and only for the purposes connected with upkeep of the place of worship and the religious property, for the engagement of ministers of religion and for the expenses of their executive body. Any form of forced contribution in aid of religious associations is punishable under the Criminal Code." (Decree of April 8, 1929. Art. 54.)

P: "The school is separated from the Church. Instruction in religious doctrines is not permitted in any governmental and common schools, nor in private teaching institutions where general subjects are taught. Persons may give or receive religious instruction in a private manner." (Decree of Jan. 23, 1918, Art. 9.)

P:Finally Comrade Litvinoff extended to U. S. citizens the same religious rights enjoyed in Russia by German citizens under the Russo-German Treaty of Oct. 12, 1925: "Nationals of each of the contracting parties . . . shall be entitled to hold religious services in churches, houses or other buildings rented, according to the laws of the country, in their national language or in any other language which is customary in their religion. They shall be entitled to bury their dead in accordance with their religious practice in burial grounds established and maintained by them with the approval of the competent authorities, so long as they comply with the police regulations in respect to buildings and public health."

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